A mighty glacier. Slow and steady smashes your face.

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The Cold

Europa, of all places. A frozen wasteland nominally owned by the Corpus. You have been sent in after intercepting communications from that merchant cult that they have discovered something very important. Naturally, the message they sent was also prevented from reaching its destination. No point in allowing the Corpus access to reinforcements, after all.

The dropships swoop down toward the entrance to the Corpus ice base. You and your company of elite soldiers descend and regroup while the ships climb back toward the fleet in space. This is a vital mission that you have been entrusted with. The level of communication implied that the greedy wastrels uncovered something of Orokin manufacture. Any technology from the oppressors must be recovered to strengthen the Grineer empire.

As for the Corpus, they are to be disposed of.


Your elation with the mission you've been tasked with has slowly bled off into apprehension. As proud as you are to have been given this assignment, you are not so proud as to ignore when things seem odd. The oddity in question is the near total absence of any Corpus. Only a dead crewman here or there.

You pause for a moment to confer with your lieutenant. This outpost had a large garrison of men, according to the intelligence report. And your arrival should have tripped some proximity alarms. By all rights, you should have been wading through firefights in the enclosed icy corridors.

But there has been nothing. Unease is settling in. Even your men feel it, that something is wrong with this situation.

Tamping down on the adverse feelings, you bark orders to continue forward.

The tunnels go on for a while. And it takes time for your unit to proceed. The heat sink effect of your armor is beginning to wear off, and now you're feeling the first touches of the cold from Europa. You grimace slightly. Better hurry things up, or at least find the environmental controls for the tunnels.

Abruptly, a forward squad calls out contact. The rest of your unit flick off the safeties of your weapons in preparation. But there is no gunfire. You are called forward, and you are met with a peculiar sight.

The figure looks like an ice statue, shaped like a Corpus crewman, with the unmistakable boxy helmet and a Flux rifle clutched in one hand. The crewman's arms are held up like he's attempting to ward off something. You take your Sheev and experimentally swing at the figure's left wrist. It separates with ease, revealing completely frozen tissue.

The man was flash frozen. Somehow, even in spite of his protective gear, this man was completely frozen in an instant.

You blink, and share an incredulous look with your lieutenant. What in the world did the Corpus discover?

There is an abrupt chill, even through your armor, and a wave of energy sweeps over the scout squad. Half of a second later, the energy forms enormous ice crystals that stab and pierce clean through ferrite armor plate. You are stunned by the sudden attack.

The ice sublimates into mist astonishingly quickly, but the men who were skewered do not drop when released. They crumble to pieces, trace amounts of blood leaking from flash-frozen wounds.

Your lieutenant was looking in another direction while you were distracted. "Tenno Skoo-" something smashes into him, sending him flying into your view. He slides on his back against the icy tunnel floor for a couple meters before attempting to get to his feet.

His attempt is cut off as his body freezes in place, one hand supporting his body on the ice while the other is outstretched, reaching out almost like a final plea for help.

You spin around, already knowing what it is.

A Tenno. Those damned mongrels uncovered a Tenno, and some fool woke it up.

It is covered in white, with what looks almost like cage bars on the crown of its head. And its armor makes it appear to be dressed in a large thick white overcoat. Clenched in its right hand is what appears to be a metal torch handle and basket, with an enormous chunk of pure white ice.

You vaguely hear the footfalls of your company as you instinctively raise your Strun and open fire. The Tenno ignores your gunfire, shards of ice exploding from its body where your shots hit. Your men appear from around the corner, and they prepare to join you.

But the Tenno crosses its arms and then spreads them to the sides. The air itself freezes into sheets and panels of ice, forming a protective dome around the Tenno. The panels themselves appear to be suspended and held together by void energy.

And in the process of forming the dome, you are flung away into the front ranks of your company.

You scramble to your feet, and join your men in unleashing a fusillade of gunfire that smashes against the dome. But this ice is inexplicably much tougher than normal. Some eager soldiers rush forward to push into the dome and attack the Tenno, but they are slowed down by a vortex of cold air swirling inside. The shock of the sudden cold gives the Tenno enough time to swat them aside with its icy mace with a single swing.

Then the Tenno raises a hand, and the same icy vortex inside the dome explodes outward. Ambient water vapor flash freezes while being pushed forward, forming a massive blizzard wave that coats everything and everyone it approaches. Instinctively, you and your men cease firing and raise your arms in a futile attempt to ward off the impromptu storm from your faces, as your flesh freezes up beneath your armor.

You find yourself trapped in the same pose as that one unfortunate Corpus crewman, and now the Tenno slowly marches forward. You desperately try to move your body, but you feel nothing. Your nerves are deadened from the ice wave. You are literally frozen still, unable to move or speak, as the Tenno slowly closes on you.

Mercifully, there is no pain when the mace shatters your body.

Nyx, the Mistress of the Mind is next. Then, it's a choice between Saryn and Banshee.