1. Dawn
I do not own anything. Warframe belongs to Digital Extremes and Goddess of Victory: Nikke belongs to Shift Up and Level Infinite.
"Hmm…"
"..."
A man and a woman were seated inside a dark room. A steel table standing between them. It was dead silent except for the minute sound of breathing and the ticking of a nearby clock. A single light hung from the ceiling above the two's heads, concealing some of their features.
The man was slightly leaning forward as he was cuffed to the table. Not with thinner chain-linked cuffs but ones that were reinforced more than a centimeter thick with refined alloy. He let his hands part an inch as he adjusted in his seat. Only for metal to clang together as electromagnets reunited.
The woman, on the other hand, was sitting up straight with a tablet in her off-hand, typing away. The only discernible facial features were her purple hair, fair skin, and glasses illuminated by the light. She held herself more formally than the man across from her. She looked up from her device and opened her mouth.
"So, tell me, Mr. Tenno, how did you come to be here?"
"Well," The man leaned back in his chair, the light now revealing his dark hair with bangs parting over his right temple. Brown eyes that were mixed with ethereal blue and glowing rings of a similar color surrounding his pupils.
"It all started less than a week ago. When I woke up one morning…"
The Drifter groggily opened his eyes. A sharp pain in his head already made itself apparent as if an icicle was stabbing it. Feeling his cheek lying pressed upon skin and a weight on his forearms, it only took a drowsy second to figure out the position he fell asleep in.
He lifted his head, staring at the window in front of him, blinking a few times. He rolled his shoulders a bit, producing a few satisfying 'pop' sounds from his hunched position.
"Operator," A synthetic sounding voice said from behind him. The Older Tenno didn't turn his head and instead merely mumbled something in response. "Are you alright? I picked up increased stress levels and thought it best to wake you."
"I'm fine... just... give me a minute." He answered tiredly, bringing a hand up to rub the sleep out of his eyes. His eyes wandered down at all the tools and things scattered on his desk. In the center of it all was an object of odd make, visibly tampered with. So he fell asleep in the middle of his work.
"What did you dream about, Operator?"
"'Don't remember. It's all blurry." The Tenno replied, yawning before he stumbled out of the chair. His dreams were usually hard to remember, not that he cared much.
Ordis has been a faithful companion these past few years following the aftermath of the New War. The cephalon has assisted the Drifter in taking down Narmer even before he became Ordis' paradoxical second operator just shows the cephalon's reasonability and open mindedness in dire situations. His reliability was unparalleled, possibly beating even the Lotus in a shoulder to lean on.
The Drifter caressed his forehead with a gloved hand as he leaned on the desk, turning his gaze to the room around him. Noggles, figures, and other tokens of gratitude and achievement line the shelves and walls of the quarters.
Ordis' sentinel body hovers next to the Tenno. "Well if that's all, then have you found anything new involving the –Hunk oF jUnk– Narmer artifact you acquired? I recall you saying that all it did was push and pull particles of Sentient energy like–"
"–Like it's breathing, I know, but there has to be something else we're not getting." The Drifter turns towards the artifact in question before continuing. "Why else would they try so hard to protect it once we caught them off guard. All we know is that it was valued by that Narmer strategist." He walks over and picks up said artifact laying upon the desk.
It was Sentient in design, it stood on three legs from a centerpiece which was a three-pronged arch facing up. Outward-facing arches on the sides of the main body rhythmically and organically opened and closed, imitating the previously mentioned breathing. Almost like a Sentient take on an Ayatan sculpture.
A brief flashback was triggered as the voices of a Narmer preacher started to echo in his head. The preacher attempted to rally his forces against me, declaring that the artifact of "high importance" must be "kept away from the Void devil or else the Lord will have our heads." They were just asking for it to be stolen.
The Origin System has been in tatters since the New War. The new faction, Narmer—Corrupted 2.0 as some Tenno put it—have been a pain ever since their takeover of the Origin System. But since the conclusion of the New War a few years ago, Narmer has been booted as the main faction power within the system. But they still continue to persist.
They have holdings on parts of Earth, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter as Narmer's strongest forces are always concentrated around Archon-influenced locations or operations, excluding Venus. But other than that, they lacked any significant or obvious strongholds on other planets; often remote bases or staging grounds that are hard to find.
"That is a good point, Operator, but we checked everything else. No emitted radio signals, no beacons, notable energy generation," Ordis lists off. "No known relevance to Ballas, the Orokin, or the –SCUM OF THE– the Sentients. It's just barely powered on by surrounding temperature and light. To me, it just looks like some kind of fancy pedestal filler."
"Maybe you're right." The Drifter turns around to look at Ordis' hovering body, removing his weight from the table and regaining footing. "But it is our only lead on that pain of a Narmer strategist that has been outmaneuvering us."
Moxen is a Narmer strategist that has popped up only recently, but possessed unrivaled cunning and strategy that has allowed him to flawlessly evade the Tenno for the past year. Since his appearance, he has managed to not only maintain the Archons' territory with minimal loss, but also execute covert mass kidnappings on other planets without warning to bolster their brainwashed numbers. He has proven himself to be a high-value target second to that of Pazuul. The only difference being that Moxen was completely in the dark in terms of information, to the point that the only significant finding so far is his name, not even his voice or his origins are known. The Drifter himself was particularly obsessed with taking down this figure after a chain of pride-breaking defeats and failures at the hands of Narmer.
Ordis lets out a sigh, even though it was pointless for anything but expression. "I will leave you to your devices then, Operator." The Tenno watches as Ordis floated out the room, right up until the door finally closed behind him.
The Drifter turned around to look through one of three windows in the entire ship, watching a random fish swim by. He scratches his head.
"I need to unwind." He self-concerningly admits. He brushed past a shelf, flicking the head of an Erra noggle on the way out of the room before making a right into the transference chamber. Entering, he walked over to a wall where a table and shelves stand: his (improvised) kitchen.
"Let's see... Ostron fruits... freeze-dried fish... Solaris canned goods…" Taking stock of whatever is here, the Drifter digs through a footlocker of assorted foods from all over the system that he buys and dumps there out of laziness.
He pulls out several vacuum-sealed bags out of the footlocker before setting them on the counter. Reaching over to grab out a few grain nutrition cubes, he drops them in a Zariman cube steamer and opens up several of the smaller sealed bags, revealing several greens which he pours into the salad spinner. Opening up the final, larger bag, the Drifter dumps the bag of fish meat onto a Zariman frying pan, hearing the sizzle of the various preserving liquids and oils.
After a short while, the Drifter opens up the Zariman steamer and spinner and places the food onto a food tray before flipping the frying fish meat. When he was done frying, he tossed the fish in with the rest of the meal. Extremely basic, but the recipes he knew involved nutrient cubes or whatever he could scrounge up in the wild.
The Drifter pulled out utensils and dug in. The meal was… mediocre, the only real flavor was from the fish, which was salted from the preservatives. The nutrition cubes were mostly tasteless, the salad slightly less so. He wasn't very enthusiastic about the meal, but it was something. He wasn't much of a cook—that's Horrek's job—but he knew the importance of getting something in your stomach when it comes to it.
Eating regularly was something he—the kid—took for granted after becoming a Tenno. Even after the heart of the Warframes were revealed, the kid still felt that the need to eat was redundant with his Void powers and paranormal physiology providing most things. But the 'Drifter' Tenno was without those powers and had to fend for himself upon returning to reality. When the Operator and Drifter met face-to-face, the kid revived his desire to eat regularly.
The Drifter forked some salad into his mouth while looking over a report Ordis compiled for him, skimming over the various compositions and recent news. Orb Vallis stocks rise 12%... Grineer sent scavengers to Mercury to salvage Sentient tech, Murex derelicts were already found picked clean... Ostron egg scandal... abundance of Sentient tech on the Tenno market, prices drop...
"Hm?" He read the headings on a specific report. 'Narmer convoy controls Europa's orbit.'
He narrowed his eyes before reading the article in depth.
The Corpus forces guarding the Solar Rail leading into Europa's orbit went silent before a distress signal could be sent. Recovered resources and footage showed the several Murexes and Corpus-Narmer capital ships conquering the Solar Rail and killing or converting any resistance before passing through.
The Drifter stroked his chin. 'Sounds like they're scouting or securing territory for Jupiter's forces. May give us another step towards knocking Narmer down a leg.'
"Ordis, send a mission request to the Lotus regarding the Narmer forces at Europa."
"Of course, Operator. I'll get started right away."
He stared down at his now empty food tray. 'Well, at least I found myself something to do.'
"Turn that bolt fifteen degrees clockwise."
*creak*
"Raise the temperature of the pipe section by 35.5 degrees celsius."
*beep*
"Weld the highlighted area."
The Drifter brought up another tool and a few seconds of bright light later the task was done.
"Leak sealed. Water stopping. Checking... And this section is now confirmed airtight!" Ordis jovially exclaimed.
"Glad to hear that." The Drifter stepped down from the ceiling, dropping the welder in a toolbox. "What next?"
Ordis' sentinel body floated next to him. "We'll need to work on the drainage system next and fix some of the loose cables in the hall." Ordis' 'head' bobs in his usual cheery attitude. "Perfect time to take a break. You have 20 minutes before –I KicK Your AaAAa– we continue."
The Tenno mumbled in affirmation as Ordis went elsewhere. Fixing the Orbiter became high-priority after the Lotus instructed to get it back into orbit for the new mission and water dripping down from the ceiling doesn't exactly make you believe that a spacecraft is completely spaceworthy.
Or Safe.
And the reason why he was helping out instead of letting his faithful Cephalon do all the work is that some things need a little human touch, leaving the heavy lifting to Ordis. And also because requesting and sending a bunch of relay workers here could bring unwanted attention and jeopardize the subtlety of the mission. Eyes and ears can be anywhere.
The Drifter grabbed a nearby rag and started cleaning the grease and chemicals off his arms, only to find that quite a few of the stains failed to come off. The Drifter tried again with more vigor, scrubbing over the palms and fingers of the suit with greater intensity but to no avail. The rag was unable to effectively soak up or wipe off whatever hazardous chemicals he touched.
He stared at his grease-stained hands in thought. "I can't eat like this…" The only way he could guarantee his gloves were fully clean is if he laundry-washed them, but that would take more time than the allotted 20 minutes. So he couldn't wipe the grease off his hands, nor could he have them washed in time
Coming up with the most simple solution took half a second of thinking. The Drifter shrugged, reaching up to his shoulder and disconnecting the left arm piece. He pulled the suit sleeve off, flexing his fingers as if to test the feeling. After repeating the process with his right, he tossed the sleeves into a corner before staring at his bare arms.
The skin on his arms was pale, ghostly pale. It was so pale that arteries and veins stood out like a pack of pobbers on Deimos. In fact, he could barely remember a time when he had his suit off for over a minute. The clearest memory of that happening took place upon the Zariman pre-derelict involving the first and last pool party he had. The only skin left bare regularly was his head, which had a rather healthy tone to it in contrast.
Curiosity took the Drifter by the neck. If my arms look like this, then what about the rest of my body?
Succumbing to it, the Drifter reached up to his neck to undo the seals on the torso piece.
A good percentage of suits consisted of multiple vacuum-sealed or mechanically-tightened parts. It was generally divided into four or five sections: the torso, the legs, the right arm, left arm, and the head. This allowed a degree of customization that made these suits popular to buyers. The ones generally exempt from these lines are the Grineer and Corpus that put cost effectiveness before fashion, with their issued suits often being one big airtight piece, three at most.
Bodysuits often went in two directions: practicality and comfort. His suit was mostly the former, being reinforced with shields and armor able to take bullets from small to larger Grineer firearms. It was also a Zariman model, meaning the Orokin didn't give a damn about how comfortable our suits were. Most Tenno just got used to the regular discomfort of Zariman 'clothing.' Many non-Tenno have tried the suits on and complained about the lack of gel padding or a low-friction interior. At least the suit wasn't itchy.
So taking the torso piece off, the Drifter is greeted with the feeling of brisk air upon his skin. A thought appears in his head before shooting it down. He should really keep the pants on as he was not wearing anything else underneath.
With that out of the way, he entered the transference chamber and walked over a mirror positioned against the wall, staring at his shirtless reflection.
His chest was as pale as his arms, it was an odd sight. The Drifter brought an arm up to trace the tan line(or rather pale line) around his neck as if he was drawing the border between a pair of foreign nations. It was surreal how different the two tones were even if they were on the same person.
It wasn't just the paleness of his body that caught his eye, but also its state.
The Drifter's body was intricately toned with years of activity and combat. The strength to practically wield the heavy weapon of a Dax Malleus as well as to push an Archon away bare-handedly. His muscle was formed from the need to succeed and survive. Battle is a harsh mistress. And she is very choosy about how she likes her lovers.
Unusually, scars were absent on his body despite the years of injuries and torment he endured. He assumed that this was because Void-based healing was not just physical in nature but temporal as well, returning the wounds to a state they were before instead of merely repairing them. The few scars he had were from his blurry childhood memories, the only one he remembered was when he snuck into a construction zone with his friends and accidentally scraped against some metal salvage, tracing a long scar down his lower leg.
"What am I doing?" He questioned before recomposing himself. He was supposed to remove his sleeves so he could cleanly eat lunch. But now he's lost in staring at his war-torn body like it was a stranger's instead of his own. The sheer unfamiliarity that held the aged Tenno in a deep trance.
The Drifter shook his head and looked away from the mirror. He made his way over to the makeshift kitchen and got started on something, trying to forget what had transpired.
The Drifter wiped some sweat off his forehead. "What else?"
"Let me see... Checking seals, measuring artificial atmosphere, diagnosing... And that should be all delicate systems fixed. I can take it from here, Operator."
"That's great. And all it took was the entire day." The man says with a hint of sarcasm. He stood up and stretched his arms and back. "Ordis, are Kahl and his buddies packed up and ready to go?"
"Affirmative. They are currently in the middle of loading their cargo into your Railjack. The Orbiter itself is stocked for a month's worth of –MurdeR– deployment." Ordis replies merrily over comms.
"Good, good," The Drifter says and nods absentmindedly.
If it was any other faction, we would usually have the Lotus' operatives collecting, stealing, and sabotaging the enemy. But Kahl's specialization against Narmer made him invaluable for the success of the mission. But it wasn't as if we could take only him, we also needed Chipper's support, neither could we take them both and leave the Garrison undefended. So having them all pack up and bunk in the Railjack was for the best.
"Operator, Cy has reported that the Ostron is using the Railjack's forge to cook." Ordis stated, as if on cue.
The aged Tenno sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. 'Okay, maybe not for the best.'
He stared up at the clouds, admiring the pristine blue sky. The sound of nature and waterfalls permeate the background, forming a serene atmosphere. Condrocs soar through the skies, Kuakas skittering through bushes. Earth, the homeworld of humanity, was beautiful at first glance, but the rusted wreckage laying a short distance away was testament to the war fought a millennia ago.
"Noble Tenno,"
The interrupting voice annoyed the Drifter after disrupting his internal monologue but could not blame the man for doing his job. The Tenno lifts his head enough so that the hammock he was lying in was not blocking his view.
"Yes, Nishi?"
Centurion Nishi was Tenno's second-in-command on the Railjack. He was outstanding, being above average in most aspects while proficient in others. He wasn't the best, he could be outdone by someone who's more specialized, but his broad range of abilities allowed him to fill almost all the roles when it came to the Railjack. Pilot, Gunner, Engineer, Defender, you name it.
"I have come to report that the defectors should be done unloading their luggage onto the Railjack within the next hour. As well as a couple of your converted nemesis have caught wind of your activities and desire to join us."
"Huh," The Drifter stared back up at the sky, rocking in his hammock. "Let them, it's better to have more hands for this operation."
"Affirmative. I will let them know of your approval." Like that, Nishi salutes and walks back towards the cave. His Railjack, The Wanderer, hovered just low enough to be disguised by the height of Earth's supermassive trees. The 200 meter-long spacecraft also had to dip into a small canyon where a river flowed just so the doors could be reached by ramp. Cargo was simply teleported, but the time-consuming part was organizing and effectively storing it without sacrificing combat space.
The Drifter toys with a prex card, staring at the whole packing operation. Watching Kahl, Chipper, and company off in the near-distance, loading smaller containers of items through the Railjack's bottom airlock.
"The Orbiter is all fixed. Ordis brought the thing for further testing up in space." He picks up a tumbler from a nearby rock and takes a sip. "He didn't need me; even encouraged me to get off in the event of an accident." He takes another sip. Putting it simply, he wasn't needed. Which created an empty abyss inside the Tenno. For lack of a better word: Boredom.
The Drifter felt a heavy hand on his shoulder. He turns around and is greeted with the dark, faceless visage of his other companion.
"Umbra," The Drifter is returned with a brief nod from the Warframe. "What brings you here?"
The Warframe simply faces the Railjack before looking back at him.
"So what? A little nothing to do isn't going to put me down."
"..." Despite lacking a face, Umbra's stare says it all.
"All right. I'm unused to inaction, simply doing nothing isn't what I do. I'm a Tenno, externalism or not, both the kid and I share a mutual restlessness. But I have nothing to do." The Drifter states. "I've been busy with that Narmer artifact for months and haven't found anything even by devoting 18 straight hours to researching it! All of this is done to find a new lead on that Void-damned strategist." The Drifter lightly slams his drink on his improvised side table, a few drops of liquid spilling on the rock.
Umbra simply responded by reaching behind his back, pulling out a folding table.
"...This is for…?"
Reaching behind him again, the former Dax pulls out a Komi board and places it on the table. Umbra looks up from his task and stares at the Tenno askingly.
The Drifter sat up and looked down at the board. Pausing a second before giving his answer. "Sure, I could go for a few rounds."
Making it from Earth to Jupiter's orbit was barely an hour-long trip. Despite being grounded for the better part of a few years, the Orbiter's functions still worked smoothly. Ordis was a bit proud of that.
"Approaching the Jupiter-Europa Solar Rail. T-minus 11 minutes." Ordis stated.
The Drifter mumbled in affirmation before he continued meditating. Through the nonsensical power of the Void, the Tenno was levitating a few feet off the ground.
The Railjack was meant to meet the Orbiter on the other side of the Rail, in Europa's orbit, to scout or secure space for them to arrive. There was the possibility that Narmer set up some devices that could detect the Orbiter entering or leaving the rail. So having a warning in advance would help prevent potential disaster.
The Railjack, The Wanderer, was perfectly suited for the task at hand. It was outfitted with a strong shielding and cloaking system that could be used right after leaving a jump, which was a weakness with Orbiters. Void-based cloaking was useless in the Void itself or even just after leaving the other dimension. The equivalent of lighting a lamp outside only for its light to be drowned out by that of the sun.
Void cloaking usually involves either of the two following methods, the first uses Void energy to have light and radiation bend around you and exit the other end. The second method involved shifting most of your mass into the other plane to just above that of the atmosphere to the point where light simply passes through you. The former method is often associated with spacecraft with the latter being the Void Mode of the Tenno.
"Arriving in eight minutes." Ordis counted down in the background.
'Man, that was such an in-depth mental ramble. I practically sounded like that Tenno archiver.' The Drifter shuddered a bit as he unintentionally recalled a peculiar individual, their voice echoing in his mind.
"Voidkin…"
The Drifter physically smacked the side of his head to slam the door on that particular hall of memories. Though, it came at the cost of his focus, which caused him to stop levitating and fall a leg's length down on his rear.
"Arriving in four minutes."
"I swear those memories are alive somehow." The Drifter sat up, rubbing his rear end as he looked out of the Liset's window. The Solar Rail appeared far away, taking up as much space as a fist at arm's length on the window. The display stated it was about a dozen kilometers away specifically, but that was practically nothing during space flight.
"Arriving in three minutes."
The Drifter, instead of getting up, decided to lay back on the floor. Staring at the ceiling as he reflected back on his life. He was supposed to be a child colonist that was supposed to inhabit a different solar system for the Orokin Empire. Then the Zariman Ten-Zero had a drive failure, whether accident or sabotage it doesn't matter now, causing it to become stranded in the Void. Most of the adults went insane, forcing the children to fend for themselves. Afterwards, the machines sent to terraform the new system rebelled and sought to end the Orokin. Not organic life. The Orokin who were unnecessarily cruel, unfair, and planned to scrap the machines from the start.
"Arriving in two minutes."
The Drifter caressed his head. "When did everything become so complicated? Duviri was simple." Repeating the same day over and over again was less of a headache. Though it did get boring real quickly. Simple and boring or complicated and new.
Okay. Maybe Duviri was more of a break than a home, if his adventures on Narmer-held Earth were anything.
"Arriving in one minute, prepare to enter Void stream."
The Drifter sat up and looked out the front window again. The Orokin-Era construct was imposing up close; he estimated that the entrance's diameter to be at least half a kilometer in length. From here, he could already see a distinct lack of traffic and several Corpus capital ships guarding the rail. Normally, there would be fewer, like one or two, but the full seven plus aircraft carriers and Aurax transports only solidified their response to their embarrassing defeat by Narmer.
"Entering Void stream in 10 seconds."
"Hey."
The Drifter's head snapped towards the source of the voice, his breath hitched. Sitting down on a table, almost playfully, was the younger version of himself staring down at him amusingly with eyes that did not belong. A sick, toothy smile split its face before it spoke.
"Get ready for a ride, Kiddo."
"Huh?" Was all he was able to let out before all hell broke loose.
*THOOM*
The mimic disappeared into thin air as the Orbiter violently quaked. Objects of all sorts—including him—were flung around like rocks in a washing machine. When gravity restabilized, he hit the hard floor head-first and was given no time to think before—
"The Solar Rail has suffered critical damage! Void Stream destabilizing!" Ordis panicked as klaxons blared through the ship. "We can't disengage! The Void Stream already has us locked in! Brace yourself!"
—had no time to think before he entered a world of hurt. Teal lightning danced in and outside the Orbiter as it flew into a raging Void.
Solar Rails were multi-kilometer-long constructs with the intention of using the Void to cross hundreds of thousands of kilometers between planet and moon, planet to planet, and possibly system to system within seconds. The necessary requirement for a functioning Solar Rail connection included a 'point A' rail and a 'point B' rail. The Solar Rails were more akin to starship-grade portals or gates, needing two points to tango.
But to remove either end of the Solar Rail was like opening up a circuit and sticking the open ends in water—imagining the ships passing through were electricity. Instead of going to their intended destination, they went way off and into a shithole. And what better place than a realm of literal emotions, dreams, and nightmares that was the Void. In a Storm no less!
And that was what the Tenno, AKA Drifter, was experiencing right now.
The Drifter let out a cry as indescribable pain coursed through him. He felt his physical body being torn apart as it was subjected to unstable and wild Void energy.
The sheer shock was enough for him to die on the spot if he was normal, but Void enhanced physiology and the Void's toying with death meant he could take more and unfortunately could experience another life full of pain if he died here and now.
"Restarting Void Shielding!" Ordis' voice barely makes it to his ears. "Shields restarted! Filtering out unwanted Void energy!"
Like a switch, the entire atmosphere of the Orbiter was silenced. The pain flowing through his body ceased, giving the Drifter a moment of rest as he sprawled down on the floor. His breathing was ragged, taking generous lungfuls of air as his heart beat like a Tusk Thumper.
With a herculean effort, the Drifter pushed himself off the ground and stood up wobbly.
"Ordis…" He rasped in between his rapid breaths, bringing a hand up to nurse a new headache. "What… The Hell… Happened?"
"Sentient mines seemed to have been hidden all over the key infrastructure of the Solar Rail. The resulting detonation caused the Void stream to stray and threw us into a Void Storm. I had to reroute 71% of power to the shields as they are now the only thing keeping the Orbiter in one piece. However, at the rate we're burning our reactor, our shields will fall within the next 20 minutes." Said Ordis, devoid of his usually chipper tone. It was rather mournful, and for good reason.
The Drifter stumble-walked towards the back of the bridge as he tried to assess the situation. The ramp lowered slowly, and the usual hiss of air was replaced by sputter. The room felt stale and had an unignorable chill. It was likely the personal comfort systems were also power-cannibalized. The lights were dim, but not enough for him to be unable to navigate his way through the lower levels of the Orbiter. He looked up through the ship's skylight, seeing tendrils of Void Lightning lashing against the shields.
Overall, it was a bad situation. The Orbiter was ill-equipped for handling Void Storms, the shields were mostly dedicated for protecting the ship against space debris, radiation, and occasional Void turbulence. But this was a full-on Void Storm, several magnitudes above mere turbulence, it practically required Ordis to do what would normally overload the shields in order to resist the raging storm outside.
The Orbiter violently rocked as he was pondering, almost as if in response to the shields' appearance.
"The Void Storm is worsening! We can't take much more of this!"
Right, he could just stand here twiddling with his thumbs. He had to do something or they were going to be burnt toast. "Divert some power to thrusters! We need to leave now!"
"But Operator, that will –Be OuR DoOommm– cut down the shield time further."
"Siphon some more power from life support, cycle and clean the air only when it becomes too toxic." The Drifter rushed to the front to take command of the situation. Luckily, he stored all his organic animal companions in the Orbiter's hammerspace beforehand.
Ordis had distress in his voice. "Thrusters activated! Only 62% operational from earlier damage! I don't think we have enough time to leave!"
"We just need to get out of this storm! We can figure out how to leave the Void later! Just get us out!" The Drifter assessed the status of the Orbiter, the hologram was flickering with the amount of power they were diverting. Bad news was the amount of hull and technical damage the Orbiter sustained. Those earlier explosions plus the first few seconds of Void Storm exposure really put a dent in the chances they would make it out in one piece. Entire thrusters down, key systems cut off, an overall reduction in efficiency…
The Drifter's train of thought was interrupted when the wall next to him exploded. Compressed air shot out into the ship's interior.
"Operator!"
"I'm fine!" The Drifter stumbled down the bridge, looking around. "Where's my Omni?!"
The next minute was a chaotic back and forth between Cephalon and Operator as more and more complications occurred. The Tenno struggled to fix the interior of the Orbiter while Ordis tended to the diagnostics.
"Calculating… This Void Storm is approximately 3.76 times 5.21 to 7.53 kilometers in diameter. The shortest possible route out will take 33 minutes! We don't have that kind of time, Operator!"
"Prioritize the Orbiter's survival! How can we get out of the Storm's pull?!" The Drifter dug through his ship's inventory, trying to find anything that could help.
"We'll have to force our way out, but we lack the power to do so! Our other options were exhausted when the Orbiter was –BloWn To SHIII– hit!"
The Drifter picked several items out of dimensional storage. "Can we sacrifice our Orokin Cells and Rubedo for power?!"
"Negative! We don't have the adaptors to extract the power from them!"
"What about Tenno Shield Restores?!"
"Those restores are incompatible with the Orbiter's!"
The Orbiter quaked as it took an unexpectedly strong hit from the Storm.
"Shit!" The Drifter racked his head in an attempt to find an answer. The Void Storm removed almost all options that were available. He ran back up the ramp and tried to take what little control he had of the situation. After a few seconds of thinking, he was torn.
Either reroute power from thrusters to shields, which would buy them time, or reroute power from shields to thrusters in the last ditch attempt to leave the Storm. Both were bad in their own ways. The former would only delay the inevitable, the latter was very risky, leaving them vulnerable.
They were stuck between a rock and a hard place.
The Drifter wanted nothing but to rip out his own hair in frustration, but that would only add baldness on top of his growing pile of problems to deal with later.
"Operator!" Ordis called out. "I'm picking up a signal but it's distorted!"
He didn't catch what Ordis said as he tuned out, focusing on the choices in front of him. Perhaps he was overthinking this? He needed another choice. He needed to think outside the box…
"The signal is increasing in intensity and clarity!" Ordis shouted, voice laced with panic. "Detecting singularity! Brace yourseeeeee—!"
The Drifter was brought out of his stupor when light flooded the bridge, temporarily blinding him. A moment too late, his arms were up trying to block out any more light. Behind his eyelids, he was starting to see spots in his vision.
Then, all was silent.
What? The Drifter looked up and was awed.
"Railjack to Tenno. Sorry we're late to the party."
The entirety of the Orbiter was overshadowed by the larger vessel that was The Wanderer.
Ordis was the first to respond. "Cy! Thank the Voi– er, Lotus you're here!"
"Save your thanks for later. We're not out of this place yet."
Cy's words rang true. They were still in a Void Storm, which was only worsening by the moment as if angered by the Railjack's intervention.
"Hooking up cable to Orbiter. Prepare to receive power and shield reinforcement."
An audible *click* sound is heard as said cable manlessly connected the two ships.
The Drifter let out a sigh of relief as the lights and life support received power, removing the dreary atmosphere that filled the Orbiter seconds ago.
"Cy," The Tenno recollected himself as he stood up straight. "What's our status? We need to get out of this place."
"Good news, the Railjack's core is capable of taking on the burden of your shields." Cy replies. "Bad news, this Storm is not a very safe-for-work environment to commence essential field repairs on your Orbiter. As well as our current coordinates in the Void are uncharted. Leaving now will cause unforeseen consequences."
The Drifter thought for a few moments. With new resources, the options available to him grew tenfold. Even still, he knew there were still hurdles to overcome. "You said it isn't safe to do field repairs, but not impossible."
"Operator! You don't mean that–!"
"What else can we do, Ordis? We need to get out, fast." The Tenno answered. "Prep the Itzal and get ready to detach the landing craft."
"Are you sure about this? One small mistake and the Void Storm will–T-TeaR YoU tO ShREDSzz–"
"I've already decided. I'll stick close to the hull to minimize exposure. The other Archwings can take more damage but I will need the Itzal's Arch Line to get this done faster or return if I stray too far from the ship."
No longer bound in his body. The Tenno had on a Nidus Prime, whose natural and augmented healing factor made it better than relying on slower shields without health regeneration. He was currently resting inside the cylindrical deployer of his Liset, conversing with Ordis.
Ordis' 'face' appeared on his HUD. "Operator, there's no going back from this. You need to reconsider."
"Don't sweat it." The Drifter reassures half-heartedly. "It'll be alright. Just watch my back and we will make it through this alive."
"...If your mind is made up… I can't refuse then." Ordis reluctantly agreed. He imagined Ordis having a sweatdrop slide down his 'face,' ironically enough.
"Okay, release the Liset!" Ordis does as ordered as he hears the landing craft detach from the Orbiter. He hears the engines hum through his compartment for a few seconds before his little space starts to depressurize. Weightlessness grips him as he 'drops' atop the hull.
"Operator!"
Sadly, things don't go as planned as the Void Storm's currents toss him down the length of the ship. He hits a piece of hull jutting out at a painful velocity, but it slowed him down enough to grab the Orbiter and hold on. Already, his Nidus was recovering from the received damage.
"Ordis!"
"Sending Archwing!"
The Liset released the package, the Itzal homed in on him and attached itself onto his back. He spreads the wings before removing his equipment: An Omni. The Omni was an essential tool for repairing anything, from Railjacks to the Heart of Deimos itself, the Omni doesn't discriminate what it repairs. Well, as long as you had the necessary materials.
Hooking himself against the ship with an Arch Line first, he looked around for any essential systems that needed repairing besides the thrusters. Actually, now that he was outside the Orbiter, he could really admire the Void Storm. It really looked like they were inside some thunderstorm-tornado hybrid. The lightning danced about like a lightshow, some bolts sometimes striking the shields of both ships. He would have really enjoyed the view more if it wasn't threatening his very existence right now.
"Ordis, mark priority repairs."
"Marking."
His HUD became alight with at least eight different markers, half of them pointing towards the rear of the ship. He tossed his Arch Line towards the nearest one, some sort of large pipe that was visibly leaking a foggy substance that could either be very hot or very cold. He didn't really care either way as long as he didn't touch it. He raised his Omni and started sealing up the breach, which took no more than a few seconds.
He jumped off the hull for a split second before tossing his Arch Line at the next mark, this time it was simply just a large chunk of plating torn off to reveal several sparking electronics. He started fixing it right away.
He moved on to the next one, flying through the air. A bolt of Void lightning struck the Orbiter, causing the shields to flare next to him. He ignored it in favor of setting his sights on his objective. After fixing a couple more, he Arch Line-ed his way to the engines and thrusters of the Orbiter.
Before he could start fixing the engines, the Drifter thought of the best course of action. Fixing the rear side of the Orbiter was potentially the most dangerous in this storm as the currents flowed down the ship's length. If he fell off there then he could fall further away without any surface to grapple on, effectively stranding him in the Void Storm, to which he wouldn't last five seconds in.
He looked down as he came up with an idea. "Never tried this before." He moved closer before sticking his Arch Line at his feet. From there, instead of reeling in the line, he let loose some slack before jumping down the length of the ship. In other words: rappelling.
The line went taut after a few meters, from there, the Drifter started slowly lowering himself to a damaged part of the thrusters. He pulled up his Omni again and got back to work. From there, it was a matter of hopping and adjusting slack to get from one breakage to another. He was already finishing up the last breach before a 'boom' disrupted the relative serenity.
"Cable connector damaged. Power transfer to Orbiter at 40% efficiency." Cephalon Cy reported. "Your shields will not hold."
"But there's no way the Operator can get close enough to repair it without getting –RRRIPED In HaLF– torn apart!" Replied Ordis worriedly.
"I can overcharge your personal shields at this range. I calculate that you will have one minute to get it done."
"On it." The Drifter reeled himself back towards the end of the Arch Line before tossing it on the cable connecting the two ships. A timer started on the edge of his HUD.
"Overcharging Tenno shields. I hope we get insurance pay for this."
The Tenno pulled himself in, tossing the Arch Line again towards a rupture in the cable. As he set foot near the giant power cable, a shock ran through his foot, forcing him to step back. The timer was easily cut down by five seconds.
"To keep the Orbiter in one piece, we have to increase the flow of power, meaning that the other 60% forms electric hazards near the cable ruptures. You'll have to repair them at a distance."
"I would've liked to have been told that earlier, Cy!" The Drifter jumped up and let the Arch Line keep him connected. He was dragged by the Void's current. He aimed his Omni at the rupture. The beam repaired slower and was more unstable at this distance but it worked well enough.
"Cable connector at 63% efficiency. Two more ruptures to go."
The Tenno climbed along the length of the cable and made his way to the next. He attached himself to the cable again, repairing the second rupture. Though, only half a minute remained on his clock once he was done.
"Cable connector at 79% efficiency. One rupture remaining."
He threw another Arch Line at the one furthest away from the Orbiter. He flew up the length, evading whatever electrical hazards on the way with extreme precision. He stopped at the location of the cable breach and aimed his Omni. He spared a glance at his clock.
"Cable connector at 98% efficiency. Good work. Return to your Orbiter, you appear quite short on time."
Cy was right, he only had just over 10 seconds to return. So, doing the Archwing equivalent of stepping on the gas, he made a beeline to his awaiting landing craft, cutting straight through the Void lightning. He reached the awaiting landing craft with moments to spare.
Ordis' voice reached into the confines of the Liset. "Operator! Are you alright?! Do you feel dizzy? Pain? Do you need me to–"
"Ordis, I'm fine." The Drifter replied as he transferred out of the warframe, landing in the middle of the navigation room with a kneel just as he heard the familiar clamp and hiss of the craft reattaching itself to the main ship. "I'll just need some rest and I'll be better by tomorrow. Now, what's our status?"
"Our systems are acceptably functional, but our coordinates in the Void are still not available. This Void Storm seems to only further disrupt our translation into realspace." Ordis said with a hint of worry.
Cy's 'face' popped up on the Drifter's HUD's comms. "Leaving the void now could be catastrophic. The growing Void Storm on our doorstep is only making matters worse." Cy's avatar became less colored and more gray after that last bit. "But with your engines all patched we can try to leave this storm and minimize the fallout."
"That will be easier said than done. The Orbiter can no longer support both engines and shields with the current strength of the Void Storm. So we will have to sync the Orbiter's and Railjack's speeds to keep the cable connected. Also increasingly difficult because of the Storm."
The Drifter rubbed his chin in thought. "Do we have any better options?"
Both cephalons stayed unusually quiet for a few seconds, which was forever for digital entities such as them.
"There are zero better options." Cy sternly stated.
The Drifter had a look of deep thought before he gave up. "Bring up the map."
The holographic navigation table changed to show a layout of the cyclone-like Void Storm they were trapped inside. "Our escape will be challenging due to the shape of the storm. We lack the power to make a direct path out of here. We will have to escape by spinning outwards." The hologram showed a representation of the two ships and the planned path as a dotted line forming an outwards spiral around the center of the storm.
The Cephalon continued. "This is only an estimate due to the Void Storm's unpredictability. There is the possibility of the storm's center following us due to our emotional dent in the Void."
"Hmm…" He contemplated the idea. It wasn't bad, it was similar to how seafaring Ostron tribes escape whirlpools. Build enough velocity and circle out.
Now that he thought about it, the Void Storm was similar to a whirlpool from a perspective. It slowly drags you in, gets stronger and more dangerous the closer you get to the center, and if you get to the epicenter: certain death.
The concerning fact was the amount of times they would have to go around the center to inch their way out, which was dozens. That was more than enough time and chance for the storm to get in a lucky shot and potentially re-cripple the Orbiter; our progress could be slowed or even undone.
He looked out the side of the Liset's window, from their point of view the two ships were spinning around the Void Storm counter-clockwise. In the center was a mass of concentrated Void lightning that threatened to disintegrate whatever wandered too close. The ship was only a third of the Void Storm's radius away from the center, which was very telling how fast the Void Storm's currents were when they arrived here about 3 quarters of the radius away a few minutes ago.
"We'll go with your plan then, Cy. Not like we have any other good ideas."
"Affirmative, Operator." "Accepting orders." Ordis and Cy immediately did as permitted.
"Activating thrusters. Powering shields. Synching speed with Railjack."
"Railjack core at full. Power transfer functional. Engines online. Calculating ideal route."
The Drifter held his ground as the Orbiter near-instantly accelerated. The Railjack sped up at the same time to keep the two ships at the right distance. Being too close could cause a collision and being too far could disconnect the cable.
The two ships already made the first circle around the epicenter. The Void lightning eased a bit but the Storm's pull remained strong. The pace they were going at was worrying him. The amount of times they would circle around the center about this close was a lot. But of course, fate had other plans in mind.
The Orbiter violently shook as lights started flaring outside the ship, the Drifter was momentarily blinded before Cy started shouting over comms.
"WARNING: The Storm's Core has entered a critical state. Detonation Imminent. We Need to Leave Now."
Dread washed over him like a tidal wave. "But you said we couldn't leave the Void before leaving the storm!"
"Correction: I said leaving now will be catastrophic. Our current Void coordinates do not translate into anywhere known. We could end up inside a neutron star for all we know."
"Shit." The Drifter stretched the vowel on that statement. It wasn't that they couldn't leave, but that they couldn't leave in an expectedly. And when it came to the Void, what you couldn't predict almost guaranteed bad results.
Almost.
"I am awaiting your word, Tenno."
"Go for it." He answered without hesitation. Some chance was better than none, and if you didn't reach that small percentage, keep repeating until you do. A sort of common Tenno mindset.
"Affirmative. Activating Railjack Void Drive. Synching Drive with Orbiter. Let's get the Hell out."
The sound of the Void drive charging up seemed to last hours as the storm prepared to go critical and take them with it. He had seen Void Storms dissipate after a few hours or days, but one exploding was something unheard of in realspace, only the Void had enough lingering energy to cause one to do so.
The Orbiter caught a brief glimpse of the explosion just as it left the Void with the Railjack. Sensor records would later show the star-like intensity of the Void Storm's self-destructive singularity. It would have been priceless data for Void researchers…
If they made it back.
The Drifter stumbled about as the room filled with the scent of fresh carbon. He coughed a few times as his throat started to feel dry. In fact, he felt quite fatigued and dizzy. As if a man who lived at sea level was suddenly sent to the oxygen-thin atmosphere of the Himalayas.
"Or— Urk" He dry heaved as he fell against a console. "–Ordis... What… The hell…" He didn't have the energy to say anymore as he lost strength in his knees and collapsed against the wall. He regained his bearings for a few minutes before looking around. The lights were off along with several other electronics, Ordis seemed to be out of commission so he would have to do things himself.
He used the console as leverage as he stood back up. The white wisps of smoke littered the air, likely from several circuits and fuses that were burned out. A quick glance at the front window showed the stars outside, so they were out of the Void at least. However, without Ordis, he had no idea where the Orbiter currently was. They were in space and not burning atmo into a planet, which was good. But where in space was the real question.
He walked to the back of the Liset to gain access to the rest of his ship, thankfully the ramped still worked and began to lower itself. But not before it started sputtering and fell the rest of the way and hit the floor with a loud clang. He would fix that later, but now he had bigger problems to deal with.
He made his way down the ramp and into the depths of the ship, the lights here were also off and were only lit up by the starlight entering through the window above.
He was looking for something, generally used for emergencies such as this. He walked around the main area, hitting the floor with his foot. When he kicked a floor panel that sounded less solid, he kneeled down and wedged his fingers beneath it, lifting it up and leaning it against the wall. Inside was a red-lined foot locker which he pulled out of its hiding spot.
"Where is it…" He muttered as he dug through the cache. He displaced several cases of emergency rations and tools off to the side as he sorted through them. He eventually pulled out what he was searching for: a Nautilus. He and Ordis stashed this thing away years back in case another Shadow Stalker incident happened where the Orbiter is under attack and the ship cephalon is unavailable. The sentinel was in deep sleep, but a couple smacked the side of its head(body?) woke it up.
"Okay, Nautilus, the Orbiter's power is off along with Ordis. We need to get either back online or else we're a boat without a sail or paddle."
The sentinel chirps in affirmation before flying off, when he caught up with it, it opened up some wall panels by the Railjack portal. He peered over its shoulder, watching an array of blown fuses and shredded wires get stitched and sealed together as the sentinel's Onmi did its work.
After it was done, it moved onto another spot and continued its repairs. The Drifter got the hint it could work on its own and decided to start trying to kickstart the core back online.
'Trying' being the key word.
He simply didn't know where to start. At this point, the Orbiter would've already gone through its emergency routines and reactivated Ordis, but none of that happened. He assumed it was because of the damage sustained from the Void Storm as well as the Void energy itself overloading several systems. He didn't even know where the core was!
He facepalmed himself in his frustration, he unblocked his eyes as he watched the Nautilus seal up more essential wiring and circuitry he had no knowledge of. It moved onto somewhere else once that was done.
It looked like he had to play the waiting game for now.
"C̵̳͉̯̏̊̏̌͝–C̸͈̳̀ë̵̻–C̷͎̽ę̸̌p̸h̷— C̷̘̓ephalon Ordis reactivating. Emergency maintenance check running… Hull: 72% stable, Life support: 81% operational, Sensor check—"
It took about an hour for the Nautilus and him(mostly the Nautilus) to finish the field repairs required to get Ordis back online. Ordis continued to babble on. It took a full minute of him stating the maintenance status of the ship before he went silent. As if he was holding in something.
'What is he—'
"OPERATOR, ARE YOU OKAY?!" Ordis' voice blasted throughout the ship. Unluckily, the Drifter lacked any hearing protection aside from his own physiological endurance to raise the threshold it took for him to become deaf. Ordis then proceeded to ramble on about his worries at a much more tolerable volume.
"I'm fine, Ordis! Calm down!" He shouted. This whole situation was frustrating him.
Ordis reluctantly accepted his response. "I'm sorry, Operator. I was extremely worried the moment I woke up and couldn't skip the –DAmNed tO hELL-LL-L– necessary maintenance dialogue. Meanwhile, what has happened in my absence?"
"Check the Nautilus' memory, I didn't know how to run the ship so we needed you online to do so."
Ordis did as told and responded. "Well, it's good that nothing –BLeW UP-P-p– bad happened while I was gone."
"Yeah…" The Drifter went silent before continuing. "What happened?"
"The Solar Rail suffered catastrophic damage and destabilized as we—"
"That's not what I'm talking about, Ordis." He spat out. "How?"
"...I was hoping you would calm down before I tell you." The time it took for Ordis to respond was enough to tell how nervous he was.
"Ordis."
"...Check your personal quarters. I'll explain my findings there."
He did as told, walking towards his destination more zealously than he normally would have. The room's door opened and he practically breezed down the steps. The first thing that caught his gaze was the Narmer artifact, his eyes bore into it like a sun and magnifying glass.
"What did you want to tell me?" His eyes left the object as he watched Ordis float next to him.
"It's… The Narmer artifact we acquired is the root cause."
He retrained his attention on the artifact in question. "And how?"
"Several Sentient mines were hidden all over the Solar Rail's infrastructure. From the last bits of sensor feed I was able to pull, they let out this very subtle wavelength in sentient energy that it could be written off as cosmic background radiation." Ordis seemed to consider his next words carefully. "The artifact… we both know it pushed and pulled Sentient energy, but it seemed like that action acted as a net for the particles released by those Sentient mines and released its own special message in return. This return signal…"
*CRASH*
The Drifter flipped the table over to the side. He didn't need to hear the rest. Not that he could hear Ordis through his current bout of rage. He kicked the table as he let out a cry of frustration.
"They play us for fools!" He moved over and kicked the Narmer artifact like a Lunaro. Bouncing off the walls like one as well. "US! The Tenno that stopped the New War and slayed Ballas. Played like–! Like…"
His temper fizzled out as he regained his grip on reality. He usually wasn't this temperamental. He either had an optimistic or alert gait at all times. For him to just let it all out was…
He shook his head. 'The stress from the Void Storm must be catching up.' The air still felt suffocating, despite the life supports and air filtration being operational.
"Operator…" Ordis floated beside his huddled form. Which he didn't realize he was in until Ordis spoke. He stood back up and looked at Ordis reassuringly.
"I'm better now. I'll be fine. Mostly."
"Thank the Void, Operator. We're lucky to have –LIvEd At aLL-L– survived all that."
"Yeah. But first…" His sights shifted from Ordis to the artifact.
The doors automatically opened with a slight squelch. The Helminth Infirmary was musky with the scent of spores and metal. Yet somehow the atmosphere was almost calming for the Drifter. After all, despite it being an advanced bio-synthetic organism derived from a potent bioweapon, it still took great care of the Warframes that made the Tenno the Tenno.
"Hey, Heli! I got something for you!" The Helminth made a groan or call in response. Outside of a Warframe, he couldn't translate infested language.
In his hands was the Narmer artifact/Tenno bait that got them into their current situation. He lightly tossed the thing up before punting it directly at the Helminth's maw. The thing anticipated it and reacted accordingly, catching the object in its mouth before devouring it happily.
The Drifter smirked. "Moon: one. Sun: zero." He chuckled a little as he left the room.
"Got rid of –That BLaSteD tHinG– the artifact?"
"Yep." He said, popping the p.
"Good. I took a scan of our surroundings while you were busy. And the results are a bit… concerning."
He sighed. "Lay it on me, Ordis."
"First, the Railjack is nowhere to be found. The Orbiter must've been separated from the Railjack mid-jump. Even if it was cloaked, I should've received a weave connection by now unless Cy and the Railjack crew were purposefully cutting themselves off."
"So we're stranded in whatever far-off star system we're in until the Railjack finds us. How lovely." His face was in his hand. He wanted to scream, but he had already earlier.
"Well… Operator…" Ordis' objecting voice brought the Drifter out of his facepalm.
"There's a 'but' isn't there?"
"You see, Operator. We are in the Origin System… Sort of."
"M-Mr. Andersen, sir?"
"What is it?" The man in question stared at the holographic display showing the face of an unnerved scientist. The scientist's eyes briefly looked down, as if to read something on paper or on a tablet.
"I h-hope I'm not b-bothering you at a bad time." The scientist stuttered.
"No. You're fine. I can spare a few minutes before my next meeting."
"W–We received these odd readings fr-from our long-range sensors on the surface a few hours ago. We've been ana-analyzing the data and still can't make heads o-or tails of it. So we've decided to s-send you the report prematurely" A notification pops up at the corner or his screen showing the sent file.
With a few brief movements of the hand, the Deputy Chief brought up the sent report and skimmed it over. Some sort of radiation was detected originating from space. From what little was detected, it neither matched nor resembled any known kinds. Some particles were faster than light, yet some moved under the speed of sound. No obvious effects on living organisms. Etcetera... etcetera...
It was an unusual case. But it definitely wasn't Alva particles, which was both relieving and concerning.
Andersen looked back at the screen showing the scientist's nervous face. He didn't even need to read the document for a full minute to get the summary.
"Keep me updated on any future development or similar cases."
'Something is going on behind the scenes. And it's making its move now.'
The purple-haired lady continued sitting on her end of the table, excitedly typing away at her now-laptop tablet. Her fingers were moving with such speed and aggression that he was starting to think the keyboard would snap in half.
"Now what was that part about the Helmin-thingy again? The part where you stated it was an advanced bio-technological organism?"
The Drifter let out a deep sigh. It was going to be a looong day.
Greetings, this is my first fanfic on this site and was done mostly out of my imagination's desire to spill out into the real world. Greatly inspired by Warframe 'first contact' crossover fanfics like Discarded Blade, Renewed Purpose by TheLandMaster, Escaping the Grind by Kidnapped Sect Elder, and Phosphorescence of the Void by Useless Dopant. This fic was drafted the moment Nikke was released and I had access to the lore. By that time, I had already been playing Warframe for months and was attached. I then was dragged into Nikke by its worldbuilding and mix of happiness and tragedy and became loyal to both.
Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed reading my first work on this site!