Frames of War

by Starscribe

Chapter 9: Void-Touched

Catlin woke to agony.

Her whole body ached, with a pain that suffused every limb and joint. Despite all the battles she'd fought, and all the frames that had been destroyed under her control, she rarely felt real pain.

Like all Tenno, her body was supposed to be safe, sometimes a whole system away from the site of battle. She'd gambled closer proximity to the invasion fleet, trusting to her greater ability to make combat decisions to carry the Origin System to victory.

She'd lost.

Something splashed her, shaking her by the shoulder. Catlin blinked, looking around. "Ordis?" she breathed, voice shaking. "Is that..." Of course it wasn't. The person Ordis was now had never had a body.

Her eyes opened weakly, and she took in the details of her surroundings at a glance. This was the alien throne-room. This was where the pony with more power than a Tenno had...

She looked down at pale, freckled skin. She lay on a blanket of sorts, or maybe a towel. It gave inadequate protection from the cold, considering how little she was wearing. She groaned, staring up and around her.

The strategy table was still there, albeit on the other side of the fountain. Conversation continued there, though she couldn't make out any of the words. Beside her was a single figure, watching from his seat like a sentry. Deep Silver.

"Princess," he called, his voice feeble in the huge room. "I think it's—I think she's awake."

Catlin blushed bright red, wrapping the blanket around her chest with one arm. She sat up, and Silver slid fearfully away from her, eyes widening.

"Relax, Silver," she whispered. "I'm not going to hurt you." She didn't even have an amp anymore.

His eyes got even wider, lips trembling. "You talk?" He glanced across the room, but not at the strategy table. Catlin followed his gaze, right to the center.

There was a metal cage resting in the middle of the room, barely large enough for what it contained. Her horse-shaped warframe.

It sat solemnly in the cage, its face covered with one leg. It hadn't been blasted apart by the princess's magic! You're alive!

The frame twitched, lifting its head to look at her. The connection between them was still there, just as when she deployed with the ancient Excalibur. Frames did not think in words anymore—or maybe they were just conditioned not to share them. Either way, she felt what her frame did. Abject, crushing despair.

I'll get us out of this, she thought to it, sitting up properly. If her abilities were working normally, Catlin could take control of that frame again, phasing her body back into the Void. But somehow she didn't think being trapped in a voiceless cage would help much.

"Of course I can." She looked back to Silver. "How can you not know what I am?"

The question clearly baffled him. "I've never... seen anything like you before," he finally said. To his credit, he hadn't bolted away. "What are you? What is that?" He flicked his tail towards the cage.

The frame curled up, looking away from him then. It could probably hear everything they said.

A shadow appeared over her. She glanced up, but she didn't need to see who it was to know who would be watching. She tried to stand, but her limbs were still too weak. She could still feel the power of this creature boiling in her veins. Its attack had reached through the frame she wore, striking her directly.

If the Sentients couldn't kill me, she can.

"I want you to answer," the princess said. Her tone had returned to the placid, curious voice she had used when Catlin first entered the throne room. "I suggest you do so honestly. I would prefer a simple conversation to dark magic, but you have seen what's happening outside. There is nothing I will not do to protect the ponies of this city."

Catlin got her feet under her, then rose. Her limbs were drenched in sweat, already getting rubbed raw by the blanket. But on her short list of skills, ignoring pain was somewhere near the top. If leaving her naked was meant to frighten or intimidate her, she wouldn't play along. She let the blanket fall, despite the chill.

She rose taller than Silver, but the princess still dwarfed her. That was probably for the best, all things considered. Better not to look like she was trying to intimidate the princess.

"My name is Catlin." Like the rest of her, her throat felt raw, aching and raspy with every word. She spoke to them anyway. "I am a Tenno—once enslaved to the will of the Orokin, once to a false mother."

Luna circled around her. Catlin did not flinch. These ponies could not take away more from her than the Orokin already had. "Words. Perhaps one day a scholar can interpret them. Let me be more direct, creature. What is that? It bears the form of a pony, yet it overflows with magic. Its every sinew and cell is overrun with the same corruption that has besieged my city and murdered my subjects. Yet it does not struggle. And you..." Her eyes settled on Catlin again.

Standing on her own two feet did not make glaring down the Alicorn any easier. How much “magic” would it take for this creature to blow her away like ash?

"You bear no touch of the infection, not even a spore. Yet you were inside that one."

She nodded. Catlin strode away from her slowly, towards the cage. The princess let her do it, following. "This is a warframe made in the old way."

Even without a connection to it, Catlin could feel the frame's spike of alarm. It screamed wordlessly at her to be silent, not to say what she was thinking. The static made her stop short of the cage, turning to face the princess again.

"They're made using a... cousin, of the disease outside. But the one that created this warframe is not wild. It is administered deliberately to an ordinary person, transforming them into a weapon. Their flesh becomes sword-steel, their muscles surge with the power of the Void."

"It... has not spread," Luna admitted. "You passed into this castle, and none of its ponies are dead." Luna walked past her, straight to the cage. She stared through the bars, and Catlin couldn't see her face. "Your word, 'person'. What do you mean?"

Nononononono. The thought was so distinct that Catlin could practically make out the words. Maybe that was her imagination. Not even the Excalibur had been so clear. I'm dead I'm dead I'm dead.

"This frame was a pony, once. I believe she was—" Agony from the frame, overwhelming her. Catlin stopped short, swallowed her words.

But she didn't have to say them. "Ruby River," the professor whispered. "She went into the ruins before us, Princess. She vanished, then this creature appears fighting all of Tartarus to protect us. Celestia's grace if it isn't her. The, uh... creature, does appear to be a unicorn."

The Alicorn's head twisted towards her again. "You inflicted this on my subject?" Her voice was barely audible against the distant war outside.

Catlin tensed. There was no mistaking the fury burning in those eyes. She felt it herself, when contemplating her time in service to the ancient Orokin. With that anger, her and those like her had brought down an empire. "No." She gestured backward at Silver. But it was impossible to keep the annoyance from her face. "Why would I mutilate one of your subjects only to nearly get myself killed saving his ass, and the other archeologists?" She stepped towards Luna. Charging directly into danger was the only thing she knew. "I want to help you, dammit. I'd kill every infested outside your gates myself if I could."

Not a soul spoke in the huge hall. Every set of eyes was on them, and Catlin no longer had room to feel embarrassed. She might be seconds from death, after all. She'd already seen what the wrath of this princess could look like. "I would like to confine you to a prison of crystal," Luna breathed. "I would send the scholars of all Equestria to poke and prod and examine you, for decades if necessary. But Canterlot does not have the luxury of time. Another test, then. A simpler test."

She strode past Catlin, to where Silver still looked on in shock and confusion. "Professor Silver," she began. "All Equestria must trust to your decision. Enemies besiege our gates, and many of our friends are fallen. We need every pair of hooves we can find. Yet if we entrust ourselves to evil, the infection will surely kill all who survive in this city. You are the only one in this room who has spent time with this creature. Does Equestria put its trust in her?"

Silver gulped. If he'd been agonized before, the focus of Luna's attention made his whole body start to shake. "M-me?"

She nodded.

Catlin faced him, letting her arms down. But she said nothing. If Luna wanted an excuse to disqualify her, she wouldn't give it.

"What do you think, Ruby?" he asked, looking directly into the cage. "Should we listen to her?"

Catlin didn't have to turn around. She couldn't take control of the frame, not without vanishing back into the Void. Maybe she could try to force her will against it, but she didn't. Under all that steel and the twisting helminth virus, this was a little pony. One who didn't deserve what had happened to her.

"Please," she thought. "I know you don't know me. But your civilization doesn't know this threat, I do. Help me save them."

She couldn't even be sure the frame had heard. Maybe it didn't care, and it would take spiteful revenge after what Catlin had done revealing its identity. She couldn’t help but look back, watching it.

The frame looked up, in ways that only Catlin knew how to recognize. It nodded, as clearly as when Catlin herself had been in control. Though the frame had no eyes, she could still feel the pressure of its attention on her. "I'm trusting you," it seemed to say.

"I agree with her," Silver said. "No one else could judge better."

Princess Luna nodded sharply. "Very well, alien named Catlin. You claim some special knowledge of this enemy? How do we defeat it?"

"First, open the cage. Ruby won't hurt you, whether I'm a pilot or not." She covered herself with one arm. "Could I have my clothes back? My flight suit was armored, and I had a weapon..." She clenched her right wrist, fingers moving to make room for the shape of her amp. But it wasn't there, and no amount of wishing was going to make it appear.

"Do as she says," the princess ordered. Two guards rushed to obey, keys jangling in the magical grip of the nearest one. "As to the second, we cannot help you. When you appeared, you were..." She nodded. "As you are now. Unprepared for battle."

That's not all I'm unprepared for. Catlin closed her eyes, acting on instinct. One moment she was standing next to the cage, the next she reappeared beside the blanket, body glowing with ghostly echoes of the void. She bent down, picked up the blanket, and focused her will. Flames burst from nothing, searing it in half. She took one half, wrapping it around herself in a makeshift skirt.

Fighting the Infestation practically naked. I know you own me, but did you have to be such a dick about it? But if the otherworldly Man in the Walls was listening, he made no sign.

The ponies watched her, yet she saw nothing more from them than mild surprise. They knew the powers the Void granted, as surely as any Tenno. "And now?" Luna asked. "We require a method precise enough to remove the infestation without harming the ponies who still live. What wisdom do you bring, Tenno Catlin?"

She opened her mouth to answer. But no words came out.

A terrible crack shook the air, like a continent-spanning glacier beginning to split. Through the beautiful stained-glass windows, Catlin saw it. The barrier fell before her eyes.

Comments

[Screw]

What school of focus did Catlin pick? What is her stance animation? How much plat for a that tenno made skin?

In seriousness, does Catlin have at least one focus that is close to or is maxed out? If she did, she is more than capable of surviving in operator mode. I am sure zenurik could allow the unnamed frame to spam that rejuvenation-smite like ability.

[Raistlin]

Rule #1 of survival for Starscribe's main characters: avoid meeting Princesses if you can. They will always act as total bitches toward you for one reason or another.

[Luminous Lead]

11482087
Rather, avoid meeting the authorities during an alien invasion, while you yourself are an alien.

[Raistlin]

11482130

Like I said, they always have a reason. Usually related to MC not being an actual pony.
Also don't expect them to feel sorry for their attitude, regardless or what you did or not.

[LunaEpona]

11482075
You left out the most important couple questions. How much plat for a pony warframe and what relics does the prime version come in?

[minibox]

An enemy of my enemy situation. Don't know what the future holds for Catlin and Ruby, but for now it's time for battle.

[ThatGuyTookMyUserName]

She rose taller than Silver, but the princess still dwarfed her. That was probably for the best, all things considered. Better not to look like she was trying to intimidate the princess.

Considering the canonical size of Luna... Oh yeah, the surviving Tenno were all about 12 to 15 aren't they?

[Starscribe]

11482156
They only drop from the C rotation reward for the steel path bounties in the tainted equestria open world. It's like a 5% chance, and there's no pity system.

[FanOfMostEverything]

Oh boy. Yeah, this was neither the time nor place for an interrogation, but at last Luna didn't take the most expedient option. Catlin will have to think on her feet. And possibly Ruby's.

[Cheshirek4t]

A terrible crack shook the air, like a continent-spanning glacier beginning to split. Through the beautiful stained-glass windows, Catlin saw it. The barrier fell before her eyes.

Welcome to misery train, we're currently on a great downwards spiral track torwards tragedy