It's been a while. I'd drifted away from the game because it's become so stale.

The Feral

The Corpus are not typically in the business of dealing with animals, humans notwithstanding. This might appear to be counterintuitive. Living things require sustenance and care, far more so than any of the robotic proxies marketed as labor solutions. And these requirements would indicate greater opportunities for profit.

However, living things are often far less durable than the likes of even a MOA. For how flimsy that particular brand of construct is, it is still a machine constructed of materials far more dense and sturdy than human flesh and bone. And it can be produced far faster and with much less care than any animal on the part of the seller.

There are two exceptions to the rule of biological fragility. The first is the Infested. Those mutated monstrosities have been known to incorporate ship hull plating into their anatomy. Many of those creatures are sufficiently strong enough to tear apart Bursas on their own, though often at a casualty ratio in the double digits.

And then there are the Tenno. There is, surprisingly enough, a robust market for captured or dismembered Infested specimens. And a similar one for the body parts of deceased Tenno. But the market for live whole Tenno is vanishingly small, due in no small part to the retaliation that the rest of their kind visit on those foolish enough to partake.

Leave it to Alad V to tweak their collective noses, capture and FLAY one of their number as part of his research. And since you are one of those unfortunate enough to have volunteered as one of his assistants, it is no surprise that they have come for you today.


The insane head of Corpus Research and Diplomacy had offered you one of his refuges as shelter to protect you from retribution, staffed with enormous numbers of robotic proxies. Less experienced people might have been reassured by this. Most Corpus have never experienced being up close and personal with one of those Orokin Void warriors and lived to tell about it. But you HAVE. You saw the record of that one Tenno wielding a whip and generating a corrosive miasma effortlessly pass through numerous security measures and melt the entire response team. Literally.

In all likelihood, you are being sacrificed as a lab rat while Alad V collects reams of combat data from the ensuing carnage. Of course, it's not like you have any choice. The security team outnumbers you by two orders of magnitude, and the scientist holds your labor contract. Even if by some miracle you managed to escape, you'd be hunted down by both Debt Recovery teams AND the Tenno.

You sit in your..."cell," with a video feed of the entire facility, waiting for the inevitable, when the alarm goes off and one of the cameras enlarges to show a breach.

The door is made of a very robust composite material, and yet it lies in pieces as though some very large and very angry creature "clawed" through it.

Your blood runs cold as another feed shows a very familiar silhouette fly past, pulled by a rapidly retracting zip line. It is the same Tenno you aided the scientist in vivisecting.

The first three squads of security barely have any chance to respond. The enemy lunges at them like a beast unchained. Glowing claws of void energy extend from its fingers as it savagely tears through its victims. Flesh and armor, steel and sinew, it makes no difference. They die all the same.

More units arrive and unleash a hellish fusillade of gunfire. This does little more than draw the attention of the bestial Tenno, even though you can clearly see the energy burns on its raw dermis. Distantly, you wonder if the process of skinning the Tenno has desensitized it to pain.

It screams in fury, a sound that even stuns you through the distant audio feed. A zipline lashes out from its wrist, sticking to the ground in the center of the security element. And the camera swivels to track it, only to reacquire it in the midst of a whirlwind of blood and metal flying in every direction.

Some of that blood belongs to the Tenno itself. It oozes and squirts from raw muscle that is burned, scorched and battered by Corpus weaponry. But the blood has begun to form a cloud, and it shrouds the Tenno in a protective embrace. The cloud even begins to deflect or absorb the slackening gunfire as the rest of the security team literally fall to pieces before this living embodiment of rage.

The remaining technicians guarding you take up positions at the end of the main corridor, with the captain hefting his Amphis staff. Fool, you think detachedly. The only thing that might save them all is heavy sustained gunfire. Facing a Tenno in melee range is utter suicide, let alone one that specializes in melee combat and is in a massive blood rage.

The door at the far end is shredded and a bloody blur streaks down the hall at breakneck speed. Through your cell door, you observe as the Tenno simply ignores getting smashed in the face by an electrified staff, disemboweling the captain as it flies past.

The dense hail of fire reaches out, but the Tenno bounces from side to side in the narrow shaft before pouncing on the lead gunner. The man is pasted by the body blow, and the Tenno rises up and screams again.

The previous time did not do it justice. That was a mechanical conveyance of sound through a processor. This scream is pain and rage in pure audible form. It pierces through your cell door and obliterates any instinct you have to resist. As you stagger away from the door, it shudders while short cries of pain faintly penetrate from the other side. Finally, as you regain your composure, this final barrier collapses with a tortured screech of metal.

And now there is nothing between you and your erstwhile victim. Bone protrudes from several wounds, covered by bleeding muscle and fragments of epidermis. Blood drips from burned and cracked tissue as the Tenno takes slow steps forward.

You grunt in agony as it shoves a clawed hand up into your ribcage, and lifts your face up to its level. Even if your diaphragm hadn't been torn apart by this, you wouldn't have wasted your breath begging for your life.

Some debts can only be paid in blood.

Up next, Oberon the Satyr.