//------------------------------// // Chapter 14: Oull // Story: Frames of War // by Starscribe //------------------------------// Catlin watched from the wall, suspended in the moment before the battle started. Behind her, her powerful companion prepared her attack, drawing down the power of the Void in a way no Tenno could ever do.  The stakes here weren't all that different than the ancient battle, when Tenno united to free the Origin system from Orokin domination. This was just one planet, less technologically advanced perhaps. But if she failed here, they would be no less dead. The sun one could claim they would burn the city to purge its spores from the planet, but Catlin knew better than to expect success from that strategy.  If she could not kill the burgeoning mind united from infested flesh, it would remain to disrupt their powers. The purge would fail, spores would escape, and this planet would become another Deimos. Worse, considering the powerful void-magic of its residents. Maybe it would even have the power to expand through space, consuming the other planets and moons of Tau, then beyond. As she waited, she felt the concern from her frame. It would see all her thoughts, the visions her memories conjured. Catlin's worries over their success manifested far more powerfully for the frame. This was her home, she had family. Did Ruby have lovers, children…? The frame was in too much pain to give her a clear answer, if it had even understood the question. She felt only hopelessness in response, utter despair. It was not optimistic about their odds of success. She could hardly blame it. But if the frame started losing confidence before their fight even began, she would lose control during the battle, and doom them both. What could she do? We've fought greater odds than this and triumphed, she thought. I've been fighting for countless lifetimes. You don't need to know how, I know for both of us. See? She tried to share it—her numberless hours training in the dojo, her trials as she advanced through the tenno ranks. And the battles she had fought against the infested. Saving the Heart of the Void on Deimos, dozens of trips to compromised Orokin towers and derelict ships. Purifying the Plains of Eidolon. She remembered it all, clearly now. The Void had strange effects on memory, holding so many lifetimes in a single pure moment in her mind. The Corpus needed implants and supplementary processors to accomplish the same task—and the Grineer never lived long enough for it to matter. Catlin turned to the side, eyes drawn by the sudden surge of void-light. She would have shielded her face with her arm, if she had eyes or arms. Even the Warframe's powerful sensors were briefly overwhelmed by the flash, flaring past her. She saw strange shapes outlined in the sky, and the moon far overhead came crashing into sharp focus. Four stars flashed around it, connecting with swirling glyphs she could not read at this distance. Even so, she recognized them. The Entrati void alphabet. Seconds later, something crashed down from overhead, scouring through the city ahead of them. A flash of terrible heat erupted on contact, followed by an explosion of air.  Catlin was stunned, but her frame expected it. A shield sprung up around her, along with the empty, almost lifeless frame beside her. She felt what the frame was doing, and lent it her will, concentrating on the shield with all the focus she could muster. It glowed white-hot around the edges, and tiles went flying away from the roof around them.  The effects on their target were much more pronounced. Tens of thousands of writhing infested bodies were scoured from the street in an eye-blink. Others fell from the air in droves, creatures so well-concealed that Catlin hadn't seen them, until their charred bodies smacked up against buildings.  Not all creatures were wiped away—the infested earth ponies were scorched, but didn't seem to notice or care about their missing flesh. Some of the ones she guessed were unicorns managed to teleport away, or otherwise hide themselves in shields like Catlin's. The infested boil was lanced straight through, like a weeping sore on a Grineer's gene-molded face. Black ichor erupted from within, much of it atomized and lifting up as a cloud of stinking gas. The swollen reddish lump began to deflate, settling around a misshapen outline within. "I hope that was what you imagined, Tenno," Princess Luna said. She stumbled forward along the scoured roof beside her, then dropped to one knee. Her horn glowed faintly, her coat ragged. Yet she had somehow survived that without a shield. "Because... I lack the strength for a second shot." Void knows that was better than a little poison. Catlin turned to the side, nodding. Even the strength to keep up her shield against the attack took tremendous effort from her. Yet she managed, somehow.  A strange silence followed. Infested creatures stood in place, with even the survivors looking as though they too had been blasted by magic.  Catlin left her frame, reappearing beside the princess. The unicorn might not know how to fight, but at least she had the sense to keep up the shield. The air was still hot, and bits of debris still rained down around them. "I wonder if you needed me at all, Princess. I have seen artillery hit with force like that, but not the accuracy. If you killed the mind growing within the boil, your third princess can try her—" She trailed off, attention drawn suddenly to the center. There was no time for Luna to reply, because something in the smoldering ruin of flesh was stirring. A roar went out from the crater, soon joined by thousands of surviving infested voices. It wasn't merely pain, but words. Words that dropped Catlin to her knees, pressing her hands to her head. "WHY DO YOU CURSE US, COUSIN? ARE WE NOT ONE FLESH? ARE WE UNWORTHY OF FRIENDSHIP?" Catlin whimpered, blood dribbling from her nose and eyes. This wasn't just a scream, but a psychic attack as potent as any Nyx could manage. This was exactly why they sent Warframes in to fight. She vanished from the stone, returning to her frame. Its defenses were stronger, hardened behind infested flesh.  The attack did not last, and soon her concentration returned, and she was able to see the boil. It ripped open, and something emerged from within.  It was small—much smaller than Lephantis, or the unfortunate Jordas golem. Glistening black fluid dribbled from its back, dropping to hiss and devour the ground with sharp acids. It looked a little like an oversized pony, at least in basic body plan. Not four legs but eight, extending outward as well as down, and sharpened to deadly points. It had wings too, bony metallic things larger than the rest of its body by far. It also had two polished horns, one of white crystal, the other swollen and bulbus with weeping white fluid within.  The force of Luna's attack was visible on its torso, which had cut straight through and left only its metallic ribs inside. Organs pulsed visibly, weeping blood. It stood anyway, in defiance of the decay. Its face turned up towards them, a mask of a dozen different eyes. Like they'd come from different ponies, arranged haphazardly around gaping jaws. Of course it would look like them. It's made of them, just like the infestation in the Origin System resembles the factions it fed on. She saw an instant before it moved—read the flexing in its muscles, the way it shifted and turned. It was going to attack them. She couldn't let that happen, couldn't take the chance it would reach the weakened princess.  Catlin launched herself from the railing, descending rapidly through the air. She brought her borrowed pony weapons with her, slamming them down in a deep, slashing blow from the monster's side. She sliced deep into infected flesh, then dodged out of the way when more of its guts spilled out. It roared again, snapping its neck around to face her direction. Its horns lit up, and a second later the ground exploded where she had been standing, shredding the pavement and several buildings behind her. Catlin rolled, but still the force of the attack was enough to nearly knock her over. She crossed around the battlefield in a teleport. She lifted every nearby object she could, hundreds of pieces of broken stone, then hurled them at the infested creature. It screamed again, with even more psionic force than before. "HARMONY BRINGS FREEDOM FROM PAIN. FREEDOM FROM DISORDER. FREEDOM FROM SUFFERING." It didn't matter how far away she was. The force smacked her up against a building, then through it. Even her hard metal hide cracked and bled from the impact, before she hit the ground another second later.  Catlin slid through the rubble of a deserted shop, along broken glass and toppled shelves, before she finally came to rest somewhere in the darkness. Catlin reappeared beside her frame, sprawling broken in the dirt. This was nothing she couldn't fix right up on her orbiter, but even so—its pain was overwhelming.  That wasn't even a direct hit. She crouched low, running one hand along its back. She felt the damage, her hands wet with white lubricant blood. "I'll help you, if we live through this. Stay hidden." The monster was stalking towards them. If it fired another blast into the building, it would probably destroy the frame completely. She vanished before it could. Another second later, she noticed something else. This frame was fresh, untouched from days of ancient war. She couldn't even guess at its ancient purpose. She didn't need to. She felt its powers, calling on her to use them. She galloped off the roof, provoking a look of sudden curiosity from the princess. But she didn't stay to talk. When she took to the air, she took a hurricane with her, all focused on this infested creature. Chunks of nearby buildings ripped from the ground. Carts spun through the air, along with dozens of infested ponies. They were all equally useful as weapons. She brought it all down on her target, a tornado of objects that crushed themselves to bits against it. Bones cracked, its hide ripped open, flesh was gouged from its body. It turned for her, then spread its huge wings. It lifted into the air despite the wind, flying directly for her. Shit. Catlin didn't know what she was doing, but the monster did. Somehow it could keep flying despite its incredible size, closing the distance between them. Catlin sped up, angling into a vertical upward ascent. Her wings glowed with void light, beating so rapidly they blurred. It wasn't fast enough. "CONSUME US, FLESH OF STARS. FIND A BROKEN UNITY." It was closing so rapidly, even as the pony city faded into the background. What could she do? Something stupid. Catlin leapt from the frame again, reappearing a dozen meters away from them both. She didn't aim her amp so much as feel at the scar on the air left by the infested creature, a point of low complexity in the world. She screamed, her whole body alight with the energy of the Void. Otherwise she would've been swept aside like paper in the maelstrom. It still buffeted her, but not enough to make her falter. Catlin channeled everything she had into the void-light. The sky tore open, and light spilled from beyond—the inverted white-on-black of void space. It cut straight through the infested abomination, sending its halves spiraling wildly through the air. Both still screamed, but their voices were small, and quickly lost. She smiled for a second, as the last of her momentum carried her upward. Between Luna’s strike, the malformed birth, and her attacks, the hateful life trailed away in the skies above Canterlot, tumbling down in broken pieces. Her own power ran out seconds later. Catlin tumbled head-over-heels, limbs flailing in the terrible force of the air. Her recon armor kept the speed from slicing up her skin, going rigid enough to keep her limbs from breaking. Barely. She tried to reach for the frame she had brought with her, but couldn't find it. She couldn't see it against the blue light of morning, either. Only the tear she had made to the void was clear to her. An impossibly deep voice echoed out from within, deafening. "Oull—Ris—Xata—Vome" Then she fell.