I forgot that there was a slight time jump between this and the previous chapter. It's not terrible, so should be reasonably continuous. Written by my friend.
"And this is our galley! Where you may come to find nourishment!"
Stock looked around, the place was pretty empty. A few tenno just looked up at him and then went back to their own business. Thoth was giving Stock a tour of the areas he was allowed to go to. So far it consisted of hallway after hallway, a galley which was basically a mess hall, a bathroom, and a gym of sorts. It was honestly depressing, metal walls after metal walls with the occasional banner hung over a door way that bore Anya's clan symbol.
The center piece of the symbol featured an unknown tenno sitting on a throne atop a pile of bodies with a war hammer clutched in one hand and a cracked grineer skull in the other. Thoth explained that the throne over bodies was supposed to represent the clan's standing over those who oppose them. The hammer represented the judgment they were entitled to pass on their contracts, and if needed, to use it as a weapon. The unknown tenno and the skull was meant to represent all the tenno in the clan past, present, and future who had proven themselves in battle against the grinner and who had proven their loyalty by giving no quarter. All in all it was impressive. A little scary, but impressive. After that explanation Stock felt less of a need to act out.
"Hey, Thoth, what around here is edible?" Stock asked, looking around. The counter tops were full of various fruits that he could not identify and several multicolored boxes and bags. "I'm hungry but I'd just like something simple."
"Hmm. Many of these food items are compatible with your digestive system, but I know these bags here are popular among tenno who wish to gain quick energy with very little effort."
Thoth hovered over several silver metallic bags. Stock chose one at random then grabbed Thoth and pulled the sentinel out of the galley behind him. "Hey what was that for?" Thoth asked.
"We were being eyed and I don't want to start any trouble, I already have a target painted on my back. Anywhere quiet I can relax and eat… whatever this is?" Stock asked as he opened up the bag.
"Ah, of course! We shall head to the gardens."
Thoth floated down the hallway to an elevator. Stock followed him and upon stepping onto the elevator he saw it stretched for what looked like forever upward. This ship must be bigger then he thought. The elevator lurched then sank down the shaft at a rapid pace until it finally arrived at a hallway with a single door at the end. The door had a simple symbol of a tree imprinted on it in green paint. It reminded him of the symbol of the great world tree of ancient legends.
The door parted and the room that greeted him took his breath away. Inside was a lush field that was split into three sections by a river. On the far section stood a red maple tree where a man in white robes sat meditating under it, the grass seeming to frost over around him. To the left was another person, a small boy stacking round rocks. And to the right stood another tree in front of window that shared a glimpse of the ever expanding space. Stock walked up to the window, completely forgetting everything else around him. Jupiter's colossal red eye greeted him.
"Pretty, isn't it?" a voice chimed from the tree above him.
Stock looked around before finally looking up to see a young girl sitting on a tree branch reading from a tablet. She wore the typical body suit that Stock had noticed most tenno wore when they were not operating their warframes. But it wasn't her suit that told him she was a tenno; it was her eyes. She had bright pink irises and brown hair.
She stood, balancing on the branch for a few seconds, then flipped off of it to land on her feet by his side. "Impressive." Stock mused.
The tenno smiled and bowed, "Why thank you, I try. Oh and by the way I vouched for you with Reya, not many people would run into a wall of bullets to save a tenno. So now you are one more person closer to removing that sword hanging over your head."
Stock gave her a confused look.
"Oh I'm sorry, where are my manners, my name is Tess," she said, then turned to face the kid stacking stones on the far side of the garden.
She held her hand out in front of her then slammed her hand shut like she was smashing a fruit. Next she jerked her arm back causing the stones the boy was stacking to come flying toward where she and Stock were standing, although the stones lost enough momentum to only fly a few feet away from the younger tenno. The kid cried out in surprise and then shouted something unintelligible across the room.
"You're the mag who was with us the other day on the mission!" Stock exclaimed.
"Guilty as charged," Tess giggled.
"Tess! Why must you torment Jaden?" the man who had been meditating under the tree asked as he stood and approached them. Stock recognized his voice immediately. This was Boreas out of his armor. Even in robes Boreas stood an imposing figure. He had short cropped black hair that was graying at the temples and a tan muscular build that told Stock he was strong enough to snap anyone's neck without difficulty, but was also gentle enough to cradle a bird's egg without it cracking in a fight.
"Oh come on Boreas, it was just a joke," the mag protested.
"I don't care, this is an important part of his studies, he has made it this far on his own and doesn't need someone ruining them," Boreas told her, "Do you remember when you were at this point in your studies? You didn't like anyone messing with your cairns, so why must you ruin Jaden's? Now go over there and help him pick them up. I must speak with Sergeant Woodstock in private."
Tess huffed and skulked off to help the other tenno pick up the scattered rocks. When she was a good distance away Boreas finally spoke up, "She has so much potential but can act like such a child at times. Sometimes it's both a blessing and a curse being her mentor."
Stock watched Tess and the tenno named Jaden argue and flail their arms around in apparent exasperation. "Is she one from the new generations of tenno?" Stock wanted to know.
"Are you asking if she was born to tenno parents?" Boreas asked. Stock nodded. "No. Believe it or not she was actually on the Zariman with the rest of us" Boreas answered, "The only difference is, she was in cryo during the events after. She was never experimented on, she was never tortured, she never went to war with us. She was among the few tenno who were kept in reserve as backups incase a tenno was lost during experiments. Her earliest memory is of her parents reassuring her and telling her that they would see her once they reached the Zariman's destination. Then we skip ahead a few thousand years to us finding her. She was so scared when we opened her pod because she had never seen a warframe before and to her, we were what we have always been told we are, monsters. It was actually Reya who calmed her down by taking off her helmet and showing Tess we were nothing to fear."
"That must have been a hell of a shock for her," Stock mused, remembering the first time he saw Anya standing on the landing craft in front of him. She had looked like some mythical beast hell bent on death and destruction.
"It was hard for her to come to terms with the fact that everyone she knew was no longer alive and that she herself was no longer human. To be honest I thought she wouldn't make it. But she did, she pulled through and dedicated herself. I'm not sure what helps her cope but I'm glad that she has it," Boreas said.
"How are you feeling?" Stock asked, changing the subject. Tess was almost finished helping the other tenno stack the stones. He could tell by their body language they were still arguing, this time on how to properly stack them.
"Sore, but I'll live, my frame stopped most of the bullets. A few managed to make it in, but thanks to modern medicine and extensive meditation, I'm almost completely healed," the frost said, "I won't be able to go on this upcoming mission but I can still make my way around the ship. Speaking of which, you, Tess, and I need to get going for the mission briefing."
Boreas went and got Tess who was still arguing with Jaden about how to properly stack the stones. From what Stock could tell, Jaden wanted to stack some of the smaller ones first and the bigger ones last while Tess argued that it was easier to stack biggest first and smallest last.
"Gah! He's so bull headed! I try to explain something and all he does is argue!" Tess exclaimed while they walked to the elevator.
"That reminds me of someone else I know," Boreas said looking down at her with an amused smile.
"Hey don't look at me! I take advice into consideration, he doesn't!" Tess huffed and then fell silent as the elevator passed the final few decks. When the doors to the elevator slid open a revolting sight greeted Stock and the two tenno. Standing in front of them was Ira. It didn't take a genius to deduce the loki's stance either. He was clearly still upset that Stock was allowed to continue to draw breath.
"Boreas, I was instructed by Reya to inform you to meet in the briefing room and to detain the marine for further questioning," Ira stated.
"Yeah, that's not going to happen, because you see, I also have orders from Reya herself to bring Stock with me to the briefing room," Boreas replied, crossing his arms. Stock could feel the tension. He knew Boreas and Ira had some kind of history, he just wasn't sure what. He glanced at Tess to see what she thought of the situation but she was busy glaring daggers at Ira.
"These orders are coming directly from Reya! If you do not obey—"
"Remember who you're talking to, Ira!" Boreas thundered, "I am the executive officer of this ship, you are the operations officer; I outrank you. Do you honestly think Reya would give me one set of orders only to go back on them without contacting me directly?! Do not ever raise your voice to me again!"
Ira was silent for a long moment as he clutched his sword hilt, his whole arm shaking as he tried to contain his rage. "Very well," Ira finally growled, then he glared at Stock, "One day, marine, you won't have your guard dogs here to protect you, and you will meet the same fate as the rest of your kind."
Boreas was about to speak up but Stock beat him to it. "You sure do make a lot of noise for someone who says nothing."
Ira took a step closer, clearly not at all pleased, "You dare mock me, marine? Remember: you are a sheep among wolves, and your time will come."
Stock smirked, knowing that at this moment Ira could do nothing but shake and growl like an angry wet kubrow. "I'd love to mock you, but I'm afraid I would not do as well as nature did."
Stock heard Tess snort and wheeze as she tried and failed to hold back her laughter.
"Enough of this," Boreas interrupted, "Ira, move along and I will forget your transgressions. Continue to stand in my way however and we will have problems." Boreas had positioned himself directly between Stock and Ira, and was currently staring the loki down. Ira quickly turned on his heel and stormed off without another word. When Ira was out of earshot Stock asked Boreas, "So what exactly is his problem? Why is he so hell-bent on killing me?"
Boreas sighed and continued to walk while Tess and Stock jogged to keep up with him. "It's a mixture of things," the frost explained, "He hates everything Orokin and what they represent, especially the marines for obvious reasons, oppression and enslavement and what not. Also, you have something he wants."
Stock was quiet for a few moments, trying to figure out what that something was. "I haven't the faintest idea what that could be," Stock said, "The only things I own are the clothes on my back and a beat up tomahawk in my locker, and I highly doubt he wants any of that."
"What's that around your neck? What he wants is directly connected to that necklace," Boreas suggested.
"He wants Anya's medallion?" Stock questioned. He instinctively clutched it. It was the only thing he had of her. Until he had her again he wasn't going to part with it.
"No, not that. Think higher, Connor, what does that necklace represent?"
Stock was at a loss for words.
"You have the love of a beautiful maiden," Tess teased in a sing song voice as she skipped ahead.
"Is that really it? Is that why he hates me so much to the point where he's sworn to kill me the first chance he gets? He's jealous?" Stock wasn't sure what to think.
"Jealousy is a powerful motive, never forget that. Now let's get to this briefing." They made the rest of the walk to the briefing room in silence.
"After running a preliminary scan of Uranus all we found were a few ancient Orokin structures, and this," Reya swiped her hand over the holographic table. Above the tabled appeared a miniature drop ship, much like the ones they had in their hanger, but instead of the pristine lines it was warped from an impact and covered in Uranus' white coral. Stock was in a briefing room with Tess and Boreas, along with a few other tenno and non-tenno crew members.
"This is the most logical location of the next clue, due to the coral bed surrounding the craft. The plan is simple enough, we will orbit Uranus, I will take Talos, Ira, and Estin with me down to check out the ship while the rest of you will await our return. If we encounter trouble, Boreas, you have command. Try to avoid a fight if you can, our cover will be that we are a corpus freighter which has encountered engine trouble. We depart in 20 minutes so get ready and let's go."
Everyone else moved to leave the room to prepare for the mission ahead. Stock got up and approached Reya.
"Why can't I go down there too?" he asked.
"Do you have a pressurized suit that is rated to survive at those temperatures and pressure? Let alone the radiation down there?" Reya questioned in return.
"I just thought I'd—"
"You thought you'd what? Use a warframe? Yeah that's not happening," she informed him, "It's not like we have spare frames just lying around. And even if we did you'd literally kill yourself. The suits run off our own energy, so if you didn't die from it draining your life force just to run, you would kill yourself by breathing due to it being fine tuned to every motor function and multiplying it."
Stock stood there in silence, contemplating on arguing more even though he knew she was right, then decided against it. "So what do you want me to do then?" he asked instead.
"Absolutely nothing," Reya told him, "You will be here on the ship. You are welcome to join Boreas on the bridge for the duration of this mission. Or you can go back to your rack and get some more sleep. Frankly I don't care what you do. Just don't break my ship."
"Aye-aye, captain," Stock gave a half-assed salute and walked out of the briefing room.
"We're beginning our decent. Keep an eye out for any grineer scouts," Reya said over the comm. unit.
Stock was on the bridge with Boreas and Tess watching 4 holographic view screens that displayed each tenno's view. The tenno where rigged up to what looked like jet engines which Stock later learned were called "arch wings," developed during the tenno uprising.
"What do we know about this drop ship, Reya?" asked Estin.
Estin was another Excalibur class tenno like Talos, but unlike Talos he was much more talkative. Tess mentioned him being fairly new to the clan, having previously come from another clan.
"It's an old mantis class drop ship that was registered to the Seawolf clan," Reya explained, "It was reported to be shot down and missing during an operation our Anya was part of during the war with the Orokin. So it makes sense that our next clue is here. It's amazing that she managed to find it at all really, given that it's this deep in the ocean."
"Should we notify the Seawolves of the location of their downed ship when we get back so they may give those piloting it proper burials?" asked Ira.
"We'll do that once we return but the most they will probably do is either try to recover it or make it into a monument to remember the ones they lost on that mission," Reya told him, "Fortunately we shouldn't encounter any corpses because it was on remote pilot when it went down. Approaching the drop ship's rear hatch. Looks like it's been cut open and resealed at some point. Be on guard, this could be a trap. Talos, cut open the hatch."
"How long do you think this will take?" Stock asked anxiously. He didn't like being in grineer territory any more than anyone else did. He watched Talos' screen as the Excalibur made several slices, cutting the hatch from the craft.
"If all goes well? No more than 15 minutes, they will be in, get whatever is in there, get out, and rendezvous with the drop ship," Boreas told him, "That's if all goes well."
"We're in. Ira, keep watch while we search," Reya said as Stock watched her move into the craft. There was a pocket of air inside and the tenno were able to detach the arch wings and stand as they emerged inside the craft, rifles raised. The interior of the craft was dark, illuminated only by beams of light emitting from the tenno.
"Jack! We are being hailed by a grineer vessel, they are demanding to know what we are doing in orbit around their planet." Stock looked over to a bridge member who was frantically pressing holographic buttons on a panel.
"Tell them we are having engine trouble and only wish to remain in orbit for a bit longer to fix our problem and then we will leave their territory," Boreas instructed.
"Transmitting," the crew member said, then he turned to look at Boreas, "They've demanded we yield to an inspection, and are saying any attempts to resist will be met with hostile force."
"Boreas, what's going on up there?" Reya demanded as she tore the drop ship apart.
"They're hailing us again and demanding that we yield to a search," Boreas informed her.
"That's not going to happen. You know what to do," Reya growled, then exclaimed, "Found it!" On her view screen Stock watched her hold up a wooden box.
"We've got trouble! We've been located by grineer scouts!" Ira shouted into the comm.
"Jack! The grineer have launched boarding craft!" the communications tech hollered.
"Launch the drop ship! Spin up our point defenses!," Boreas ordered, "Give them warning that if they continue on their current course they will in return be met with more hostile force. They have no authority to board and search our ship!"
Stock glanced at Boreas, he was a bit more pale than before, glancing between the 4 view screens of the tenno engaging the scouting party and a view of the grineer ship that had just launched several dots of light.
"No response! They are continuing on their path!" the communications tech said while the weapons operator frantically scrambled to get the point defenses up and running.
"Jam their communications when they are in range of our point defenses!" Boreas barked.
Stock watched the lights get closer and closer.
"Fire up the engines, and move at flank speed to starboard! Launch three salvos from our main cannon at their exposed broad side on my mark!" Boreas commanded.
Stock knew from his time in the military that port was left and starboard was right when facing the "bow" or front of the ship.
"Boarding craft in range! Deploying point defense!" the weapons operator said.
Stock watched as several streams of light flew from the ship, destroying any boarding craft unlucky enough to be hit.
"Fire main cannon!" Boreas ordered.
Stock felt the ship tremble as three balls of light launched from the ship's cannon and impacted on the grineer vessel.
"Direct hit!" the weapons operator said.
"They're launching a return salvo," the comm. operator warned, "Brace for impact!" Tess grabbed onto Stock and then grabbed onto the bridge railing as several impacts sounded throughout the ship.
"We have multiple hull breaches throughout the ship! Deploying damage control teams!" the weapons operator shouted.
"Jack! Some of the grineer drop shuttles made it through our point defenses and the grineer have boarded, we have reports that they are making their way to the engine rooms," the comm. operator said, "If they disable our engines we are done for!"
"Boreas, we are unable to reach the primary landing zone! These scouts called in for reinforcements! Deploy the drop ship to the secondary landing zone!" Reya ordered, then she shouted, "Estin no!" Stock looked over at Estin's view screen just in time to see it go dead.
"We lost Estin! Get us that god damned drop ship, Boreas!" Ira roared.
Stock looked at Boreas. He had frozen staring at Estin's view screen. Everything was going to shit if he didn't do something, Stock decided.
"Hey! Boreas, snap out of it!" Stock hollered, "Your crew needs you. You've got boarding parties headed for the engine room, Reya needs help, and you need to keep this ship intact! Send Tess and me to support the engine room's defense team!"
Boreas glanced at Stock, then blinked as if really seeing him for the first time. "I can't," the frost said, his voice faint, "Reya gave orders to keep you alive. I'm deploying reinforcements down there now."
"Well if the grineer take that engine room there won't be any point in keeping any of us alive. We'll all be dead. Send Tess and me, they will need all the fire power they can get," Stock said calmly. He heard Tess offer a brief protest but waved it off.
"Alright, go," Boreas gave in, "Meet with the repelling team, and watch your ass down there! Reya will kill me if you die. As for the rest of you, stand by to fire another salvo and prepare for planet side kinetic bombardment! Reya needs to get to the backup landing zone!"
Stock was about to leave before Boreas called out to him and tossed him a Lex pistol. Stock caught it, then he and Tess made their way down to the engine rooms. By time they got there the fire fight was well underway, with the Harbinger crew being pushed too far back into the room. Dead bodies, both grineer and the Harbinger's own crew littered the hall way. Stock raised his pistol as he and Tess rounded the corner into the engine room. They were met with a force of about twenty grineer spread throughout the engine room firing at a cluster of tenno and non-tenno crew members huddled in a small utility room returning fire. Stock took aim at the closest grineer trooper's head and squeezed the trigger. The pistol barked and the trooper crumbled to the floor leaking from his helmet. Tess moved to his right and opened up with a bolter set to full auto cutting down the grineer in front of her. Stock took aim at another trooper and squeezed the trigger, then another. He repeated the process, supporting Tess, until the engine room as clear.
"Killing these guys is like shooting fish in a barrel," Stock said to Tess as they entered the room while the defenders emerged from their hole.
"Yeah, grineer aren't that bright," she replied, "It kind of doesn't help that their armor is bulky and useless. Whats the status on the engine room, Chief Engineer?"
A corpus crew member walked forward and spoke to Tess, his voice sounding almost robotic to Stock. "If you two hadn't arrived when you did they would have surely taken the engine room," the chief engineer told her.
"We cannot let them push so far in here a second time," another tenno said to her as he approached, "We are short on energy so our skills are limited, and we don't have a whole lot of room for cover without taking cover behind critical equipment, some of which is already damaged."
Stock looked around. Mainly at the bodies that were scattered about the place. "Stack them," he said.
"What? Why should we touch these diseased creatures?" the tenno asked finally.
"Stack them up," Stock repeated, "Use them as cover. They see you guys as monsters already, prove them right. Wage a bit of psychological warfare on them, use the bodies of their dead for cover. Send a small team to hold them off in the hallway while we get ready." Stock gestured to a fallen grineer trooper who was missing half his head from one of Stock's shots.
The tenno stared at him for several seconds, and then said, "I'll grab its legs. You heard him everyone, stack the bodies in front of critical equipment."
Stock and the tenno, along with any crew members who could be spared, began stacking up the bodies. This didn't take very long, no more than ten minutes, but all the while they could hear the fire fight in the hallway drawing closer. Stock checked the grineer weapon he had picked up which a crew member had told him was called a grakata. It was an oddly shaped weapon, the magazine was located in a ball of spikes at the bottom of the handle. He cycled a few rounds to make sure it worked, then ejected the magazine a few times to make sure it would drop when the time came to change.
"Reya, Ira, and Talos made it to the drop ship but apparently it will be another ten minutes before they are back on board, I guess another grineer vessel showed up and they're having to fight their way through," Tess said as she began to modify her bolter. She was swapping out attachments, removing some completely and adding others.
"Well this is going to be a long ten minutes," Stock groaned, then he turned to the others and said, "Heads up, our defense force has just returned."
A team of four tenno sprinted around the corner into the engine room, one was clutching his side while another half-carried him, the other two covering the retreat. Tess and the other tenno who had stayed in the engine room helped the injured tenno behind the nearest cover, then she moved back to her original position. Moments later the grineer boarding party rushed into the room with their weapons raised. They stopped at the sight of their team mates bodies piled up and that pause gave the defenders all the time they needed. Stock heard the chief engineer call out an order and everyone still able leaned out and opened fire on the grineer. The battle seemed to drag on for ages. Eventually Stock ran out of ammunition for the grakata and reverted back to using his pistol again. Finally, after helping the rest of the defense team take down the grineer reinforcement party, an announcement came through the comm. "This is the bridge, drop ship is onboard, stand by for jump."
Stock grabbed onto a control station as he felt a moment of dizziness, the room seemed to stretch into a single point of light and then expanded back out again. Everything went calm. The engine room crew immediately began repairing the damaged equipment while Stock, Tess, and the other tenno went about picking up the bodies of their fallen comrades and enemies alike. They stacked the grineer on a cart to be blasted out the air lock while they laid their own in a corner and covered them with fireproof blankets.
"Stock, Reya wishes to speak to you in the hanger," Boreas called as he stuck his head into the engine room.
Stock helped Tess toss another grineer trooper onto the car and wiped his brow. "Did she say what about?" he asked.
"If I'd have to take a guess I'd say it's about whatever they found in that drop ship down there," the frost replied, "Now come on lets go. You too Tess."
Stock picked up the pistol from where he'd set it on a control console and tossed it back to Boreas who caught it and holstered it, then the three of them hurried to the hanger.
"All I'm saying is he lead us into another trap! When are you going to see having this marine on board is no good?! We lost Estin because of him! He told us to come here, and guess who was waiting for us, again? The grineer!"
The three of them could hear Ira shouting before they even got to the drop ship. Outside on the hanger deck lay a closed up bodybag waiting to be taken away. The fallen tenno, Stock thought.
"Ira, enough!" Reya barked, "Do not tell me how to run my ship. We all volunteered for this mission, Estin knew what was at stake. He came of his own willing, just like you did. Now shut up and write the post mission report."
When the three emerged onto the craft Stock saw Ira and Reya standing face to face, while Talos sat in the corner cleaning his fire arms from the water. When Ira saw Stock, he turned his back and pretended to be busy with the mission log.
"What did you find?" Stock asked Reya.
"Just this box and what's inside it, figured you might have an idea what it is," Reya said, tossing the box to him. Upon catching the box Stock immediately knew it was made of wood from his home planet. Mars. The wood was light red and would normally have been harsh and rough like the Martian plains, but this was polished smooth. Stock opened the box and picked up what was inside.
"What is it?" Tess asked him, peering at the object over his shoulder.
"It's my family crest. But something is off about it. It doesn't look right," Stock told her as he examined the piece. It wasn't the same crest he had given Anya, that one had been small enough to be worn as a pendant while this one was quite large. It was bigger around than his whole palm and twice as thick as his finger. It was molded from a reddish colored clay that he couldn't identify, possibly Martian, and was carefully painted in his house colors.
"See, I told you it was pointless and we went down there for nothing!" Ira snapped at Reya.
Reya, Boreas, and Ira proceeded to argue back and forth, while Stock and Tess continued to examine the object. Finally Stock raised the crest above his head and smashed it down on the floor where it shattered. He then knelt down to sift through the broken remains until he found what he was looking for.
Everyone turned around to look at Stock, but only Ira did anything about it. The Loki drew his sword. "You!" he exploded, "You destroyed our only clue! I knew you were sabotaging this mission!" Ira lunged at the marine and swung his sword but it stopped an inch or so away from Stock's throat. Stock looked up sharply to see Talos with one arm around Ira's throat while clutching the Loki's sword arm with the other, preventing it from moving any further. Stock picked up the piece he noticed wasn't clay like the rest. A small clear cube.
"Thoth, what is this?" Stock asked, pointedly ignoring the two tenno as they shoved away from each other.
"It appears to be a data cube. Wait one moment while I analyze the contents," Thoth said, then a few seconds later he said, "Displaying contents." Thoth projected an image onto the wall.
"It appears to be coordinates that are incomplete along with a riddle," the cephalon said as he studied the image.
They all looked at the riddle. It seemed to be just a random pair of sentences with no relation to each other, but to Stock it made perfect sense.
Go home and you'll find the rest of me at the foot of the gods.
Behind the nineth door of the eight door hallway I will show you the path.
"Go home to the foot of the gods? What is it talking about? The Void?" Ira asked, confused.
"No, she's not talking about your home, she's talking about mine," Stock said quietly, "This message is for me. She's telling me to go to my family home. Thoth, pull up a map of Mars and focus on Olympus Mons."
"Displaying current, up to date information on Olympus Mons and the past and current settlements," Thoth acknowledged.
"Focus here, on Azarat Manor," Stock pointed, "This used to be my family home, my grandfather was born here and lost it as an adult when he supplied rebel factions with the means to fight against the Orokin Empire. While I was with the Orokin Marines I managed to reclaim my family's titles and obtained ownership of this place. And as you can see, it sits at the foot of Olympus Mons. The Mountain of the Gods."
"Well I'll be damned," Boreas said, "Would you look at that? Any idea what the second part means?"
"Well this explains why she hid the data cube inside a model of your family crest," Reya said, "As for the second part, we'll have to figure that out when we get there. Good job Woodstock. Bridge, this is Reya, plot a course to Mars." She then turned to look at the team in the ship again, "Everyone else, get some sleep. We are going to have a long day ahead of us."
Stock was having the same dream, he had it every time he closed his eyes now. Each time he had it, it was more and more clear. He could feel the panic in the air as the tenno slaughtered the orokin, the confusion of not knowing who to shoot, his orokin handlers or the tenno killers. The answer never came, he always went down, Anya always stood over him, and she always plunged her sword into his neck.
He jolted awake sweating. This time he wasn't in his room. He had fallen asleep sitting under one of the red maple trees in the garden.
"Bad dreams again?" Reya asked, and he looked up to see her leaning against the tree looking down at him.
"Yeah, nothing I'd like to talk about at the moment though because I don't know what it means," Stock said as he stood up. "Have you given thought to what I suggested?" he asked.
"I have, and I'm looking into it," she told him, "After this last battle, I've decided that you're right and someone is tipping the grineer off. They were not on that patrol route when we went into orbit, yet they knew exactly where to send the gunship and they knew to question my ship. Like they knew it wasn't broken down and that it was there for another reason. On top of that they knew exactly where to send their planet side patrol, and it's not a common patrol route. Yes, someone is definitely tipping them off, the question is who? Go get some sleep sergeant, you're going down to Mars with us tomorrow. I think this is why she wanted us to keep you alive, you know more about this part than we do."