Alright, so, here's the gist of Cressa's Plan:

Since the Tenno had given Steel Meridian a home in the relays, she wanted to repay them by rebuilding the Strata Relay in orbit of Earth.

To do that, she needed help with four tasks.

1. Gather Pyrus Essence to help assemble the main body of the relay.

2. Create and deliver Relay Struts for building the superstructure of the station.

3. Repel the Grustrag 3 so that they didn't interfere with the project.

4. Complete missions for Simaris so he could focus on running simulations for relay reconstruction.

5. There wasn't actually a part 5, but I assumed the Grineer would probably try to destroy the relay once it was completed, especially if the communications I had intercepted between Cressa Tal and Sargas Ruk were any indication. He really seemed to hate her for leaving the Grineer, and the feeling was mutual.

So, what was I going to do?

Well, I didn't really have an option other than help them - I just couldn't refuse to assist those who were in need.

So, onto helping I went!

First off, I sent out my forces to begin searching for Pyrus Essence Carriers. Those that were found were mugged for that they had on them, then killed, because they were enemy soldiers, and, besides that, unrepentant space clone Nazis, and yes, I checked using mid reading to see if they had any regrets about the crimes they had committed. They did not. At all.

As for relay struts, I started hitting Grineer warehouses all over the system, in an effort to steal as much Trembera Essence as possible. I also looted everything else in those warehouses, including food, and distrubted the spoils to the various neutral colonies. I don't need it, so I might as well send it to the less fortunate. Plus, it would be a big middle finger to the Grineer, and I really wanted to stick it to the queens. Eh, they were horrible excuses for living beings and deserved everything that they got.

Coaxing out the G3 was less of a problem than you'd think - Ruk had deployed them in an effort to eliminate all efforts to rebuild the Strata Relay. It spoke volumes of how much he hated Cressa that he was willing to send the G3, who he felt deserved to be executed or at least imprisoned, in order to stop her forces. Not that it helped - the G3 just got pummeled into the ground by the Tenno and my forces, as when you had enough Tenno trying to complete something, there wasn't much you could do to stop them.

Simaris was probably the easiest to assist - I already had my forces scanning specimens for him every day, so it didn't take long for me to complete a task (or eleven) for him. The fact he was still willing to pay back my services was a nice bonus. Also, I was surprised to learn that he liked videogames. I think he actually passed out from joy when I gave him access to a literal pile of old games Melissa had given me for no reason. In hindsight, she probably did that just so that I would give them to Simaris.

Needless to say, I didn't need to expend too much energy helping the Tenno rebuild the relays. To be honest, I think they were actually glad I held back, as was Steel Meridian - while they hadn't (officially) sent me any requests not to help, they didn't give me flak for not using my ludicrously fast production speeds (which, by this point, were common knowledge) to rebuild the relay overnight. I got the feeling it was because this was a personal thing between the Grineer Defectors and the Tenno - me helping would defeat the purpose of this Project - to show gratitude toward the Heavenly Emperors. Thus, I had a ton of free time to do whatever I wanted.

Welp, time to play video games!

XXXXXX

"You take the front right leg, I'll get the core!"

"Gotcha, Rory!"

"Lookout, its charging the cannon!"

I smiled. Just some good old fashion father son bonding over video games. I'd already taken him fishing, and baseball was next on the list. True, I probably had 'better' things to do, but I was not going to miss watching my son grow up!

'Good, but please stay focused!'

Fine, Melissa. But you're being awfully hypocritical there.

Okay, maybe I needed to ack up a little bit there - see, I'd decided to introduce my son to Destiny, and right now we were killing a Winter Walker on Venus. I wanted to try and get my son up in the levels and complete the story before migrating over to the next game, and thus was busy helping him with a public event. Synais had also joined in, because he was bored.

Only a couple of minutes had passed before a trio of other guardians had decided to join us. Unsurprisingly, it had turned out Melissa was leading them. Cassidy was the second, while the third one was only known by her character name - 'DragonCh1ck'. Melissa told me that the girl was one of her allies, but other than that, and that said person was a girl, I didn't know anything about this person. I wasn't even sure if they were human, though my intuition said no.

Anyway, we were busy trying to turn a Winter Walker into scrap metal, and since it was on the last fifth of its health with about three minutes to spare, that was pretty much a certainty.

If you're wondering if something bad was about to happen, no, it wasn't.

That being said, I still felt like something was off.

XXXXXXXX

From the vent, Umbra watched as the False Tenno and his companions played the game, oblivious to the fact he was being watched. Occasionally, he would pass refreshments and snacks to his son and subordinate, attention mostly focused on the screen.

Umbra had, at first, felt hatred toward the False Tenno. Why had he brought him back from beyond the mortal coil? Why could he not simply die in peace? Did he merely wish to let the old Dax suffer?

Then he had seen the teen's son. Seen him lose any masks he had been wearing when said son was in danger. Just from that, he could sense the difference between the False Tenno and his former masters. There was, beneath his exterior, something good in him.

Then he had pushed into Umbra's mind, trying to ask him to spare the False One's son. Unintentionally, he had allowed himself to remember his grief, to remember how he had become this twisted puppet for the Tenno.

Yet before he could reach the darkest parts of his remembrance, he had felt the False Tenno's influence on his mind, trying, in some way, to alleviate the pain. Then, when he had tried to stand, the False One and his son had helped carried him to a nice room to rest. It was an...unexpected courtesy.

Now, looking at the False One, his son, and his subordinate, he could see how wrong his initial assumption had been. The False Tenno was not like the golden overlords. True, he was occasionally lazy, and at times to smart for his own good, but he truly did care for his son and subordinates. He was also charitable and humble, both in public and private.

Perhaps this was merely a mask the False One wore to try and make Umbra like him more. If so, he was very good at wearing it, and the mask was doing its job.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!