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A quiet and serene night, the moon’s glow shone brightly on the black and grey mountains with their white peaks. A dark storm on the horizon, its fury can be seen arcing from cloud to cloud, a flurry of white particles being carried by the strong winds drift up and down the slopes.
The black, twisted metal standing out from the freshly fallen snow like the collapsed spires of some ancient, demolished castle. The Liset lay in the center of the wreckage inside an impact crater, relatively intact. The window cracked open, a few plasma jet flaps torn from the jets and in pieces, one of the large radio transceivers torn clean off and resting outside the impact crater, electricity arcing from circuit to circuit.
The center console of the Liset was collapsed on its side, the display flickering and displaying nothing but gibberish. The right hand console torn from its foundation and was now lying in pieces on the floor, its wires still connected but damaged, the little electricity it had hopping from the wiring to the floor.
The ramp was lowered, slightly bent, the lower deck in pitch black darkness except for the small bit of moonlight that shone into the entrance, snow particles slowly streamed down into the lower deck, a patch of snow forming around the entrance. The Zephyr warframe laid face-down next to the Matter Reconstruction Table, bleeding profusely. Deep gashes could be seen on the helmet and down the Zephyr's right forearm, the blood forming a puddle underneath the table..
The warframe’s finger twitched. Another twitch. Its hand slowly clenched. A small surge of energy flowed through the armor, its power cells re-energizing. Dots of white lit up around the armor. The gashes mended themselves, the openings in the armor reconnected and began to heal the wound. “Ug…” a voice quietly said, Ilik slowly waking up. She slowly moved her head, looking at the at the incubation station, the glass dome that was over it now in tiny pieces, a heating coil arm torn from its hinges and on the floor next to the destroyed armory center.
Ilik turned her head again, looking back towards the upper deck. She tried raising her arm, pain cascading throughout her arm, letting it fall limply back down.
Trying her other arm, the armor not at full power, the armor showed resistance for a few seconds before fully complying.
She stood up, holding onto the MRT for support, her armor still slow to responding. A light jerk pulled at her neck, the syandana trapped under the MRT. Raising her good arm, she pulled at the base of her neck, the syandana reluctant but eventually broke off with a crack.
The HUD inside her helmet was dim and flickering, but she could just make out that her shields were at only twenty-three units, and were slowly falling. Her energy reserves were at only five percent, radar showing only static. She sighed. Her rejuvenation circuitry was only partially working, and her right forearm marked crimson red on the medical readout. The bone appeared to be broken, but it was too inconclusive as to what was exactly wrong with it, but it hurt like hell. Her upper left thigh also had a hairline fracture. She could feel the circuitry mending the hairline fracture, a warm feeling spreading through her limb, but the pain on her forearm remained.
“Or…di-“ she hoarsely whispered before being overcome with a coughing fit, a metallic taste in her mouth as the warm feeling of blood slid down her throat. “Or…dis…” she whispered again, walking forward and up the broken ramp and holding onto the walls for balance. A momentary lapse in energy caused the rejuvenation circuitry to shut down, the pain flooding back and causing her to kneel in pain. The circuitry reactivating a few seconds later, numb relief filled her body and continued to climb upward to the bridge.
The toppled center console flickered to life, showing a diagram of the antimatter engine. The antimatter rods were depleted, a mark showed a crack in one of the feed tubes. The hologram flickered again, disappearing and reappeared with a screen of static, a garbled voice spoke out through the black and white.
“Ordis…Ord- “said Ilik, before being interrupted by another hideous coughing fit, “-dis…wake up.” Ilik roughly spoke, feeling the blood running down her skin from multiple wounds around her body. “Ordis…Ordis…” she said, attempting to grab the flickering hologram of the center console before it faded out, the low hum of the last few running systems was replaced by the eerie whistling silence.
She looked out past the broken window out into the frozen land, the storm quickly closing in and the wind picking up speed. Ilik could feel the temperature dropping, if there was any way to restore the Liset’s power it had to be somewhere out in the pieces of wreckage. “There’s got…to be some antimatter rods…that survived.” she said, “need…to heal though…” slowly standing up and walking back down into the lower compartment, careful not to trip. “Please let there be one… there!” A small shimmer of gold in the far corner catching her eyes and limped over slowly, moving a piece of the arsenal module to the side and picking up the Orokin reactor.
“Come on…” Ilik whispered as she tapped the cell, glowing slightly. Holding it close to the oval shaped energy cell on her armor, a stream of blue energy coursed from the cell to the armor, the energy pathways energizing.
Ilik could feel the rejuvenation circuitry beginning operate on her injuries, the HUD feeding her information on various systems, power levelling off at 27 units. “It'll have to do,” she grumbled. The circuitry healed her minor injuries, but was still unable to fix her right arm. The HUD's reenergized software was able to deliver a more complete diagnosis of her right arm, showing the fracture to be oblique, the bone nearly puncturing the skin. Ilik sighed, “Rough few hours”, she supposed.
She carefully climbed over the frame, being cautious with her injured arm. The snow crunched under her feet as she looked around, the wreckage of the two Corpus ships lay scattered several thousand meters away, only one massive ship hull managing to survive reentry more or less intact, and now lay inside the end of a crater, a trail of slowly burning plasma in its wake.
Ilik started the long trek to the wreckage, feeling the cold enter into her warframe armor and doing her best to ignore it. Walking closer, she stood amazed that a hull piece as big as this could survive reentry. She reached the mouth of the crater, the wall almost vertical in its slant. Ilik knelt down, sitting on the edge for a second before nudging herself over the edge, sliding down to the bottom of the crater.
The near-vertical wall curved at the bottom, allowing a smooth stop at the bottom. Several spots of the crater still burned, the snow reclaim the soil it once covered, slowly but steadily. Carrying on at a slow pace, Ilik scoured the wreckage for an entrance, the glint of bright metal caught her eye, revealing a damaged exhaust vent that provided her an entrance. The hull was several feet off the ground, but debris strewn about provided a makeshift set of stairs, saving Ilik some of her already depleted strength.
The inside fared worse than the outside, the hallways were crumpled like paper, it’s hard to believe anyone could survive this. The crumpled hallways were filled with the clutter of broken off pieces of support beams, wiring, and circuitry.
A grate fell from the overhead vent with a noticeable clang, Ilik landing on her feet with the silence the Tenno are known for. Standing up, she looked down the hallway, several sections looking intact between crumpled pockets and jagged metal, emergency lights still illuminated in those areas.
“Alright, let’s see…” she said, cautiously walking forward, and attempting to maneuver through the wreckage, keeping an eye out to avoid holes in the floor and live wires. “There’s gotta be some--” her head whipped around immediately, the sound of mechanized footsteps echoed quietly through the halls…or was it just nothing…?
“Ok…calm…I’m just overreacting, it’s just the adrenaline.” She reassured herself, walking further into the flickering hallways, the resounding noise ringing out on occasion.
The hallways were a complete mess of paneling, wiring and torn metal. Live wires still arced with electricity, the snow around them melting to form puddles. Ilik avoided the puddles, searching through crevices of the wrecked walls and floor for any source of power, minding her injured arm where the bone had pierced the skin and held it tenderly. “C’mon….there has to be one that survived….UGH!” Ilik grunted as she slammed a wall hatch shut, the uranium filament rods inside completely destroyed and useless.
She walked forward, looking into the crevices to find any rods that might have survived. “Hmm…nothing, that’s expected.” She muttered sarcastically, closing a toppled locker and walked forward. “There’s got to be one around here…” she spoke quietly, making a left at an illuminated and intact hallway intersection, “ugh…how hard is it to find a single fuc-WHOA WHOA WHOA-AAAAAAH!!” her screams echoed as the floor gave way, sending her falling alongside some paneling into a dark crevice in the rock.
“AAAAAH-OOF!” the air punched out of her lungs as she landed on the snow covered rock on her back, her body rebounding several inches into the air before landing again. “ah….oww….fuuck…” she cursed under her breath as she rolled into a ball, the dull pain quickly fading as her rejuvenation circuitry kicked in and healed the damage, the warm feeling spreading through her back and limbs. Within minutes she felt better, standing up and ran her hand across the crevice walls, looking upward at the mouth of the crevice several meters up.
Her HUD furiously flashed crimson as the suit's systems began to fail one by one. With a single thought, she ordered power to be diverted from her reserves to the failing systems. This power appeared to placate the systems, aside from the rejuvenation system. A bright-orange warning appeared shouting the words “CRITICAL FAILURE!” and pointed to her spine. A surge of electricity arched along Ilik's back.
“Ah!” she yelped, arching backwards and falling to her knees and extended her arms, catching herself as she fell forward into the snow-covered pit floor. “…Shit,” she hissed under her breath, “now? Seriously…?” lifting her head, a flash of green caught her eye.
Looking in that direction, her HUD showed higher radiation levels and a familiar energy signature.
Allowing her systems to slowly recover, she slowly crawled towards the hole in the rock, she peered into it to see what the flash was. “Jackpot.” She said in a low voice, reaching into the hole and pulling out three antimatter rods, all in excellent condition. Placing them on the magnetic holster on her hip, she stood slowly, making sure all her systems worked, and looked upwards towards the mouth of the crevice.
“Ok, that’s one problem more or less solved.” Her HUD showed her reserves to be at 17 units, good enough for one use. Her systems showed to be working, aside from the now non- functional rejuvenation circuitry. “Well, here goes nothing.” She said, getting into a ready stance, the energy pathways of her armor glowing as a burst of energy propelled her upward.
Barely reaching the mouth of the crevice, she grabbed onto the wall with her left hand as she started to fall, minding the injury on her right arm. Looking up, she wasn’t more than a few feet from the top, beginning to climb in careful steps, digging the talons on her feet into the rock for better grip.
The sound of metallic feet echoed around her.
She stopped suddenly, looking towards the mouth of the crevice for signs of anyone up there. The flickering lights created shadows of imaginary things, the HUD showing her adrenaline levels rising. Ilik slowly climbed as she looked towards the edge, cautious as to what might be up there.
“CREEOOOOOOO!”
An anti-MOA appearing at the edge, its disgusting squawk piercing the silence and looked at the warframe with hostile intent. The alarms began to sound, the sound echoing throughout the broken hallways, the sound of more MOAs resounded throughout.
“One problem after another!” She yelled. In a dash of speed, Ilik vaulted up towards the edge of the crevice, sprinting towards the anti-moa, attempting to land a solid left-hook on it.
The anti-moa moved away from the direction of her punch and fired a plasma bolt, narrowly avoiding the warframe. The plasma bolt hit the ground behind Ilik, a bubble of plasma quickly expanding behind her and threw her several feet down the corridor.
“Oof!” she gasped as the breath was knocked out of her, once again. She rolled onto her back, jumping upright. She noticed a small whining noise. Looking towards the three rods, she groaned as she saw that one had cracked and was leaking fluid. Its teal haze grew even brighter and the high-pitched whine growing louder. She looked toward the anti-MOA, who was preparing to fire again. Looking down at the rod, an insane idea came to mind. Throwing the rod, it rolled to a stop under the anti-MOA, still focused on Ilik. She sprinted down the hallway with a speed that would’ve impressed Volt, narrowly avoiding an incoming plasma round.
The anti-moa fired its round, the warframe narrowly avoiding the plasma bubble. The intense light and high-pitched whine was disrupting its electronics. “CREEE- BANG!”In a split second, the air ruptured in a furious cloud of fire, disintegrating the anti-moa and the surrounding area atomized.
The ground shook and the air ignited as the antimatter rod ruptured, the explosion wreaking havoc on the already fragile hull structure, a barrage of paneling and steel girders falling to the floor in front and around Ilik, vaulting under the falling debris and rolled to a stop curling into a ball and held her injured arm as pain surged through it.
She could hear the sound of robotics approaching, her HUD showed her power at 17 units and shields at 23 units, hardly enough to withstand an assault. Taking a few deep breaths, she tried to ignore the pain and stood up, grabbing the two rods that had come off, checking for any damage to the containers. Noticing they were intact, she placed them back on the magnetic holster and sprinted down the dark hallway, the emergency lights flickering.
The moonlit sky was a relief to see as she exited the Corpus ship, the sound of mechanical footsteps and horrendous screeching not too far behind. Ilik sprinted up the crater’s edge, bolts of plasma streamed up from behind, the MOAs luckily trapped at the bottom of the crater. She lost the momentum from her run near the top of the crater, her left arm just barely able to grab onto a handhold before her footing was lost. She hefted herself up, swinging a leg over the top of the crater, rolling onto her back and panting heavily.
“No time to rest.” She thought to herself, rolling over and standing up, the snow crunched under her feet as she ran.
The storm clouds had engulfed the starry sky and moon, leaving the landscape a dark grey. The snow fell faster as the wind picked up speed, the swirling flakes making it difficult to see more than a few meters in front of herself.
Slowing down, Ilik half-stumbled, half-shuffled as the snow approached her knees. Looking at the rods attached to the magnetic holster, the soft teal glow began to slowly fade, the power of the antimatter rods beginning to wane in the freezing cold. “Just a few more…meters…ugh,” she said as she dragged herself through the white, freezing powder. “Just hang in there Ordis, I’m coming.” Taking another step, her foot sank into the snow and Ilik stumbled, faceplanting into the snow.
“Damn…” she whispered as if someone would hear, trying to bend her leg and finding resistance. Her ankle was trapped on something below the powdery snow, which looked to be a twisted piece of metal. Ilik writhed around, attempting to free herself. A sudden crack sent a wave of sharp pain up her leg, making her double over as it overwhelmed her.
A sonic boom ripped through the air. Ilik grew down as she looked for the source. Looking directly upward, a bright twinkling object fell from the sky, leaving behind a gaping hole in the clouds. The object screamed through the air. Ilik frantically pulled at her leg, desperate to free it from the hidden debris. She pulled one final time, freeing her leg as pain ripped through the area. No time to focus on the pain, she scrambled away on all fours, digging herself into the snow as the object made contact with the ground, sending a mixture of rock and snow high into the air. The debris fell back down around the impact crater, the silver object lying in the center.
Ilik stuck her head out from the mound of snow, shaking the powder off her helmet and climbed out. She stumbled as pain erupted from her ankle, a warm, numb feeling followed as the armor injected an anesthetic to the area.
The object had a brushed nickel texture, its exterior cooling to a silver-grey as it cooled from its red-hot atmospheric entry, its geometric surface plating created a vertically stretched hexagon. The small pane of glass on the hatch of the pod was frozen over, showing a dark silhouette of a head illuminated by the interior lights.
Ilik slowly approached the pod, running her hand over the frozen glass and removing the thin layer of ice, revealing a Corpus crewmember. Possibly unconscious from the reentry, its helmet lightly cracked down the middle. An external display on the pod showed a faint pulse from the crewmember.
Ilik stepped back cautiously, her attention towards the sky as the air exploded with more sonic booms. A large number of twinkling objects raced towards the ground. Thinking quickly, she scuttled forward, her broken ankle making it hard to walk, let alone run. Ignoring the pain, she ran as best she could through the knee-deep snow, the blizzard slightly letting up, allowing Ilik to spot a dark object in the distance, partially covered in snow.
The pods hit the ground with intense force and knocked massive plumes of rock, snow, and dirt high into the air, and slowly fell back down to reveal each pod in an impact crater of their own several meters deep into the rock. The combined force of the impacts shifted the loose particles of snow, an avalanche caused by the impacts careened down the edge of a nearby mountain.
The Tenno vaulted forward as a falling pod impacted on the snow. The pod sent a plume of gray material into the air and violently threw Ilik into the air, knocking her limp body against the ground like a ragdoll. Her limp body flew over the mouth of the crater, her back hitting the large antennae of Liset , a large dent formed at the area of impact as the metal reverberated, the lax body bouncing off the metal and fell to the snow-covered floor.
A still of silence washed over, aside from the whistle of the blizzard. The pods stood unmoving in their craters, a number thirty or more beacons flashed through the thick blanket of flying ice particles. The pods hissed as their hatches opened, the still crewmembers inside reanimated and took up their arms. They all met roughly in the center of where all their pods landed, a squadron consisting of five Techs, eight elite and regular crewmen, two sniper crewmen, and seven prods.
Their chatter assessed the damage of their ships, the Techs leading the operation, sending few crewmembers in the general direction of their downed ship with a simple point. The remaining crew looked towards the Liset. Deras, Lankas, Provas, and Supras at the ready, their hunt for the Zephyr warframe still on.
“Yuttout’p p’ke Petto’y y’kik, Ekpetsitape koy’pipey (Surround the Tenno’s ship, exterminate hostiles.)” The Tech leading the operation yelled through his helmet, running his hand over the crack before he wound up his Supra, gesturing to advance forward slowly.
Ilik slowly awoke, her body weak. She sat herself up against the dark metal of the antennae, seeing through tired eyes the squadron of Corpus soldiers that neared her. She didn’t want to die and have her body used to build another Zanuka prototype. Her attempts to move felt sluggish and heavy as the HUD in her helmet showed her armor was losing power. Her mind raced at the thought of her armor losing power…she questioned whether her revival system even continued to function, or whether she would even continue to live.
“O’te pey’y Petto po jot’ty a’toup (One less Tenno to worry about,)” The Corpus Tech said as he planted a metal boot on the Tenno’s shoulder and pressed down, “Alad V jip’p te k’peayed (Alad V will be pleased).” He could see the Tenno flinch in pain as he pressed down harder. Removing his foot, he stepped back and waved his hand to the group behind him, the Corpus soldiers forming a semi-circle around the Liset, weapons pointed and armed at the nearly dead Tenno.
Ilik looked around at the formation of Corpus soldiers, their weapons all pointed at her. Her mind raced as she thought of a last attempt to escape. Ilik looked at the ground, the two rods had disconnected from her magnetic holster, a crack ran down the length of one of the rods.
“Yit (Sir),” said a Corpus soldier, followed by two others, “Je tou’tp p’ke pete’piyp y’kik, ut’totputapepy ap’p y’tej ses’tety atoat’p a’te pe’ap ek’yekp tot yetetap MOAs. P’ke ptaty’yeitet iy pasa’jep teyot’p ay jepp ay p’ke yo’te (We found the derelict ship, unfortunately all crew members aboard are dead except for several MOAs. The transceiver is damaged beyond repair as well as the core).”
“je jipp u’ye p’ke Petto’s y’kik tot kat’ps ot’ye je ka’te ip teyp’taitep (We will use the Tenno’s ship for parts once we have it restrained),” The Tech said, his eyes trained on the Tenno, “Tij’kp, kat’p se p’ke pit’ky (Right now, hand me the links).” The Corpus soldier handed a pair of small metallic devices to the Tech.
Restrictor devices, meant to detain Tenno when Zanuka is not around by placing them in a deep sleep, allowing for transport to Alad V. The Tech took the devices in his hand and waved his hand to the soldiers behind him, the three moving to join the formation and pointed their weapons at the Tenno. The Tech placed down his Supra and walked towards the Tenno, devices in hand.
It was a last attempt, but she didn’t want to become another Zanuka prototype, if she was going to die…
“…I’m gonna die fighting.” With a single thought, she ordered the last of her main and reserve power to her warframe, the synthetic muscles supercharged. In a burst of speed, time slowed down as she leapt upward, antimatter rods in hand. With all her strength, Ilik threw the rod at a random crewmember, the glass of the rod shattered upon impact.
The Tech recoiled back in shock as the Tenno sprang up several feet into the air, a teal glowing object flew towards a Corpus soldier in the formation and smashed into their helmet, releasing a teal-blue vapor cloud as the crewmember fell backwards. The Tech looked back towards the Tenno as it fell towards the ground, in its hand another rod aimed for him. The tech darted towards the Tenno as it landed on the ground, slamming his forearm into its throat.
Ilik was slammed into the Liset’s antennae as she landed, everything still moved in slow motion, the Tech’s forearm at her throat. Her vision started to blacken as the Tech held her to the metal with his forearm. Ilik heard the Tech snicker under his helmet as she started to lose consciousness, her grip on the rod still in her hand loosened.
“Ip’y ot’et (It’s over).” The Tech said as he placed the device on the Tenno’s neck, the device’s needles burrowing into the warframe.
Ilik felt the needles of the device burrow through her armor and into the skin of her neck, the HUD registered a foreign body was releasing a deadly neurotoxin into her bloodstream, a large warning sign flashed on the screen, “REJUVENATION CIRCUITRY OFFLINE”. Her vision continued to blacken as the fast-acting neurotoxin worked its way through her bloodstream, her body felt weak. Her grip on the antimatter rod loosened even further.
“…No…” she whimpered, refusing to give up on her attempt to escape. She tightened her grip as the rod almost slipped out of her fingers. She lifted her arm to the Tech’s amusement, her strength failing as the neurotoxin sapped her life.
“Burn…” her last remaining strength broke the glass of the rod and released a cloud of teal-blue vapor.
Time had resumed its normal speed, the vapor cloud’s teal-blue color suddenly turned a bright orange.
The area was scorched, the ground clear of its powdery blanket and replaced with ragged and burning rock. The freezing wind howled silently as the world stood still. A mixture of ash and snow fell to the ground, a grey veil of particles lined the carcass of the Liset and the crater where several destroyed statues stood motionless.
“Over there…I see something….” Yelled a muffled voice, a golden light shined through the dust and snow that hung in the air, “Over here….right here, it’s right here….” The muffled voice grew clearer as it approached.
The storm eager to finish its mission, particles of snow and ash continued to heavily fall upon the wreckage, a mixture of grey and white particles littered the scorched ground.
“…What Is it…?” said the voice, “It’s still breathing…” the pale body surrounded by the statues was still alive, but barely. It heard the muffled voices, but faintly, the four-legged creature looked it over with curiosity as it held the orb of golden light, “…The blizzard’s getting stronger….we must take it back…”
“..You’re majesty, we found this…”
“…to the infirmary…”
“…s, your Majesty…”