And here's another one for you.
The Undead
Serving the Queens is the duty of all Grineer. Well, all except those clones with defective loyalty genes. General Sargus Ruk, of all Grineer leaders, suffers such defects poorest. Whether it is the merest idea of NOT catering to the Queens every whims, or the fact that one of his most trusted lieutenants and proteges walked away from the Grineer Empire to form Steel Meridian is more offensive to him, no one knows. And given his tendency to lash out if the subject is broached, no one is eager to find out.
One would think that with such tremendous numbers, the Grineer would not notice defections such as those of the Kavor. And with most commanders, one would be correct. It is solely the forces of General Ruk who take issue and actively pursue them. And time and time again, it is Steel Meridian who stands in their way.
To engage with Cressa Tal's cohorts is no simple task. They were also Grineer. They are intimately familiar with the tactics employed. And they are all seasoned veterans. While Grineer are raised from the vats with combat skills genetically hard coded into their memories, there is no substitute for experience.
Today is a bit special. One of Tal's most trusted comrades has taken the field against you and your regiment. Not being one to let this opportunity slip by, you yourself are leading a Nightwatch corps to raid the crippled Kavor ship and capture the priority target. Surely, there is much intelligence that can be obtained on the network of sleepers and Steel Meridian sympathizers that infest the ranks of the Grineer Empire.
Your nostrils curl in disgust as the squelching of infested biomatter beneath your boots echoes within the hulk of the ship. Of course, those desperate deserters would run to infested territory. That mindless morass of a bioweapon the Oppressors lost control of is one of the few forces in the system capable of stopping Grineer expansion in its tracks. Such a venture is a gamble, one that the Kavor lost, given how they are scrambling to try and evacuate the ship while Steel Meridian covers their escape.
Ordinarily, the general's orders would consist of wanton destruction. No one under his command shall suffer a defective pacifist to live. But with the priority target in sight, the Kavor have become secondary. You give the order to surge forward with all possible haste. There is only a limited window to find the Steel Meridian commander.
Piles of infested corpses litter the halls and gantryways of what was once a Grineer light cruiser. Occasionally, there is a ferrite-armored body accompanying them. The infested bodies are already decaying and liquefying, being resubsumed to be recycled. Most of the latter bodies, unfortunately, are of Imperial affiliation. The hope that Steel Meridian would be expending itself appears to be well and truly dashed.
Well, that is why a full corps of Nightwatch was deployed.
Then it changes. Suddenly there is an absence of corpses laying around. Your armor's scanners can detect clear traces, mostly of the body fluids splattered on the ground, and long traces showing signs of bodies being dragged. Shell casings litter the floor, and there is a profusion of scorching and pock marks on the walls. Clearly, there was a massive firefight here.
But where are the bodies?
Your instincts scream at you, and you order the troops behind you to take things slow and careful. Now the hulk takes on an eerie atmosphere. No gunfire, no infested screeching, not a sound except for the slight dull ringing of boots on the deck as your forces make their advance to the engineering center.
A shape flits between shadows. Two Nightwatch soldiers open fire, and the body drops in front of them. You see that it is not a Steel Meridian defector. This is a Grineer regular.
A Grineer regular with two gaping holes in his abdominal cavity.
Those wounds are not fresh. You can see the new wounds, but there is precious little blood. The blood that is visible is blackened, thick and coagulated.
More importantly, this Grineer did not show up on the bioscanners.
The motion sensor indicator in your helmet suddenly goes haywire. Ambush! Gunfire tears through the open space as your men scramble into cover. A few lob incendiary grenades, which explode and serve to illuminate the combat area.
Some of these shapes are Steel Meridian. Their repainted armor stands in stark contrast to the Empire's soldiers. But you spot some regulars as well. What madness is this?! Fresh defectors?
No, you realize. They aren't defectors. They are already dead. And yet, these dead bodies are hefting weapons as best as they can, some with only a single arm, and are shooting at you in conjunction with Cressa Tal's men.
And then more shapes converge, and your motion sensor becomes uselessly cluttered. More bodies are coming. Your breath freezes in your throat when you realize that these latecomers are infested.
They are even more decrepit than before, some struggling with severe wounds, slower and less agile than their kind normally are. But they are coming, nevertheless. And incredibly, they ignore the line of Steel Meridian soldiers and only target your Nightwatch corps.
Retreat is in order. You must fall back to a more defensible choke point. Your men already realized their situation, and so they are moving well before you even gave the order. Only this saves some of you from being overrun by these dead monstrosities.
Now, your numbers are cut down to a quarter of what they were. As you take the opportunity to reorganize and plan a new advance, you ponder the impossibility of what just happened. Dead infested and Grineer working together? What dark sorcery is this? And more importantly, just how are you supposed to fight that?
This sort of phenomenon is not something the defectors are capable of producing. Now that you calm down somewhat, there is only one possibility. A horrific possibility. There is a Tenno here as well.
A sudden rush of sheer terror grips you just as a new and unfamiliar shape swirls into existence. It is head and shoulders taller than any Grineer. It has long, black trailing streamers around its hands.
And one of those hands is directly facing you, right before a wave of energy slams into your body.
All strength leaves your body and you collapse backward. Dimly, you are aware of the total breakdown in discipline of what was once a Nightwatch corps. The quadruple barrels of a Hek shotgun appear above your chest, with the grip firmly in the hands of one recently deceased comrade. A murderously powerful punch obliterates your lungs, and your vision whites out from sheer pain and shock.
When it returns, it is dim and fading. You realize that you are back on your feet, moving without breath, shambling forward with a Quartakk clenched across the crater that was your chest cavity, following behind the tenno that casually resurrects more and more of your erstwhile subordinates from death. And then, it turns to gaze at you, and a wave of void energy wafts from its eye slits into your dying consciousness.
Your final thought is despair. For now, you too have defected from the Queens.
Up next, Valkyr gets her revenge.
