I barely managed to slide into cover before a huge golden projectile collided with where I had previously been standing. The rest of the Cell had already begun trying to circle around the newly arrived Sentient, attempting to divide its attention and prevent it from being able to wipe us all out in one hit. I quickly threw a frag grenade at it, but although the hit clearly hurt the machine, it wasn't enough to do more than inconvenience it.

"So," I questioned to Etran, ihoping Ordis (who I had learned was his cephalon) would also hear the question, "you know what this thing is?"

"Nope. Neither does Ordis. This is the first time we've ever faced this kind of Sentient."

"So we have absolutely no idea what its attacks are or what void energy will do to it?"

"Not at all."

"Ugh...wait, you aren't surprised that I know about your void powers?"

"Onkko said he told you about them. Said it was 'important to the proper development of the future."

Did I tell you guys the Quills are weird? No? Well, now I did.

"Alright then. So, any ideas on the name of this new Sentient?"

"Can we kill it first, then name it?"

"Fine by me."

Putting a hold on our conversation, we instead focused our attention on turning the Sentient into a mix of scrap and charred flesh. Apparently, this new type of Sentient's primary attack was, in essence, an energy mortar system. Powerful, but slow and relatively easy to dodge. It reminded me of a wraith from Halo, actually. IT even had the weak spot in its rear. Unlike the Wraith, though, this being could take quite a bit of damage before it fell. Furthermore, it also seemed to have some kind of heavy golden armor on it, and I do mean armor, not shields - according to the scanners I'd put in my Avatar, our attacks were actually hitting our foe, its just that the armor slowed down our bullets nad prevented any melee attacks we launched from hitting the flesh beneath.

Yes, Sentients have flesh. There's a reason why I'm not sure whether they count as machines or organisms.

While we wore down the Sentient, I had the funny feeling that something wasn't right about this fight. It was only after five minutes of wailing on it that I finally realized what was bugging me.

"Fide, wasn't there an army of Sentients converging on our location?"

"Correct. Scanning facility now...it appears the Grineer and Corpus attempted to access the facility shortly after you left, and are now engaged with the Sentients. Corrupted forces on Lua are also converging on this location, so it appears that a four way battle is going on behind you."

"Whose most likely to win, and what does that mean for us?"

"The most likely winners of the fight will be either the Corrupted or Sentients, at thirty percent each. Obviously, the Sentients are trying to kill you, and I doubt the Corrupted would have goals that are any different."

"And the Grineer and Corpus?"

"Those two each stand a twenty percent chance of winning, and should either of them win, they will likely attempt to loot the facility. They may give chase to you, but really, one relic is not worth that much to them."

"So, odds are, we're gonna have some tails following us after-"

My question to Fide was interrupted by a loud wail coming from the center of the room. Turning toward it, I saw the giant sentient staring at me, only now, its primary weapon appeared to be retracted. I wondered what it was about to do, and found myself watching it rear up onto its second and third pair of legs, raise its front-most set of limbs upward until they were almost vertical, then slam them back down. Instantly, a surge of blue energy charged at me through the ground, and I only just managed to roll out of its way. A moment later, the surge detonated, shattering the ground along its path.

Huh. So that was its attack. Reminded me of an Eidolon.

"Well," I said, deliberately loud enough for everyone else to hear, "now we know what its special attack is."

"Indeed," remarked Ordis, "now can we focus on TEARING IT TO SHREDS!"

No objections were made to that, and we quickly renewed our assault on the machine. Unfortunately, the armor was still blunting our assault - this thing had a few cuts and bruises, and one or two deep wounds on it, leaking out a non-insignificant amount of blood, but aside from occasionally lifting one of its legs to put pressure on those wounds, it wasn't negatively impacted in any way. We needed to figure out how to take it down, and soon.

The Tenno, who had been blasting it with their amps and void blasts, finally started to realize that their attacks weren't extremely effective and decided to try something new. One of the Tenno, a aquamarine-haired girl who had been controlling the Oberon, transferred back into her frame, then charged at the Sentient. As the machine readied to fry her with its mortar, she transferred back out of her suit, then void dashed into her foe. Instantly, the Sentient reacted, flying back a few feet, legs digging into the ground to keep it from falling. For a moment, it seemed dazed.

Also, it wasn't glowing gold anymore...

I quickly opened fire on the vaguely insectoid machine. Sure enough, it shrieked in pain, and all of my hits drew blood.

It appeared that void dashing removed its armor, or at least weakened it. Nice.

My temporary cell seemed to share my happiness at this new discovery, as they promptly began tearing into the Sentient. Now that they knew how to kill it, things had suddenly gotten a lot more even.

The battle soon devolved into a routine - one of the Tenno would use their void dash to remove the Sentient's armor, then join the rest of us in unleashing a barrage of bullets, lasers, plasma and void energy on the machine. Once the armor returned, another Tenno would void dash it, and so the cycle repeated. The poor machine didn't stand a chance.

Also, the Corpus and Grineer had just pulled in some reinforcements, so the odds of them winning the battle had increased. At the moment, though, it didn't look like that battle would end anytime soon.

Finally, after a total of fifteen minutes of nonstop punishment, our foe began to give. It was bleeding heavily from about seven different major wounds, was absolutely riddled with bullets, and seemed to be having trouble supporting itself. Realizing just how bad its situation was, it reared up again for another attack...….

..…..except this time, it was as one of the Tenno Void Dashed through it.

I'll never forget how hilarious it was to watch such a large, heavily built machine go flying into a wall. As if that wasn't humiliating enough, it turned out that the Sentient's underbelly was another of its weak spots. To say it died pathetically was an understatement.

"So," I asked as the Sentient finally stopped twitching, "any name ideas for this thing?"

".….Something embodying a lot of raw destructive power," was the response of the female Tenno who had controlled the Oberon.

"Hmm...Would 'Destructolyst' work? And what's you name?"

"One: yes, and two, Cyreesia."

"Interesting name."

"Says you. So, can we leave."

"...Just let me do one more thing."

Before they could ask what that was, I walked up to the Sentient's corpse and rammed my hand through it. A moment later, I pulled it back out, along with a strange looking component...organ...thing.

"...You're gonna give that to the quills, aren't you?"

"Yep."

A moment later, my skyranger returned, as did the Tenno's landing crafts. I quickly loaded the sentient carcass aboard - hopefully I could examine it and possibly find some more weaknesses - before boarding it and blasting back to Earth, with the Tenno quickly making their retreat.

Before I returned home, though, I received a transmission from the Tenno. Etran, to be exact.

Opening it up, I quickly read the text.

Thanks for all of the help so far. I don't know why you're offering it, but know that it is appreciated. You've done a lot for us, yet you barely even know us. So here, take this, as a token of our appreciation.

I couldn't help but smile at what I read. It seemed that they really liked my help.

Curious about his final lines, I quickly opened the attachments with the transmission.

...Okay, a Mk-1 Braton, a Lato, and a Skana, plus a regular Braton Blueprint. Now exactly a big deal, but still nice. So, what are these other five ones?

..….No way. A FULL SET OF EXCALIBUR PART BLUEPRINTS?! SWEET?!

Now onto the last one.

..…..What?

..…..Seriously, what?

THE BLUEPRINTS FOR EXCALIBUR UMBRA!?

Okay, why, exactly, were the Tenno giving me this?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

AN: Just for reference, I'll usually refer to Sentients as being mechanical, but they really blur the line between organism and machine, so I may also refer to them as creatures. This is intentional.

So, Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!