You know what snipers say: run fast, die tired.
The Hunter
Old orokin ruins are home to ancient treasures, lost technology, hoards of resources…and the weapons that guard them all. Neural sentries, energy traps, enslaved thralls, feral kavats, active turrets, and the accursed infested all take residence in such places, and all of them make life miserable for you.
The Queens have ordered your unit to seize the newest of the ruins for the glory of the Grineer Empire, and they are not ones to countenance failure.
But failure is all that you have experienced thus far. Right from the start, once your dropship approached, an energy beam speared the ship engines, causing it to crash land on the surface of the ruins. Oddly, the damage indicates that it came from above, meaning that something undetected by your force is probably waiting in orbit.
Crashing in enemy territory under distinctly unfriendly air cover is a poor start to any mission. So is having your communications severed as if you just stepped into a Faraday cage.
No transport, no way of contacting the rest of the unit in space, and no idea as to the kind of enemy resistance that awaits you, these three factors promised a very difficult ordeal in store for you.
And what an ordeal it turned out to be, you grimly reflect to yourself as you scramble through the ruins in a near-panic.
Your company leadership bit the dust when a rolling…ball of some sort came from out of nowhere and leapt at the commander, magnetizing itself to his chest. Before anyone could help the captain remove the robotic thing, there was a loud report of a sniper rifle, and the ball exploded in an instantaneous burst of electricity. The amperage was immense enough to flash fry the command element instantly. At least those lucky bastards died immediately.
You had taken the lead, ordering the rest of the unit to fan out and find cover. Strangely enough, there was no additional fire. You cautiously moved ahead into the ruins, with the entire company on tenterhooks, looking out for more of those strange balls, lest you fall prey to them again.
Something clattered in the midst of your left flanking element, and you look over just in time to see a familiar column of light come down from the sky and obliterate that unfortunate squad of grineer. The following concussive wave stunned your unit with tinnitus, and left you unable to detect the two flechette orb mines that sprang up until five of those projectiles speared you in the right leg.
The other surviving company sergeant, and your opposite number, uncharacteristically staggered as if struck from behind, and turned to run for better cover, only to slip and be abruptly launched off the cliff. Before he vanished, something lashed out of his back, and pulled five more members of the company to him, sending them all screaming to their deaths as they were dragged over the edge.
Desperate to get out of the danger zone, you threw yourself behind a crumbled wall as your men struggled to address the threat in a very disorganized fashion. You had hastily applied first aid to your leg, and had been about to issue orders to get the situation under control when you found yourself suspended helplessly in the air.
For a moment, you saw the reason. A very large glowing orb hung two meters above the ground, emitting a field that held the rest of your ravaged unit in place. Then the orb pulsed, and you found yourself flying away from them, ejected from the group. When you finally regained your bearings, it was just in time to see the ball pulse once more before what was left of your company was sucked toward it. And then that damned beam of light fell from the sky once more.
Screw this! You turned and ran. And you ran for more than an hour, sustained purely on adrenalin, combat stimulants, and sheer terror. Looking back, it was quite an impressive feat for a crippled degenerated cloned soldier.
There has not been a single sign of the enemy, but you did not dare to slow down. However, even your bolstered endurance has limits. And now that you have had to stop from exhaustion, you remember that you have no way out of these ruins, and no reinforcements are coming to save you.
Then another of those damned balls appears. It slams into your injured leg. Utterly spent, you have no way to maintain your balance, and you spin around before collapsing on the ground. The ball then magnetizes itself to your chest, and begins to pulse with electricity, thoroughly incapacitating your nervous system.
Meanwhile, you hear thunderous footsteps, and you strain your neck to look past your forehead.
A Tenno. Of course it's a Tenno. This one gazes coldly at you with blue lights for eyes on its blocky gold-trimmed helmet. A large machete hangs from its waist, and the twin arms of a sentient conculyst are strapped to its back as a trophy. It wields a massive rifle, with the barrel extending almost down to its feet.
The Tenno chuckles wordlessly, a deep throaty rumble as it casually aims the rifle at your helpless prone form.
But at this point, you're too tired to care.
Sorry it took so long to do this. Next up, Nova, then Nekros.
