The final completed chapter, written by my friend. I realize there was and wasn't a lot of build up to what we have here, if I was going to re-do this story I'd do a good few things differently. Maybe one day I'll have the time. For anyone who made it this far, thank you, I appreciate it more than I can properly express.
Stock swatted at the flies that kept biting into his neck. The dense green forest surrounded him and the tenno on all sides and stretched to the sky above to block out the sun. He'd kill for his bed back on the ship, but nope, Ira had dragged Reya, Anya, and himself out here to check out a strange signal the Loki had picked up while they were passing by earth. Stock was suspicious about why Ira wanted him along though. It wasn't like Ira to have any positive thoughts about Stock, but according to Ira, Stock might have a clue as to what this signal might be. Also for some reason despite all Stock's insisting that he was just a regular rock kicking marine who didn't know his boots from his ass, Ira still somehow thought Stock was connected to everything Orokin and that included Signal Intelligence.
"So how much longer are we, and when I say we I mean me, going be eaten alive by these damn flies?" Stock finally asked.
"We're almost there," Ira responded, "The signal is emitting from a set of ruins about three kilometers from our landing site and we've already walked two of those kilometers."
Anya slowed her pace until Stock caught up. "This doesn't feel right," she said to him quietly.
"I know, this has trouble written all over it and I don't like it. I'm not sure what exactly it is, but something's wrong. I don't know if it's the strange signal that appeared from nowhere, or the fact that Ira wanted me along, even insisting that I come. He's never done that, he's always been adamantly against me partaking in any kind of mission," Stock mused while swatting away more flies. He wished he had bug spray, or even some napalm to burn these miserable bugs out of existence.
"Yeah that is strange now that you mention it," she said, "I know, even Reya is on edge, she keeps glancing around like she suspects something. If anything happens stay behind me and take cover ok?"
"Ok, but I can't promise that I'll remember that when shit hits the fan," Stock replied.
"When?" Anya asked. Stock didn't say anything, just trudged on the rest of the way in silence. Finally they emerged into a clearing with a massive Orokin pyramid resting in the middle.
"Wow… it's beautiful," Anya gasped. The pyramid was a stepped pyramid that stretched several hundred feet into the sky. It was stark white and lined with gold denoting its Orokin origin.
"Well, whatever this signal is, it's coming from inside that pyramid," Reya muttered while looking at a hand-held device.
She walked forward to the massive circular door imbedded in the very bottom most step and touched a button. It silently whisked open, revealing a clean barren hallway. Stock and Anya glanced at each other before following Reya in with Ira taking up the rear. They wandered the halls, climbing the levels until they reached a central chamber. This chamber was the center most point of the pyramid as denoted by the sign that hung above the doorway. The chamber was empty for the most part except for a pedestal resting in the middle and a few crates lying around. Glancing around Stock realized there was a second level to the room that was lined with pillars.
Reya stepped up to the pedestal, examining it before quickly backing away and exclaiming, "Shit, it's a trap!"
Stock heard weapons and armor clacking together as a full battle unit of grineer emerged behind the pillars on the second level, then he heard the grineer speak in their guttural language, demanding that they drop their weapons and surrender. Reya shouted something back but before Stock could pick up on what it was Ira reached over his shoulder and snatched his gun out of his hands and then put him in a headlock.
The Loki put Stock's own gun to his head as he shouted at the other tenno, "Reya, Anya, put your weapons down. I have made an agreement with the grineer that if you comply, they won't be experimenting on his corpse."
"You fucking traitor!" Anya whirled around and leveled her sniper rifle at Ira.
Ira responded by backing up and pushing the gun harder against Stock's head and tightening his grip around Stock's neck making it harder for the marine to breath. "Unless you want to lose him and your own life, I suggest you do as I said and lay down your arms," he sneered. Anya looked at Reya, before they both tossed their rifles to the ground and raised their hands in surrender. Two grineer ran up and clamped devices down onto their ankles making them cry out in pain and drop to their knees on the floor.
"Anya!" Stock shouted, "Let go of me, you bastard!" Stock struggled in Ira's grip but the Loki held firm and walked him past Anya and Reya to a waiting grineer captain.
"Our deal stands?" Ira asked the captain.
"Of course, I may be grineer but I always keep my word," the captain replied, "I'll take this one off your hands in return for a handsome sum. His genetics will greatly benefit the Grineer Empire. Though I cannot guarantee he'll survive."
"That is fine, you will please me just as well if he dies slowly," Ira replied.
"And what would you like done with these two?" the grineer captain motioned towards the two tenno restrained on their knees.
"Do what you will with them, I figured I'd offer them up as a peace offering to further cement our alliance," Ira said, "Besides, they would just interfere with my plans."
"I'll kill—!" Anya started to shout before a grineer kicked her in the stomach. She doubled over in pain. Stock wrestled himself free from Ira's grip and started to run towards her but a grineer marine stepped in his way and he quickly met the butt of the trooper's rifle. Stock fell to the floor dazed. He watched Ira's boots pass his face before the Loki paused and crouched down.
"Well it looks like this is the end for you. You should have died long ago with the rest of your kind," Ira said, "It's almost sad really, mostly pathetic though, the last of the Orokin, doomed to die anyway." With that he stood up and delivered a swift kick to Stock's side, causing him to double up in pain on the ground. He was pretty sure something broke, if not his ribs then an organ.
Two grineer hauled him to his feet. He could hear Anya shouting while Reya was strangely quiet. Stock's mind raced as he examined his situation. Two grineer, one on each side, hauling him towards a set of doors on the far side of the room, each grineer carried a grakata. Their postures told Stock that they thought they won. He was about to prove them wrong though because Ira had forgotten to take one thing away from him. His sidearm hidden in the waistband of his pants. He quickly broke the grip the grineer had on him by jerking away. He then reached over to the left grineer's gun and jerked it, not hard enough to pull the gun from his grip but enough for him to panic and pull the trigger. Right into the side of the grineer on the right. The grineer yelped in pain and fell over, while Stock adjusted his grip on the grakata, giving himself more leverage and planted a kick into the sternum of the grineer holding it causing him to let go. He heard a commotion behind him as he took aim at the grineer and squeezed the trigger. The rounds hit the grineer in the head killing him instantly and Stock quickly whirled around to see Anya and Reya take down their grineer guards.
"Reya!" he shouted as he tossed the grakata toward her and drew his side arm. Reya caught the grakata and sprayed down several grineer charging towards her and Anya. Stock raised his pistol at Ira who had turned around hearing all the commotion, and fired. The rounds impacted around Ira who had drawn his sword and leapt towards Stock. He tried to keep up with Ira's flight but the Loki was too fast. Before Ira's blade could cleave Stock in half Anya intercepted him with her own sword. The two began furiously exchanging blows while Stock and Reya regrouped behind a crate.
"We need to get the grineer captain! He has the key for these damn things! We can't use our abilities until we can get these fucking things off!" Reya spat, trying to pull the restraint off her ankle. She growled in pain and Stock saw blood trickling down from where the restraint was held in place and he realized the restraint had burrowed through her armor and into the tenno beneath it.
"Can you get hold of the Harbinger for reinforcements?" Stock asked her while taking aim and shooting at a grineer who had charged them.
"No, our comms are jammed inside this pyramid," Reya shouted back over the gunfire.
Stock watched Ira and Anya continue to exchange blows before finally getting locked into a block. Stock kept trying to get a clear shot at Ira but each time he did Ira would move out of his sightline. Everything seemed to slow down, Stock watched Ira break Anya's block, staggering her back before drawing his pistol and leveling it on her. The shot rang out and Anya clutched at her side and crumpled to the ground.
"NO!" Stock shouted. He started to run towards Anya but Ira intercepted him grabbing him by the throat and hoisting him up into the air and threw him across the room. Stock sailed through the air impacting against the far wall. Pain exploded in his head and his vision went black. When he came to Ira was nowhere to be seen, Anya was leaning against a crate clutching her side while Reya exchanged gunfire with a Grineer lancer on the opposite side of the room.
Stock sat there a few seconds longer, trying to collect his thoughts. He touched his hand to his head and saw it covered in blood when he brought it away. He glanced up at Reya and Anya, wondering if they'd make it through this before he noticed the Grineer captain attempting to flank Reya who was pinned down.
Stock staggered to his feet and threw himself on the grineer Captain, who shouted in surprise. The two wrestled around before Stock managed to knock the grineer's weapon free from his hands and then drove his forehead into the center of grineer's face. He heard something break as more pain exploded in his own head. When he looked up the grineer's face was covered in a mix of Stocks own blood and his own disease riddled blood.
"Fuck you!" Stock snarled and he drew a dagger that Anya had given him from his belt and drove the dagger down into the grineer's throat. Blood sprayed up as the captain gurgled and flailed around attempting to strike at Stock. Stock twisted the knife, and the grineer fell still. He quickly searched the grineer's body before he found something that looked like a key.
"Reya! Catch!" he shouted and tossed the device towards her. Reya caught the device and didn't waste any time in using the it, she quickly stood up and shouted before everything exploded in fire. Stock ran to Anya whose head was starting to droop.
"Are you ok?!" he asked frantically, but she didn't respond at first and he whispered, "Anya, stay with me!"
"Stock… is that you? I'm tired," she mumbled.
"Stay with me," he pleaded, "You're bleeding, you have to stay awake. I know it's hard, but you have to." Stock quickly unlatched her helmet and removed it. Her skin was pale and clammy. He patted her cheek waking her up a bit. He gently moved her hand away from her wound, her whole side was covered in blood.
"Fuck… Alright this is going to hurt but it will help you. I need you to grab onto my arm, squeeze it ok, that will tell me you are still with me. Ok?" Stock asked Anya while he rummaged around in a small kit that he kept with him until he found what he was looking for, a tube of blood clotting foam. Anya grabbed his arm as he prepped the clotting agent. It was a small pressurized canister with a needle that was inserted into the wound. Mixed in with the clotting agent were various chemicals such as adrenaline and other things that stimulated tissue repair and numbed the area around the wound, acting as a pain killer.
He stuck the needle into Anya's wound and squeezed the small trigger. Anya sobbed in pain, her hand clamping down on his arm and at first he thought she might break it, but the wound quickly filled with a pink foam until it slightly over spilled onto her armor and she loosened her grip. He removed the needle, and pressed an adhesive dressing over the wound to prevent any further bleeding, then removed Anya's restraint.
"We need to go, now!" Reya said running up beside them and demanding, "Anya, are you ok to walk?"
"I think so…" Anya seemed a little more alert to Stock now that the drugs mixed in with the foam where kicking in. Reya hoisted Anya to her feet and draped Anya's arm around her shoulders helping her walk. Stock stuffed Anya's helmet inside his kit and grabbed his rifle where Ira had discarded it on the floor when he fled. They hurried out of the room as fast as they could go with Reya bleeding from the wound on her leg and Anya clutching her side while also bleeding from a similar wound. Stock covered their exit while they quickly fled the pyramid.
Upon exiting the pyramid they were greeted by the sight of their drop ship piloted by Ira taking off into the sky leaving them behind.
"Fuck!" Reya roared, "Harbinger this is Reya, fire upon that drop ship! Do not, I repeat, do not, allow it to dock! Blow it out of the fucking sky!"
"Reya, this is Boreas, we are unable to do that because—" Stock heard Boreas start to say over their comms.
"I don't give a fuck what the reason is, just do it!" Raya snarled.
"Reya! We are unable to because that drop ship has jumped out of our space!" Boreas hollered, "We are sending down a rescue team right now."
"Fucking hell!" Reya exploded, "Fine, send one down with a medical bay, Anya is severely wounded." As Reya said this Anya lost what strength she still had and crumpled to her knees. Stock rushed to her side and put her spare arm around his shoulders, helping Reya support her.
"Look we'd better take cover," Reya told him, "Those grineer weren't far behind us." They scrambled to the tree line and set Anya down behind a tree. She had lost consciousness but was still breathing. Stock and Reya quickly took up firing positions several yards away from her to prevent stray bullets from finding her instead of them.
"Think we'll make it out of this?" Stock asked Reya while reloading his rifle. He did a quick ammo check, he had one magazine left plus what he'd just reloaded into his rifle, totaling 120 rounds.
"We have to. If you want her to live, and if you want your revenge like I do, you will do your best to survive until our rescue gets here," Reya said.
They watched the Grineer file out of the pyramid and spread out in a line. They started advancing on the tree line like they knew where Stock and the tenno were hiding. For all Stock knew they might. The grineer might be able to see them right now with some sort of thermal vision. When the grineer were less than fifty feet away Stock and Reya opened fire, cutting down several grineer before the attackers broke ranks and scrambled for cover.
The next few minutes were spent exchanging gun fire while simultaneously trying to avoid getting shot. Stock was down to his last forty rounds before a drop ship hovered out of the sky and landed in between the tree line and the ever advancing grineer, causing the grineer to pause the advance and retreat a ways back towards the pyramid. Reya rushed to Anya and scooped her up in her arms, and carried her out past the tree line towards the drop ship while Stock jogged alongside, covering the retreat.
The rear hatch of the drop ship cycled open to form a ramp and at the top stood an oberon war frame with a massive mace slung over his shoulder, similar to the one Stock had seen Boreas use all those years ago.
Stock and Reya paused for a second, realizing this oberon might be an agent of Ira's. He strode down the ramp and then pointed back toward the ship.
"Get her on the drop ship, I'll be with you shortly captain. I have some stress I need to release," the oberon said in an amused tone.
Stock and Reya scrambled up the ramp and to the med bay and placed Anya on an automated operating table.
"Stock, go cover Ark," Reya said while removing Anya's armor.
"What?" Stock asked.
"The Oberon!" Reya snapped, "Go cover the Oberon! He's our ride out of here and he's our medic. If you want Anya to live through this HE needs to live himself."
Stock quickly scrambled back down the ramp to see the Oberon stride out onto the battle field and drop the mace from his shoulder to the ground with a heavy thud.
The grineer wasted no time, one of them charged to him swinging a cleaver and Stock saw Ark twitch, slamming the mace into the chest of the grineer who promptly exploded. Ark proceeded to dance around the grineer, bludgeoning them with the mace even going as far as to cleave them in half with it. He leapt from rocks to bring the mace down on their heads to swiping it low taking their legs out from under some grineer troopers. Stock covered him when he could but for the most part Ark took care of the ambush party himself until nothing remained. He promptly slung the bloodied mace over his shoulder like you would a baseball bat and walked back to the drop ship, passing Stock without saying a word.
The flight back to the Harbinger was spent with Anya in surgery while Reya was on the comms with the Harbinger occasionally shouting and giving orders until they finally docked in the hanger.