This one might give y'all a bit of mental whiplash and for that I apologize. Unfortunately we didn't write everything that led up to these two being transferred, in fact I think we neglected to write most of it. This one is the next thing I have for what went on before the game. There are only a few more after this, then we take a giant time leap and start the in-game timeline, though it won't follow the official storyline much at all.

It had been six months since the tenno had all been transferred to ORSOC, but Stock's own application had finally been approved. When the approval was delivered the agent made sure he knew how lucky he was too, according to him the only reason Stock had been accepted was because of Lt. Buckram's recommendation. Stock didn't care. This was his chance to see Anya again. Now all he needed to do was pass the training and get assigned to whatever unit she was with, then never leave her side again.

On the way to the ORSOC headquarters he and Havoc were briefed on the various classes of warframes they would be expected to know how to work with, and Stock was amazed at just how many there really were. He wasn't sure how brave he felt about the nyx class tenno; there was something unsettling about a being who could reach into your mind and lay all your thoughts bare. He was curious about the one they dubbed zephyr. According to the file the tenno weighed next to nothing and they had to make the frame out of a substance that would allow her to be armored but still mobile, and it was estimated that the empire had expended a small fortune and lost a tenno before they finally saw favorable results.

For the first few weeks though he didn't see anyone other than marines, and it was just training session after training session. On the other hand he had already learned some of the things he was required to know to allow him to get assigned to a front line unit, and for those particular sessions he was required to assist in training the others. Both he and Havoc were exhausted by the time they had a proper day off at the end of the first week, but while Havoc chose to spend that night out with a group of other marines, probably drinking, Stock opted for a quiet beer alone in the room he shared with Havoc and another marine by the name of Marshall.

He pulled out the file their tech instructor had them working on for the previous week and thought again how strange it was. Why did he and the other marines need to know what the most effective way of disabling a warframe was? Not that he didn't know that already, he still remembered how helpless Anya had been when her main control module fried, but he just didn't understand why they needed to know what mechanism was most vulnerable or which place had the highest chance of a well placed strike doing possibly irreparable damage to both the frame and the tenno inside it. It isn't like we're fighting the tenno, he thought to himself.

He continued going through the study material and found that there were several diagrams for every frame currently in use. Major systems, sensory arrays, armor configurations and statistics were all there. Along with the specs for each frame, there was a detailed description of the tenno who would typically operate it. The nyx tenno was listed as extremely dangerous, apparently she really could reach into a target's mind and see any thought she wanted, she only needed to know you were there. The file also said that she was capable of taking away a target's will and forcing it to become her slave for varying lengths of time depending on the individual tenno. For the duration of the ability the target was hers until the nyx released her hold or her thrall died, although she did have a weakness. This particular ability required the palm of her left hand to face you. The file noted that there were organs in the palms of her hands that resembled extra eyes. Stock briefly wondered if she could see through them before turning back to look through the file on nova.

Again there was an extremely detailed description of the warframe's systems and specs, and nova tenno were also considered dangerous, although not to the same degree as nyx. Also unlike nyx, she did not have a specific organ dedicated to using her abilities, rather her power was part of her molecular structure. He remembered Anya telling him that she was an antimatter-charged star. Still, the thing that struck him as odd about all of this was that except for the rhino class, every tenno was about as vulnerable to injury as a simple human, and the study material went into detail about the tenno without the armor. He wasn't sure how he felt about all this information being given to every Special Forces recruit either. He knew it was silly, but it made him feel just a little protective of Anya, especially since he couldn't see her.

When Havoc and Marshall returned that night Stock was forced to abandon his studying and put the other two marines to bed. Luckily even as drunk as he was Havoc was able to take one look at Stock and see he was in focus mode, and was also willing to help get the rather more inebriated Marshall into bed without incident. After that Stock decided it was time they all went to bed, since training would resume early the next morning and he didn't want to be late or give the military some other reason to take disciplinary action.

After a shower, breakfast, and muster the next morning the recruits were taken to a massive field and divided into groups of two, then each group was given an empty frame and a selection of weapons, then told to test out those weapons. He and Havoc were given a nova and told to demonstrate what they knew about disabling that particular frame. Stock was glad this was not a nova prime, because he wasn't sure if he could have made himself break it if it had been. Both of them knew several different ways of disabling a nova though, and after a quick look at each other they took turns pointing to a place and explaining what strike to make and what would happen when the attack landed. Apparently it wasn't going to be that easy for them to get the instructor to go watch someone else.

"Demonstrate," he ordered.

"Sir?" Stock couldn't help being surprised.

"Demonstrate," the instructor repeated, this time with a glare. Stock decided that he'd better do what the guy said.

"Yes, sir," he backed down. He pulled out his tomahawk and slammed the spike into where he knew the main power relay was, and got a surprise. The frame wasn't dead. There was a loud pop, and a surge of electricity burned out the circuitry, effectively fusing all moving parts completely solid.

"Wait, we have to disable operational warframes?" one of the others asked.

"You are required to know how this is done, as a precaution," the instructor explained.

"Why?" another questioned, "A precaution for what?"

"You'll know when the time comes. Right now, your job is to follow orders," the instructor glared at them, then he smirked at Stock and Havoc as he said, "Good work."

Stock yanked his hand away from the frame, belatedly realizing he'd placed his palm against its side. The instructor chuckled then walked away to take his position at the front of the classroom, ordering them to work as he went. Stock kept an eye on the man and noticed that he seemed to be paying extra attention to Havoc and himself and said so.

"He's probably testing us because he's read our files," Havoc suggested, "We did work with a nova for four years before this."

"Knowing who I'm related to can't help, the empire doesn't forget wrongs no matter what," Stock added, "The good news is, Anya showed me things I probably still shouldn't know, so as long as we do a half decent job we should be fine."

"I'm good with half decent," Havoc said, "If we pass we might actually get to do proper missions again."

"Cut the chatter, marines," the instructor ordered, "Accidents will not be tolerated, any mistakes made due to not paying attention will result in consequences relative to the severity of the mistakes."

"Sir, yes, sir," the marines responded. Stock noticed that a few of the others glared at him and Havoc before turning to their work. Great, not even a week into this and he had already managed to upset the rest of the unit. Stock resolved to not speak again, at least in class, until this project was fully completed and their work assessed.

By the time the week was out the teams had run through at least thirty empty frames. Stock and Havoc had been tasked with disabling a nyx, a saryn, a mag, and a banshee in addition to the nova they had started with. They still weren't sure why they needed to know how to destroy a warframe, neither of them could come up with a logical explanation for why they would ever end up fighting a tenno, but supposedly they would eventually learn the reason. In reality Stock was almost afraid to know the reason. It was one thing to have to neutralize a rogue agent, but to train specifically in how to combat warframes meant that the empire was anticipating destroying more than one or two rogue tenno. Either they were expecting all the tenno to at some point go rogue, or there was a plan to do away with any tenno who managed to survive this war based on the fact that they were different.

When the time came to evaluate their work he and Havoc had the highest marks out of the whole unit. No one failed either, and after allowing Havoc to talk him into going for a drink with a few of the others he learned that there were some pretty nasty rumors circulating about what would happen if you did. The most popular was that you would be given to the tenno for them to practice abilities on, and Stock shuddered at the thought of a nyx riffling through his mind. Other rumors suggested that the military executed you themselves and made use of your corpse somehow.

"You guys are full of shit," Havoc finally protested, "What would anybody get out of any of that?"

"No one knows," Marshall spoke up, "But I think at least some of it's true. Something happens to guys who flunk out of this training. My older brother did, and they said they sent him home, but when I wrote home my mom said the military told her he was MIA. Another guy I knew never made it either, so I did some digging. Turns out, if you flunk out, you either disappear without an explanation or you turn up on your family's doorstep with no memory of ever having been in the military at all."

"That's ridiculous, how would they pull that off?" one of the others asked.

"Don't know, but they do," Marshall insisted, "It's not just marines, I've heard of tenno just disappearing without an explanation. Not that anyone cares for the most part, from what I've heard they're more or less just slightly more intelligent work animals, but anything that can make a tenno vanish is something that no human can handle."

Stock clenched his hand tighter around his glass, having to make a conscious effort not to deck Marshall for that statement. He really hoped they would find something else to talk about.

"You've been quiet this whole time, Woodstock, what do you think about all this?" the only female marine in the group asked.

"I'm still trying to get rid of the thought of a nyx flipping through my mind like a book," Stock shuddered again.

"Woodstock?" Marshall looked at him hard, "As in William J. Woodstock?"

Oh shit.

"My name is Connor, but yes," Stock said. No point in trying to deny it, he decided.

"A word of advice then, Woodstock," Marshall's voice went low, "Keep your head down and never ask questions. About anything. This place is where guys with your background come to die."

"I have no intention of making the empire notice me, other than maybe to make myself too valuable to lose," Stock told his second roommate.

"Remember that when the time comes," Marshall told him, then without another word the marine finished his beer and left the bar.

"Well that guy is weird," the girl snorted, "I think he has more problems than just drinking."

"I don't know about that, but he's definitely a strange son of a bitch," Havoc agreed, "Hey, you want to go get something to eat?"

"Sure," she said, "You coming, Woodstock?"

"Nah, I think I'm going to go back to the room and get in some study time," Stock declined.

"You've done nothing but read the entire time we've been here," Havoc pointed out, "What are you trying to do, become an expert?"

"Something like that," Stock replied, "I'll see you tomorrow."

He finished his beer and left the bar, hoping to catch Marshall and ask him what he meant about what he'd said, but he didn't see the other marine anywhere, so he headed back to the barracks. He wanted to believe that Marshall was just paranoid, or maybe had been a little too close to a few too many bombs, but somehow with everything they'd been doing the last few weeks he couldn't shake the idea that there might be some truth in what the marine said. He decided that as soon as Marshall got back to their room he and the other marine were going to sit down and have a chat, but just as he was thinking this he felt someone grab his arm hard. He whirled, intending to lay whoever it was out flat, but it turned out to be Marshall.

"Damn it, man, you just about scared the shit out of me," Stock hissed, "What the fuck are you doing?"

"Shut up!" Marshall snapped, dragging Stock back into the alley, "Look, I don't think I'm going to be around here much longer, so I need you to take something."

"Hang on, first you tell me all that shit about not asking questions, and now this, I need some answers, what the fuck is going on?" Stock shot back.

"Just shut up and listen," Marshall growled, "I read your file—"

"What the fuck?!" Stock interrupted.

"You say that a lot," Marshall told him, "Now pay attention!"

"Alright, fine," Stock grumbled, "But for the record, I don't like this at all."

"I'd wonder what was wrong with you if you did," Marshall smirked, then he went serious again and continued, "As I was saying, I read your file, and a lot of things made sense afterward. Did you know they're watching our room?"

"They watch everyone," Stock replied, "That's hardly cause for more concern than usual."

"Yes, but they're monitoring us more closely, and it didn't start until after I was put with you two," Marshall said, crossing his arms, "I read Havoc's file too, nothing stood out. Then I read yours. You're different, Woodstock, not just because of who you're related to, although there is that, but you worked very closely with the nova."

"I don't get it, that was never a secret," Stock shrugged.

"Maybe it should have been," Marshall said, "That's why they gave you and Havoc the nova warframe at the beginning of this week, they wanted a reaction."

Stock thought back and remembered putting his hand on the frame after completely disabling it. It had been the same touch he'd given Anya's prototype when it nearly killed her.

"Now you're getting it," Marshall snorted, "You can't do that again, if you do, you're dead. You can't get upset when someone says something you don't like about a tenno either, people will say worse and reacting will just paint a target on your head."

"Why are you telling me this?" Stock asked, "I would have thought that wouldn't matter to you."

"Because the empire is wrong," Marshall stated, then he asked, "You remember what I said about my brother?" Stock nodded. "He got in trouble, he failed this training," Marshall explained, "He and the tenno who was part of his unit were close. Too close. When the time came, he refused to follow orders. He was discharged, no more military. Told me they were sending him home but he never made it. Before he left he sent me this." He placed a small, cube shaped object in Stock's hand.

"What is this?" Stock asked.

"Information," Marshall stated, "You need it more than I do now. They followed me out of the bar. I lost them, but they'll find me again. You can't let anything slip, you can't afford mistakes. When I leave this alley, whatever you do, do not follow me. Don't leave for at least another ten minutes, you hear me?"

"But—"

"Woodstock!" Marshall snapped, exasperated.

"Y-yeah, I hear you," Stock finally gave in.

"Good. Whatever you hear, whatever happens, don't follow me," Marshall repeated.

Stock nodded. Marshall clapped him on the shoulder, then turned and left the alley. A few minutes later he heard someone shout, heard Marshall reply, then a discussion. At some point voices were raised although he couldn't make anything out, then there was a gunshot. The voices dropped back to normal levels and Stock retreated deeper into the alley. He waited at least another twenty minutes, ten minutes longer than Marshall had instructed just to be thorough, and when he didn't hear anything more he headed back to the barracks.

Havoc hadn't returned yet, so Stock took the cube out of his pocket and examined it. It was a data cube, and it had clearly been used a lot. He looked at the computer in the corner of the room, then went to it and looked over the wires. He pulled the holo-net cable out completely so there was no solid uplink open, then turned it on and disabled the wireless receiver. Once all of that was done he inserted the cube into the reader and attempted to access the data. Most of the cube turned out to be corrupted, and what wasn't had still seen better days. All that was left was a rambling message from a man talking to someone named Steven, the distorted voice sounding sad and ashamed as he explained he was being dishonorably discharged and sent home.

The man rambled on for what seemed close to an hour, Stock guessed talking out whatever had gone wrong. Stock had known the minute the other marine mentioned a dishonorable discharge that the guy wasn't going home, the empire would never allow someone who knew that much to leave alive after that. Evidently this guy wasn't completely aware of what happened when you got in this much trouble, and clearly he hadn't expected the tenno to end up dead, although Stock wouldn't have thought the empire would do that himself. He had thought that tenno were a limited edition creation, he didn't understand how the empire thought they would replace the tenno if too many were lost.

Stock replayed a few parts of the message over several times before finally giving up, but he had learned some things. If you failed this training you were definitely going to be booted out of the military, if you crossed an executioner you were definitely going to be executed by them, and apparently if your commanding officer thought you were being too friendly with a tenno you were living on borrowed time and the tenno might be too. He knew he needed to avoid it, but this just made him think of Anya again and he couldn't help wishing he at least knew if she was alright.

He sighed then pulled the cube out of the reader and grabbed a magnet, swiping the cube over it several times before putting it back in the reader to make sure it was blank. That done, he put it back in his pocket, deciding that he would get rid of it the next day, somewhere away from their room. Havoc returned a few minutes later and he immediately asked where Marshall was.

"He's gone," Stock said.

"What do you mean 'gone?'" Havoc asked.

"He pissed off the wrong people," Stock told him, "Look, I didn't see what happened or anything, but I'm pretty sure he's dead. I don't know if what he said was exactly true, but I'm pretty sure it's what got him killed."

"Damn… How'd you get out of it?" Havoc asked.

"He made me hide, wouldn't take no for an answer," Stock replied, "And now I'm tired."

"What did he tell you?" Havoc prodded.

"Apparently his brother was real close with a tenno or something," Stock said, "I don't know too many details, only that Marshall thought both his brother and the tenno ended up dead. I don't know more than that."

"Alright, well then I guess all we can do is go to sleep and hope our next roommate isn't completely out of his mind," Havoc decided, "At least, that's what I'm going to do." Stock nodded, and soon after Havoc went to bed Stock did too.

Over the next few weeks Stock kept watch for anything that looked even remotely suspicious, but for a long time nothing happened, and by the time they were finally assigned to work with tenno Stock had nearly convinced himself that nothing was going to happen. Not one of them was prepared for what they were about to get into.

"So do either of you guys know what we're doing today?" their replacement roommate, a heavily built man named Perez asked as they entered the training room.

"Well rumor is we're finally going to be working with tenno, but that's all I've found out so far," Havoc replied.

"I don't know whether to look forward to that or be scared shitless," Perez said, "Tenno are just too alien for me, they have these crazy powers and most of them have extra body parts, there's one who even has guns for hands. Guns!"

"Mesa class? Yeah, her index fingers double as pistol barrels," Stock shrugged, "Still, I'd rather deal with her than with nyx."

"That's the one with eyes in her hands, yeah?" Perez asked, "Freaky bitch."

"The eyes are not my problem, it's the fact she can read my mind that bothers me," Stock said. He didn't have anything against nyx and he didn't think a tenno would be cruel enough to report him, but he was paranoid of anyone finding out about his relationship with Anya. He didn't want it to come back to bite either of them in the ass.

"What about the nova? Didn't she make you at all nervous when you had one in your unit? Shit, that would have scared hell out of me, something that can cause anything near it to explode," Perez persisted.

"Still not as worrisome as nyx," Stock maintained, "Explosions, guns, that sort of thing I can handle. What I cannot handle is someone flipping through my brain like a notebook."

"Weird porn?" snarked Perez.

"No!" Stock snapped.

Perez looked at Havoc then back at Stock before nodding and repeating, "Weird porn."

"You have problems," Stock told him.

"Listen up, marines!" the instructor shouted. Everyone stood at attention and all talking ceased. "At ease," the instructor said, and they relaxed their stance. "Now, this wasn't supposed to get out, but I suppose it was in evitable, so let me just end the speculation by saying that yes, you are going to be working with Tenno," he told them. The room erupted in whispers, equal parts excited and nervous. The instructor let them all go on like this for a few minutes before speaking again.

"You are going to work with a tenno, although maybe not in the way some of you are accustomed to," he said, giving Stock and Havoc an odd look, "It's time you learn exactly how dangerous tenno are, and how to combat them should an incompetent handler let one get out of control. Woodstock, up front, now!"

Stock jumped to attention and saluted, then strode to the front of the room, wondering just exactly how he always managed to be set up for this. Every time this happened it all came rushing back, the nerves, the worry that he had unwittingly done something to piss off someone important, the thought that he'd never see his family again. He still hadn't managed to break himself of looking for Anya every time this happened either, the memory of the way she always rested a hand on her sword, gripping the hilt hard if she thought he was in trouble, made him miss her that much more.

He knew that wouldn't help either of them here though. Before this everyone around them had been afraid of what would happen to them if they made her upset, but here no one cared and everyone knew how to at least disable her if not outright kill her. He forced the thoughts into the back of his mind, the image of yet another nova frame, this time a prime, fried beyond recognition with her trapped inside, was not helping. He couldn't let this get the better of him.

"Have you ever worked with a nyx before?" the instructor questioned when Stock came to stand at attention in front of him.

"No, sir," Stock responded.

"Good, this should be a perfect learning experience," the instructor said, then he went to a door, opened it, and said, "Executioner Torres, we're ready for you now."

Stock chanced a glance and saw the executioner enter the room with a nyx following at a respectable distance behind, and he couldn't help the shudder. He still didn't have anything against the tenno, but he didn't trust her handler. From everything Stock had learned in the past few weeks, the man could make her pick through his mind for anything the empire wanted and neither of them would have a say in what was taken. Reading his thoughts wasn't what they had in mind though.

"Begin," the instructor ordered.

The nyx raised her hand and Stock reacted without thinking. He dodged to his right and braced his left forearm against the tenno's upper arm, grabbing her wrist with his right hand and forcing her hand up, bending her arm at the elbow.

"Risky, but effective," the instructor sneered, "Now, if you're quite finished horsing around, I want you to let the tenno take control of your mind."

Stock hesitated slightly but released his hold on the nyx and backed up. She once again raised her hand and Stock braced himself. He felt it the moment he lost his hold on himself, his knees buckled and he gasped, falling to the floor, his mind fuzzy, his vision clouded over. He vaguely heard someone speaking, felt himself getting to his feet, heard the same person speaking again before the nyx made him start walking. He heard more speaking, the nyx stopped him, then he felt a sudden splitting headache and he collapsed to his hands and knees. It took a few minutes but his vision eventually cleared and he placed his hand to his head, expecting to find blood, but his hand came away clean. Then he looked toward the nyx and almost lost his lunch. There was a small hole through the middle of her faceplate and the back of her helm was blown wide open, blood and gore smeared across the floor under her body.

He scrambled to his feet and backed away from the nyx as fast as his pounding head would allow. "And as you can see, that is how you free a nyx's thrall," the instructor said, dusting his hands off, then he turned to the executioner, "I'll make sure to support your request for a new trainee. Dismissed, corporal."

Stock snapped a salute then marched back to stand in formation with the other marines. He couldn't take his eyes off the dead nyx, her lifeless body sprawled in a pool of blood and all she'd done was follow orders. He didn't think she'd even known anyone was going to attack her at all. He was also quite certain that if she had known she was being attacked, he would be dead too. The only good thing about today that he could see was that the executioner hadn't decided to have the nyx read his mind, so at least for now Anya was still safe as far as he knew. It didn't stop him from worrying about her though.