Order of The Lotus

by DisplacedCommunalAccount

Recapturing Mount Atlas

Author's Note:

FrostTheWolf here. For those who find this and for the Tenno involved in this project... hurry. We need to regroup quickly if we are to survive. Transmission follows below:

Recapturing Mount Atlas

---

Oberon

I walked towards the camp in the distance, with Arrowhead being my guide and Limbo being the guy who happened to complain about almost everything Non-stop. By the time we got there though, he immediately decided to run for the nearest bed that he could throw himself onto and pass out. Sighing a little, I ignored the urge to sleep and pressed on. Soon, the two of us arrived at a small war tent in which I assumed that the Princesses would be in. Stepping inside, I saw Princess Platinum, Chancellor Puddinghead, Captain Heartblade, Two other ponies, a chimera like creature and another Warframe… I think. It was hard to tell what it was since it stood in the far corner against the wall and way barely visible.

“Oberon! Thank goodness you’re okay!! I was a little worried about you when you chose to stay behind.” Heartblade told me.

“Your concern is noted, but there was a reason why I chose to do so. We’re dealing with more than just the Corpus and the Grineer. But first, maybe I should introduce myself.”

“Heartblade told us about you. Oberon, the Mystic.” One of them spoke. “Given the circumstances, you seem like somepony who could be a true leader.”

“Honestly, I only lead Arrowhead and the other frame named Limbo. Who is… well…”

“A dumbass?”

“Yeah, let’s just go with that.” I sighed. “He fired off six rounds from a sniper rifle, only to realize that those were the only six he had. Also, after I killed a Grineer patrol, he kept firing his guns at nothing. But there’s one other problem for him.”

“Other problem?”

“He doesn’t know how to use his powers with Riftwalking.” I began to explain to the other frame. “Now, can you do me a favor and actually step into the light so I can see your face?”

“I believe we have more important things to attend to first,” He replied back. “The Princesses could take it from here.”

“He’s right. Oberon, we need your help in capturing a location crucial to our efforts of fighting back the Corpus and Grineer abominations that are trying to take over Equestria.” The Princess named Luna explained, pulling out a map and laying it on the table. She then used her magic to levitate what looked like a piece of burned out charcoal as she drew a circle around one main location.

Mount Atlas.

“This mountain is a key holding position because of its location. It’s in between the main structures of both the Grineer and the Corpus and the caves provide a lot of necessary materials that our blacksmiths need to keep our equipment intact.” Celestia explained. “We’re going to need you to be able to reclaim that mountain.”

“Okay, but I have a few questions about this operation.”

“Ask away.”

“One, how many people besides me are going to do this. We’ll be in a turf war between two major factions that are hasty to try and kill one another. And second… are those people preassigned or am I allowed to choose who comes along.”

“You are allowed to choose, yes. But you must be reasonable in your choices. I know that you would want to leave Limbo behind, but you also must think of who would be able to replace him-.”

“Already thought of that. Sticking with Arrowhead on this one.”

“Wait, what-?”

“I trust Arrowhead more than I trust anypony else right now. She actually has helped me understand the circumstances of what is going on and how important my role is.” I told them. “Plus, she seems to be quite handy with using Tenno weaponry.”

Celestia and Luna looked at one another for a moment, before taking a deep sigh and looking back at me. “Okay. We approve of her coming with you. You only have one objective though. Use any means possible to reclaim the mountain. There are bound to be Grineer and Corpus fighting in the area and possibly infested as well since the two of you encountered them on the way here. It pains for me to say it,” Celestia told them, looking at Discord. “But use the chaos to your advantage.”

“See, what did I tell you Tia? A little Ch-.”

“Not your chaos,” Luna deadpanned, knocking Discord on the head. “The chaos on the battlefield. Both sides are distracting one another, so Oberon and Arrowhead could completely avoid them if he plays his cards right.”

“Why thank you for the support Princess,” I acknowledge her compliment. “Well, we better not waste anymore time… Question though? What if we find other Tenno that seem lost?”

“Help them the best you can.” Celestia replied, casting a small spell as a device landed on the table in the war room. “This will allow us to contact you and for you to contact us in case of emergencies. Good luck.”

“You’re gonna need it-.”

“DISCORD!!”

Before I heard anymore bickering, but Arrowhead and I were out of that room as quickly as possible. The Pegasus continued to trot with me as we made our way through the camp. “We’re definitely going to have a busy day tomorrow.”

“Better get your gear ready then.” She smirked. Right now, even though she can’t see my face… somehow, she knew I was smiling.

---

Early Morning

I woke to the feeling of the earth shaking underneath me. It wasn’t massive, but I can still feel it nonetheless. It must’ve been the fighting between the Grineer and the Corpus. But the rumbling beneath my feet did not cease. Something was not right. Getting up and grabbing my gear, I turned to where Sol was and woke her.

“Come on, we need to move.”

“W-what time is it?”

“I don’t know, but I can feel the tremors in the earth from the fighting between both Grineer and Corpus. We need to hurry and reclaim Mount Atlas while we still can.” She nodded, grabbing something out of her bag that resembled a orb and then smashing it. She told that it was a Teleport Orb with it’s location set for Mount Atlas for when we were to go. Now, after a brief flash of light, we were on that same mountain.

Looking behind me, I could see the scarred battlefield that was painted with the blood of the fallen Grineer and Corpus. Both of them were expending every trooper and crewman that they can muster. Better stay clear of that then. Looking back over, I noticed that Arrowhead was trying to signal me over to where she was. The Pegasus must’ve found something that could help us somehow.

“Look down there,” She told me, pointing a hoof at the basin below. Using the sight on Latron, I zoomed in to what she was seeing. It was a Grineer outpost. But something was not right. None of them were moving at all. They were standing still. Almost like they were statues.

“Arrowhead, let me see your bow.” I asked. She was confused, but still complied. Taking an arrow, I pulled it back as far as I could and aimed at the first Trooper that was standing still. As I let the arrow fly, that same trooper soon became a pile of broken rubble and stones. I hand the bow back, sighing a little. “We may have another problem… Someone else is here.”

“Who? Are they on our side?” Arrowhead asked.

“Honestly, I don’t know. But something tells me that it is a Tenno. Who else would try to turn their enemies into stone?” I ask. Cautiously, we moved closer, knocking over each of the statues that we found while going in. Whoever had been here earlier caused a MASSIVE amount of damage with heavy casualties. As we work our way across the outside of the camp and emptied a few storage lockers, the pegasus I was with pointed out the door to the facility that they had here. And the air that was preventing the door from fully closing all the way.

“Looks like it went this way,” I said, “Watch my six, I’m going to try and override the door.” Arrowhead nodded, landing on the ground and having a few throwing stars be kept in between her wing feathers as I worked on the security for the door. It took like fifteen seconds to crack, but once I was done, we were finally inside the facility. Blood was spilt almost everywhere and bodies of the floor littered the ground. Whoever was in here had been tearing them apart piece by piece. However, there seemed to be a security room near the back left.

“Over here,” I instructed Arrowhead as we entered inside. Looking at the security console again, I got to work on cracking this lock. It took twenty seconds before we were both greeted by footage of what happened inside the facility.

"Ot's kle Tenno. Attaf!"

That was the only sentence that could be heard as the rest of it was either high pitch screams or gunfire. The camera recording the footage was also shaking violently like the earth underneath it was handling tremors. Then, I caught a glimpse of something. Another figure that looked like a powerful brute that fought using excessive force. It was only when I zoomed in though that my scanners picked up something.

New Warframe discovered- Atlas

“So it was a Tenno…”

“A Tenno caused all of this?” Arrowhead questioned. “Who?”

“I don’t know, but something tells me that he’s related to the mountain. The Warframe is coming up on here as Atlas and he is destroying the Grineer. Possibly the Corpus as well.”

“Maybe he see’s the Mountain as his home… You know… Mount Atlas… Atlas…”

That may have sounded dumb, but I think she was onto something. “Let’s see if we can deal with what’s left of the Corpus before we encounter this guy. Maybe we can prove to him that we’re on his side.”

“How do you suppose that’s going to help?”

“Well, for one thing, it shows that the two of us and him have a common enemy. Two, it shows honor amongst one another for being able to assist others in need. Because I’m beginning to think that our one Tenno wrecking crew might soon be meeting his match.” I told her. From what I remember, there were three factors that all tenno needed to be mindful of on the battlefield. Four if you count ammunition, but primarily three.

The first one was your shields. These, along with your armor, can protect you as long as your shields are still up and active. Second was your stamina. This determined how long you can run and what kind of maneuvers that I, as a Tenno, can pull off. The final thing to be aware of was energy. Energy is required to activate abilities. For me, I needed 25 energy to cast Smite, 50 energy to channel Hollow Ground, 75 energy to heal with Renewal and around 100 energy for my final ability, Reckoning. However, the circumstances varied depending on the Warframe that was being used.

As we moved into another corridor, the data on my Helmet showed me the Analysis it picked up on Atlas. It was known as the Titan of Stone, The Brawler, and The Strong. His abilities were focused on Melee Combat and on both offensive and defensive capabilities. Landslide was used to accelerate himself forward as a head on blitz. Techtonics allowed him to conjure a wall of stone to protect himself. Along with that, it could also be turned into a boulder to roll into enemies like real life bowling. Petrify made enemies turn to stone like he was Medusa and lastly-.

“Look out!” I heard Arrowhead shout that, pulling me down as a rock almost hit my head. Looking over, I saw two stone soldiers heading towards us, while the man we needed to talk to was running along the walls to get to a higher platform. Looking at the rockmen, I realized that this was his strongest skill. Rumblers. It allowed Atlas to summon two earth elementals to fight alongside you. Despite being Melee focused, they can also throw stones at enemies and if the ability is casted again, the soldier themselves will explode.

Quickly, I hit the first of the two men with Smite so I can keep my distance while using Latron to get some shots in. Arrowhead did the same with her Daikyu bow and released some arrows into the other stone warrior. We kept this process going for like another thirty second while dodging the rocks chucked at our heads before both of them became heaps of rubble. However, by then, Atlas has already disappeared. “Let’s keep looking-.”

“Hold up a second,” Arrowhead stopped me, moving to a nearby work table. “Look at this. Are these maps?”

Looking at them, I could tell otherwise. “No… These aren’t maps. They’re blueprints. But for what?” There were three of them. One for a strange helmet, one for a chestpiece and one for the systems to run it-. “Oh god.”

“What? What is it?”

“These aren’t normal blueprints. They’re blueprints for a Warframe!” I looked at the top of the scroll and read what was written there. “Project Equinox. We need to get these to Celestia and Luna. But right now, we have to reclaim the mountain and go after Atlas.”

“How? He’s a walking Juggernaut!?”

“Yes, but if we convince him that we’re not his enemy, then it’ll be one more ally for us and one less foe for us to deal with.” I told the mare. “Let’s just be careful from here on out.” She nodded her head and held her bow close to her, arrow at the ready as we continued to march through the base. We did not encounter many foes. Mostly because Atlas had either slaughtered them all or The Corpus and Grineer killed each other in the fighting. They had encountered a small number of infested along the way, but that was just a small setback that was easy enough in order to fix.

Soon though, the dust was beginning to settle… And the only ones who were left were myself, Arrowhead… and Atlas. When the earth based Warframe landed near us, Arrowhead was tempted to draw her bow. She thought that Atlas was going to pull something on them after seeing it fight off the Grineer and Corpus. Not only that, but also the stone soldiers that it used before weren’t really too friendly. But both of us were caught off guard the moment that we saw the Tenno put his weapons aside.

“Wait… you're not one of the Grineer or the Corpus… who are you?” It asked. I looked back at Arrowhead, using my hand to tell her to lower her bow as I turned back around.

“I’m a Tenno, like you. My name is Oberon. This is my companion, Arrowhead. We mean no harm.”

“I never meant harm either, yet you two attacked my Rumblers. They were meant to target the foes you were fighting. Not yourself.” The warframe of stone explained. “By any means though, I’m glad that you are on our side. We haven’t seen any friendly faces come this way before.” I nodded my head, but there was one thing I could not be able to wrap my head around.

“Hang on… We?”

“Why of course.” Atlas replied. “You don’t spend all the time in the world protecting your home without any allies. And this one is not part of the Grineer or the Corpus.” He soon pointed to a ledge that’s was high up on the mountainside, giving a signal that I was to believe meant “all clear”. All I could see was another bipedal figure stand up and place a recurve bow they were holding on their back.

It was another Tenno.

“That is Ivara. She acts as a lookout and also helps steal critical supplies needed from the Grineer and the Corpus.” Atlas explained, motioning for us to follow him. “Come… there’s a lot of things that you need to see.”

“See? But this is a Volcano.” Arrowhead deadpanned.

“That’s only on the outside.” Atlas told her. “Inside… is a entirely different story.” I looked at him, confused a little, but soon realized what he meant once we stepped inside through a doorway that was originally blocked. My Warframe’s interface said that it was Atlas’ second ability Tectonics, which allowed him to conjure a wall of stone and then turn it into a boulder. As we stepped through, he used the same ability to close the door.

“Welcome to Mount Atlas… The home of our Dojo.” Atlas told us as we walked inside. “It took Ivara and I a couple of months to get everything, but here, we have almost everything we need for combatting the Grineer and Corpus. Hell, we began research on the Infested.”

“You’re researching the infested?” Arrowhead asked, “Why?”

“As the saying goes, fight fire with fire.” Atlas told us, turning around to look at us. “The more research we conduct on them, the more we can be able to create infested weapons to use against them. For example, look here.” With that, he pulled out what looked like a combination of a sword and chain whip. But my frame saw it as something else.

New weapon discovered- Mios

“A blade and whip? That’s a new one.” I said as Atlas placed his weapon back.

“Yeah, we have a lot of things going on in terms of research,” He said, looking at my rifle. “Is that a Latron? I can upgrade it for you if you want me too.”

I looked back at him, partially confused. “Hang on… upgrade?”

“I can take your Latron and use some of the extra materials that we have here at the dojo in order to craft you a Tiberon.” Atlas told me, showing a holographic image of the rifle that he was talking about in the palm of his hand.

“Well, I’m impressed.” I told him, handing the rifle I had. “How long would it take to build it?”

“Like with all other things built, it takes twelve hours,” He explained as he had us follow him to a makeshift foundry. Inputting a few keys, the machine whirred to life as it soon began to deconstruct my old weapon and begin building from scratch. Turning to me, he sighed again and had me follow him. “Don’t worry though, we have a lot of other spare weapons for you to use. Also, if you mind me asking, do you have any mods in your warframe?”

I stopped walking, looking back at him. “Mods?”

“Yeah. Why, you didn’t come across any?”

“No. I had only been here for two days.” I deadpanned.

“Ah, not to worry. I believe I can help you with that.” He said, opening up a nearby locker and handing me four disk like objects, followed by pushing something into my back and having it dissolve into my warframe. I saw Arrowhead tense up for a minute, but I used a hand to have her hold her position. The last thing I wanted her to do was attack a new ally “I installed an Orokin Reactor into your suit to double your mod capacity. The disks I gave you were some spare mods that I had completely ranked up just in case for if I run into any other tenno like yourself. Install these by inserting them into your gauntlets.”

Following his instructions, I did what he told me. My Warframe then showed me each of the modifications I installed as my body began to feel… rejuvenated. Looking at what my suit was showing me, I began to see the mods I had installed. Vitality; A mod that significantly increased my health. Redirection; One that increased my shield capacity. Steel Fiber; one that increased the amount of armor on my Warframe. Fast Deflection; a necessary mod that increased the rate for my shields to recharge. Which leads to four open slots and a fifth one above the others.

But I couldn’t just choose any mods to fit the other slots. Different types of mods could affect my abilities. Strength mods increase the amount of damage I deal and the amount of healing I do with Renewal. Range mods affect how far I could cast Smite, Hallowed Ground, and Reckoning. Lastly, duration mods affect the regeneration rate for Renewal and how long Hallowed Ground can remain on the field of battle. I needed to be careful with the choices I make for mods if I wanted to be strongly balanced in all areas. Not to mention the aura mod slot that is above the other four.

After some thought, I made my decision on the mods. For right now, I decided to worry about the aura slot for later and just focused on the other four slots. First, I chose Streamline, which increased the efficiency of my powers. Second was Intensify, which made my abilities stronger. Continuity, which I saw as a must have, makes my abilities like Hallowed Ground last longer in duration. So I had that as choice number three. Leaving spot number four for my last choice, Stretch. A mod that increased the range of my abilities.

“Okay, I chose my mods. What now?” I asked.

“Now… you’re going to need a new loadout for weapons,” Atlas said, opening up a storage locker. “Place your Cestra’s and your blades in here. The locker will restore their durability within a short while. As for now, catch.” The earth warframe soon tossed over a new rifle towards me, which was already fully modified when I looked at it closer. Soma, an assault rifle that packs quite a punch. In addition, Atlas also gave me Nikana, a katana blade that already had a stance mod equipped to it named Blind Justice. Lastly, I received a new secondary weapon for myself. AkJagara, a pair of dual pistols that had a blade on each end. I remember back home using these weapons a lot and personally, they were my favorite aside from the Dual Cestras.

“Alright. Now that you’re fully equipped, take some time to look around the dojo. Nezha should be back soon, so you’ll get the chance to meet him. Also, I can help your friend here with her weapons if she’s fine with that.”

Arrowhead looked at me, nervous a little. But all I did was nod my head, telling her that I was okay with it before she went down the hall with Atlas. For me, I took the chance to look around a bit and explore a little. The Dojo was massive and had a lot of sectors that I was quite surprised by. A research wing, Dojo, and some other sections too. But when I went to a basin overlooking the valley below, I was personally surprised to find the same archer warframe from earlier standing on lookout.

“Hello there,” She replied, putting away a sniper rifle that she was holding. “What brings you out here?”

“I was just looking around the place and happened to run into you.” I told her honestly. “Why do you ask?”

“Just curious.” She replied. “Besides Atlas, one other guy named Wukong and Nezha, we haven’t met a lot of other Tenno like yourself. Have you met anyone else?”

“Well, the only guy I met was someone as Limbo. However, he did not know how to use his powers and was a bit… clueless.” I told her, explaining what happened yesterday when he unloaded two sets of rounds with his AkVasto and also wasn’t aware of the ammo limit on his sniper rifle that he had equipped. Needless to say, Ivara was kind of amused at Limbo’s idiocracy. She personally said that he needed someone to help him provide guidance, but I just thought that he needed to start using his brain.

A little bit into our talk though, I noticed something that alarmed me. Smoke. In the distance of the camp. “Ivara, I need to hurry. I think the camp is in danger.”

She nodded, shooting a zip line arrow from her quiver down to the ground so I would slide down and begin to take off, running into the direction of the camp. However, when I got there, I found a disturbing sight. The bodies of slain equines that I had just met the other night. All trampled, shot down or disintegrated. However, I noticed one thing when I looked down. Huge tracks in the ground, followed by some kind of left behind communicator. Corpus tech.

It was then that I found out who did this when an eerie voice that I knew echoed in my head and it’s scratchy tone ringing my eardrums. “You have loyalty issues, Tenno...”

Alad V. And with him, he held Celestia and Luna as hostages. “Let them go!” I hollered, only to find out that the communication link only went one ways. But what I could tell was that I can pitch into its frequency and find where it was coming from.

“If it’s your friends you’re looking for… You’re welcome to make a donation to my newest Zanuka prototype-.”

At that taunt, I crushed the device with my hand, cutting it apart with my Nikana. The signal was still strong. West from my current location. Alad V was looking for a fight. I was going to give it to him.

Because he just made this personal.

---

Comments

[Hekate Sketch]

So far, I'm enjoying this. A lot. And it seems the newer frames are going to be included as well. If there's plans for him, may I ask to join in on the project as Inaros?

[FrostTheWolf]

7051442 Sorry it took a while to get back to you. It may be possible for that to happen, but given how this chapter has ended, all frames as of right now need to regroup

[Hekate Sketch]

7133295

It's fine. And at the moment, I seem to have forgotten what I had in mind for that xD

[FrostTheWolf]

7142650 xD. It happens.