The Unum's Knowledge of who I was was not something I wanted to ignore. If she knew, odds were, so did someone else. Potentially the Sentients, given the Unum's age, and wasn't that an unnerving thought. I needed answers, and I needed them now.
Of course, that ran into an obvious problem - where should I look? The Orokin might know, but as far as I knew, they were all dead, except for Silvanna and the Queens. The Queens were an obvious no-go, while Silvanna...eh, I decided to let her rest. Besides, the Kuva Grineer were busy using some siphons to harvest Kuva on Earth, and I did not want to go against them just yet.
The Corrupted and Infested were my next best targets, since both were created by the Orokin (thank you, decadent space basterds, for that), but those presented their own problems. Entering the void blind was a very dumb idea, plus I had no idea how the Man in the Wall would react to my intrusion on his domain. As for the Infested, well, the best thing to do when near most forms of Infestation was to kill them with fire, and entering the derelicts had similar risks to those with the void.
Moving on, I decided to try my luck with the Corpus. That got me results - apparently, the Corpus believed my forces to be some kind of new Sentient (not completely wrong, but not entirely true either) and had been scouring the void, trying to see what the Orokin knew of me, and how to fight them off. Apparently, they'd located several towers in the Orokin Void that might contain the information I desire. Unfortunately, to access said towers, they needed special Void Keys that, apparently, were hidden in the derelict.
I used my avatar to sneak into the Corpus ships carrying the data and steal said intel without raising a stink. The Corpus didn't yet know that my avatar was anothe rpart of my forced, so I was hoping that, by stealing he data the way the Tenno did, the Board would dismiss me as another syndicate or another ally with the Tenno. Ironically, while they were busy running from some of the forces, they were also trading with my more diplomatic creations. I was going to love their expressions once they figured out who, exactly, they were hawking their wears to.
Once I had the data, I proceeded to make my move on the derelicts. My initial plan to make off with the keys while only fighting the Infested and maybe one other party fell apart when the Infested and Corpus I happened to be killing were suddenly attacked by both the Grineer and the Tenno. Apparently, the Grineer has opened up a Void Portal aboard the ship, and the Tenno were trying to sabotage it. I quickly arranged a truce with the Tenno so that we could deal with the Grineer, as they were no one's ally.
One Void Key and some comments from Sprag and Ven'kra Tel later, and the portal was out of commission. As it happened, the keys I was looking for were stored in one of the Reapurce Caches the Grineer had aboard the derelict, alongside some Argon Crystals, which I quickly put into a specialized storage system that'd keep them from decaying. I wanted to use those things, and I was not letting them fade away just yet.
With the keys in hand, now came the actual assault on the void to see what was so important. This time, I wouldn't be alone, as the Tenno had offered to accompany me. Part of me felt that they were growing suspicious of my actions, but refusing their help would probably just confirm those suspicious. Besides, space ninjas were awesome.
So, once I had located all possible towers that might have held the data I was looking for, our infiltration commenced.
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Entering the void is...weird. The teleportation process makes your stomach churn, your eyes sting, and your head ache like no tomorrow...but only for the first time. After that, all it does is make you feel ticklish. As this the second time I had used a void portal, I had to fight a little bit to avoid laughing in response to the funny feeling the void had left me with. It only lasted a moment, but still.
Once the teleport had finished, we made our way into the tower. Among the Tenno I was accompanied by was the one I had seen just after my arrival, who had been wielding Umbra. The familiar face and Warframe offered some comfort, but my comfort was secondary to the mission's success. Joining us were a Nova and Equinox frame, which were less welcoming, but still friendly. The minute we saw the Corrupted, we opened fire.
Our assault was not the only one - across three other towers, an equal number of Cells were helping me search for my target intel, much to my surprise. The fact they weren't asking questions just yet was an oddity, but I assumed they knew I wouldn't open up just yet about my intentions. Trust ran both ways.
Regardless, whether or not I would come clean to them depended entirely on what I found in these towers.
The cell I was tagging along with finally reached the first terminal. As soon as the modified datamass I'd made for this mission was in the console, we took up defensive positions. Since I didn't want people freaking out over how similar I was to the Sentients, I had Fide be the one to do the hacking, accompanied by Ordis, much to my surprise. Apparently, he'd been working with his fellow cephalons to take up the Lotus' role, which was pretty impressive.
Despite my Progenitor tech, it still took a minute to complete the hack. Somehow, the Prokin actually had anti-hacking software that could fend off my spy software for more than thirty seconds. Inevitably, it still fell, but the fact it could resist at all was worrisome. It seemed the Orokin were familiar with my tech. How eluded my, but it did not bode well with me. AT ALL.
That being said, one down, two to go.
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Despite my expectations (and Finagle's Law), Corrupted Vor was a no show in our tower. In fact, he didn't show up in any of the towers we were raiding.
Despite that, things still turned out to be pretty interesting.
XXXXXXXX
As the final timer ticked down to zero, I called up Fide.
"So, what did we find?"
"Not much that can help us - apparently, the data we retrieved is merely a set of coordinates to some location in the Origin System. I'm tracing it now, but-"
"Tenno (and companion)" interrupted Ordis, using a hologram that was clearly based on the Lotus, "I'm picking up a strange transmission from within the tower. Deciphering it now."
A moment later, the translated transmission began to play.
"Facility compromised. Data cannot be allowed to fall into enemy hands. Initiating tower purge."
Before anyone could question what exactly that meant, the whole tower shook. A moment later, the distant sound of an explosion registered to my ears.
"Warning," remarked Lotus!Ordis, "multiple power fluctuations and explosions detected across all four towers. It appears the Sentry is attempting to scuttle them with us inside. Head to evac now!"
No need to say that twice. Quickly, we charged to distraction, only stopping to engage the few enemies that directly stood in our way. We'd been fighting so many foes that I had actually exhausted the ammunition on both my Laser Rifle and Magnetic Pistol, forcing me to use the Fusion Sword. Granted, I could have used my laser rifle, since I had unlimited ammo for it, but the heat buildup was becoming too problematic. I still hadn't figured out how the Tenno got all those ammo pickups, seeing how I found none, and a few lucky hits had disabled my ammo fabricators in both armor and the pistol I was using. Not that I needed them.
We just barely managed to exit the tower before it completely collapsed into the void. I had no intention of repeating this anytime soon.
XXXXXX
"So," I asked Fide, "did we get any good intel from the other towers?"
"Not exactly. All I got were what appeared to be schematics, security codes, and a list of room contents. Ordis has been helping me examine them, but how they are all related eludes me-ARE YOU ALRIGHT!?"
That last part was in response to me spamming my head into the nearest wall in annoyance. Why was rather obvious.
"I'm fine. And did it ever occur to you that the coordinates might lead to a facility that the rest of the data is probably referring to?"
"...No...I am sorry."
"As long as you do not make the same mistake, you are forgiven. Now, have you determined where the coordinates lead?"
"Yes, pulling up the location now."
Instantly, a map of the Origin System appeared, followed by the coordinates I had asked examined. The screen quickly zoomed in on the location of the coordinates. Instantly, my heart sank.
The good news was that the location was close by.
As for the bad news?
It was located on Lua.
You know, the only place in the Origin System besides the Plains of Eidolon that had an active Sentient presence.
...I hoped I didn't have to fight too many of them.
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AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!