The ornate halls of Canterlot were wrapped in the cloak of darkness. Only the footsteps of guards pacing the halls broke the deathly silence. There was a larger concentration of Centurion guards in northeast wing, however, as they were tasked with guarding the corridors that held ancient relics on carved marble pedestals. There had been a new addition, as of only this morning. Many ponies claimed they saw it falling from the sky over Fillydelphia. It was disregarded as debris until it finally hit on the city limits of Detrot. It was made of metal, but certainly no metal that could be found in Equestria. It was warm, some might even say, organic; wearing it was a tall bipedal creature. It had no eye pieces, however, and the gathered crowd guessed amongst themselves how it could see until the alien was hauled away by a team of Canterlot's top scientists. They kept the creature locked in stasis, in the cold embrace of ice. They had been studying it day and night, and could not discern where it was from, despite their best efforts.
They would learn its origin very soon.
Shrouded in darkness, the creature's subconsciousness began to drift back into working order, having been jolted by an explosion that, if it had not been for the vacuum of space, would have rocked Sedna to its core. For a few minutes, its mind did nothing but drift upon a rolling sea of glass in a dreamless sleep. But gradually, it began to reawaken itself, slowly regaining its sentience. Unfortunately, it soon found that it could not move. It was silent for awhile, but eventually, it began thinking to itself.
"...I appear to be encased in ice," was the first thing that entered its mind. Then, another thing made itself present, but it was far more tangible than a thought. It started off as white noise, but soon, it manifested into a voice. A stoic female voice.
"Are you awake, Tenno?"
"As a matter of fact, I am, Lotus."
The Lotus sighed. "Luck and luck alone was the only thing that kept you alive out there. There was no way you could have survived that explosion."
"It seems the stars are looking down upon me today," the Tenno communicated with his adviser telepathically.
"Even so, you brought it upon yourself. Hooking the ship to self-destruct was, quite possibly, the worst idea any Tenno has dreamed up in awhile," Lotus told him with a subtle amount of disdain.
"Far better to leave this universe for another if it means the Grineer cannot spread their influence," the Tenno replied calmly. Neither party communed again for a few minutes, but the Tenno broke his silence once more. "Lotus, where am I, currently?"
The Lotus was silent for a few moments but finally explained, "I was able to keep tabs on your position until your frozen body left the Kupier Belt. You were out of range for my tracking devices to pinpoint your galactic co-ordinates. I honestly thought you were lost to me for awhile."
"You keep telling me that. Not once has it come true," the alien thought. "And if you don't mind, I would be very grateful if I could get out of this pathetic, miniature Snow Globe."
"I'm rerouting some of your Warframe power to generate one small dose of morphine and adrenaline. That should start you off."
All at once, the Tenno felt pressure exerted on his spine and he cried out, though nothing escaped his concealed lips. The chemicals began a domino effect, activating his muscles which had been in entropy for the past few days. He cried again as his arms slowly moved out to the side, breaking the ice away, piece by piece. The sound of shattering glass began to echo around the corridor he was being held in. Once more, ushering back all his latent strength, he cried out once more. It became a scream as he swung his arms out, obliterating his freezing prison.
The rush slowly began to exit the Tenno's system, rendering him numb and he dropped limply to the floor. He stayed only for a few seconds as he fought the sensation in his legs to stand back up. An aura of blue energy began to radiate from his Excalibur and he rotated his arms and stretched his aching body. "It is a start," he muttered.
"You still have no time to relax, Xenmas," Lotus instructed him over his comm link. "The native species of the planet that are guarding this facility are no doubt aware that you have escaped." As if one cue, the Tenno heard footsteps coming down the hall and rushing up to the door that entered into the relic storeroom.
"Copy that," he said without much emotion. He reached for his back...
...And found there was nothing there. He paused in confusion and felt around again. Nothing except the back of his Warframe. He sighed with exasperation. "I should have guessed my weapons were not on me. Were they taken or did they fall off?"
Lotus was silent and eventually instructed the Tenno to retrieve his confiscated weapons, which were being held in the castle vault. He wasted no time in running up the side of a wall, back flipping off and crouch-running nimbly along the rafters to a wall that held a row of windows without any glass to separate the outside air from the castle halls. The Tenno swiftly jumped across the thirty-foot drop to the floor and perched upon the windowsill before turning his head around to glance at his previous holding cell. What he saw surprised him.
Animals from the Platinum Age. Horses, standing on two legs, and wearing dark purple metallic armor that glinted in the light. The metal had been constructed with ornate designs of the planet's moon on it. Not the nanopolymer mesh most Warframes had been constructed with. He could only hear indistinct chatter, but he deduced the animals were panicking, pointing to the broken block of ice and yelling orders at each other. However, he had no time to dwell on the matter, and instead jumped down onto one of the roofs of the majestic castle. It was dark out. The sun had gone down hours ago, and the only lights the Tenno could see on the sprawling cityscape before him were flickering from inside the castle's highest towers. But he knew that he had no time for trivial sightseeing. He had to gather his lost weapons and find a place to extract and continue his obligations to Origin. He looked down to see a three-story drop down to a garden where he vaguely made out, what he assumed to be, more Centurion guards making small talk with each other.
He glanced around a couple of times and vaulted off the roof, using the wall and a nearby oak tree to slow his descent and lessen the impact noise. The guards were no less than twenty feet away, and if he so much as sneezed, he'd give away his position. And at this point, he was no good in a fight with his bare hands.
"...So, I heard Cherry Bomb's throwin' another one of her house parties this week," said one.
"Is that Pinkie Pie chick gonna be there?" replied the one on the left.
The other scoffed. "Doubt it. You know a high-falutin' mare like her would never invite a pony from a backwoods town like Ponyville."
"Then I'm not goin', I guess," the left guard retorted.
The Tenno had been hanging back, cloaked in the shadow of the castle wall on his right. He crouched low and inched forward, aiming for a small berry bush slightly to his left and a few feet in front of him. He proceeded silently and reached cover with no trouble. He waited long enough to hear another guard trotting up to the previous two. "Well, if it isn't the new guy," he heard one say. "Whadaya think of Shining Armor?" The Tenno peered out of cover long enough to see a new guard shake his head with disdain.
"I was ready for the worst, but that guy just...he's grating on my nerves," the third one moaned.
The Tenno heard the other two laugh. "Ah, that's all right. He's like that with every whelp that comes his way. he has too, ya know." Sensing that now was as good a time as any, he rolled across the stone path and behind another shrub.
"Hey, did you two hear somethin'?"
"Yeah, I heard it, dude. Whatever it was was right behind you," the second guard said as he pointed to the shrub the escaped alien was hiding behind. From behind the bush, he could hear hoofsteps on the cold stone. Xenmas cursed under his breath and weighed his options. He supposed he could always run if he was seen, as the inhabitants of this planet didn't seem to have much ranged capabilities. Even so, he decided to army crawl his way into a thick patch of sunflowers nearby. He stopped upon entering and brought himself back up into a crouching position just in time to see one of the guards part the bush only to discover nothing.
"Huh. Must've been the wind, I guess. False alarm, everypony," he said as he raised his palms up.
Xenmas sighed. "Thank Orion they're almost as blind as most of the foes I face." He cautiously moved left, brushing sunflower stalks aside as quietly as he could manage. "What I wouldn't give if I could use Invisibility right now. Or Iron Skin," he muttered as he half-ran along the side of the garden wall to, where he perceived, was the castle vault. It took awhile, not having a scanner that would allow him to see through walls and in dimly lit areas so he could spot potential threats from a mile away. When he finally reached the entrance to his destination, he knelt to the door and pressed his head up to the side, thankful that they didn't automatically open. He could hear muffled voices and footfalls from the other side. The direct approach is usually the easiest, but not always the most effective. Instead, the Tenno opted to run up a tree and vault himself over the nearest window, which, he gladly found, was half open. He slid it up all the way and now had access to several tactical options, simply from being up in the rafters and crossbeams.
Looking down, he saw the room was nothing more than a possible entrance to the castle as a whole. Oddly enough, it wasn't as heavily guarded as he expected it to be, but he chalked that up to handling too many Corpus proxies over the years. There was a magnificent door carved of solid steel, with two guards posted on each side. There were some small groups of regular patrols that wandered in from a smaller door on the left and exited in the upper-right corner, and vice-versa.
"Excellent," he said to himself, certain he could not be heard. "Lotus, is this where my weapons are being held?"
"I am picking up a high energy signature from behind those doors...nine of them, in fact, but I am certain your weapons are there. You have full permission to engage the situation however you choose."
"Perfect." the Tenno replied.
Wasting no time, he dropped from the rafters and charged his way forward to the massive vault doors.
"Sweet mother of Celestia! It's...it's that thing! It did escape!" one of them cried. Xenmas rushed up to him and silenced him with a sweeping kick and a quick overhead smash to the chest. Orokin armor trumps all other alloy armor in terms of raw physical contact power. Xenmas pivoted in the blink of an eye to see even more of the Centurions charging him down.
"Don't let that thing get away!" one of them yelled. "We gotta make sure it get's shipped over to Twilight Sparkle in one piece!"
The first guard rushed him down with a steel spear, but Xenmas sidestepped the thrust and caught the guard by his chest plate, using his kinetic energy to lift him up and over his head into a judo throw that sent the Centurion careening into a solid wall. His Warframe auditory systems beeped twice, so he quickly spun around into a crescent kick that caught two more guards trying to attack him from behind and sent them sprawling.
"Lotus, another energy boost would be helpful."
Almost on cue, Xenmas felt another small dose of adrenaline enter his system via his Warframe. This time, however, instead of undergoing a second resurrection from cryostasis, he felt his body generating its own energy inside the suit.
"Holy hell! That thing's glowing blue!" another one exclaimed.
It was true. Xenmas' armor was glowing, and he slowly looked up. Neither the Centurions nor the Tenno moved and inch, but finally, he felt as if his suit had absorbed the energy needed. He thrust his arm into the sky and a blade of nanites formed in his hand. What followed was a massive flash of light and the sound of panicked yells and the symphony of swords cutting into solid metal. For the Centurions, they couldn't see anything, and if they began to regain their vision after a minute, everything was so off-color it was sickening. Xenmas however, strode out of the dust and metal shavings that swirled around the hole in the vault door, a Latron and Dual Zorens on his back and Akboltos holstered on his legs.
He looked around at the dazed royal guards and nodded before running gracefully around them and out the front door. One of them, who wore a helmet with red fur in significance of his rank as captain, shook his head and regained his focus. Upon noticing that the vault door had been destroyed and the absence of the escaped alien, he screamed, "One of you needs to get your head clear, because we have an escaped subject on our hooves! Get your act together and then get me parchment and a quill!"
The Tenno stood on the top of another sloped roof of Canterlot once more, his weapons laden neatly on his armor. He raised his hand to the right side of his head and activated is comms link. "Lotus."
"Tenno" came the Lotus' voice clear as day.
"How much longer to extraction, Lotus?" Xenmas asked.
Lotus sighed. "Upwards of a standard Earth week. I do not have a lock on your galactic co-ordinates."
Xenmas sighed in frustration. "Well, think of something fast, because I am now most likely public enemy number one. I do not know of this species' culture as a whole, but I assume they might take offense at being defeated in melee combat by an escaped Tenno. Of course, I have no doubts you will come to my aid...just do so quickly."
The Lotus remained silent for a few minutes, leaving Xenmas to look out across the skyline. It was just like the many dark years before the Platinum Age of Humankind. Some time in the ancient past, more ancient then the Orokin Wars, when man wore clunky iron armor to defend himself from thousands of enemy soldiers standing at the doors of his tall stone fortresses. But now, such a place would be nothing more than a memory, the stone and iron returned to the soil from which it came. "Our relay outposts have detected something odd. It may be your ticket back to Origin," she said at length.
"Debriefing, if you please," Xenmas asked her curtly.
"There is a surprisingly large Grineer convoy breaking away from their main trade routes. They were following this message:" Xenmas was greeted by slightly garbled radio static that reverted back to, "Attenhoun, khall Grineer. Ras uk ginff meeseng in peremeter kf Khaaron. Luk forr zuzpizus aktivitoi."
"The ship sent out a distress call before it exploded?" Xenmas asked, although he probably could have guessed the answer.
The Lotus affirmed the Grineer's actions with, "Yes, and now there is a small battle and salvage convoy heading in your direction. I will have an agent board one of the vessels and wait so I may track their galactic co-ordinates. Once that is accomplished, I should be able to easily guess the planet you are stranded on, and send your Liset to aid you."
"Will do," Xenmas said. "What must I do until then?"
"That advice is not mine to give," the Lotus explained, "You must find your own way for now, as my influence does not extend to...wherever you may be."
Xenmas was unsure of how to answer this revelation. He never dreamed, in his artificially extended life, that his routine would get thrown into so much chaos. But he supposed he could manage. He still remembered waking up from his cryopod Earth-decades earlier. He was practically making up his plans as he went along back then; no harm in returning to his roots.
"Tenno?" Lotus asked, anxious of his silence.
"Understood, Lotus," Xenmas replied. "I'll manage." He shut off his comms link and gazed out at the endless night sky and the dozens of rooftops standing between him and phase two of his plan. He vaulted across the gap between him and a low-lying rooftop and kept on running up the masonry all around the castle.
Author's Note
In case you have no clue what the Grineer are talking about, use this dandy little page.
"Ito bite. Chejipejee."
The two Crewmen held their Dakra rifles at point blank range of the Tenno's face whom they had found skulking around on their carrier. Judging by the blood on his hands, he had somehow been able to kill at least one of their crewmates without alerting the security cameras or the other workers.
"Really, gentlemen, there's no need for such hostilities," said the Tenno they had found with a calm yet raspy voice.
"Tobe-yet! Ulgagtarra hynt hak!" one of them spat out aggressively.
"Oh, no. No funny business, Tenno honor."
"Che? Ibo nakar'ahan...uily yo ne?" asked the other with heavy skepticism.
"Why am I here? Why, gentlemen, that is quite easy," the Tenno trailed off. In a flash, he lowered his hands and somersaulted over one of the crewmen, who started firing their plasma rifles rapidly from the sudden fear his movements caused. He kicked the one he jumped over, sending him sprawling across the floor. With a fluid swing of the red and black scythe he carried on his back, he cleaved the other Crewman in half horizontally, spilling his red, squishy intestines all over the waxy chrome floor. The Crewman gurgled for a minute and was eventually silent. Staring back at his other foe, who was new trembling after having dropped his weapon and witnessed the Tenno's potential savagery, he vaulted over and right on top of the unfortunate soul. The Tenno gripped the sides of his enemy's box helmet and finished, "I'm here for your blood!" in a savage tone and proceeded rip the Crewman's heart right out of his chest with the sharp "fingernails" on the hands of his Warframe.
Casually tossing the heart aside and leaving his prey to die an excruciating death, the Tenno stood up to his full height and walked in the opposite direction. He did not get very far, as he heard a light ringing in his ear. He brought up his palm to activate his comms link.
"Yes...? Oh, hello, Lotus. What a pleasure to hear your voice again. It's been so long," he crooned.
"It has been an hour, Grymm," Lotus replied, unamused.
"Ah, you really should lighten up. All the worries of the balance of the galaxy is starting to wear away on your conscience," the Tenno called Grymm replied in his light, raspy voice. "But I'm fairly certain that's not why you called me. Who else must be put to rest?"
"There has been a change of plans," Lotus explained. "To make a long story short, another Tenno has been cut of from me on the galactic co-ordinate plane. I need you to lead me to him. I will explain in more detail along the way."
"A rescue mission, eh? This should be interesting. Where do I go?" he asked in excited amusement.
"There is a Grineer convoy approximately twelve cubes z-axis deep, x-axis right, and y-axis up. I need you to board one of the carriers. It does not matter which one, the only rule in play for now is that you must do everything in your power to never make your presence known. Do anything and everything to make sure you are not detected. If you cannot do that, the Tenno you aim to help me find will either be delayed indefinitely at best and lost entirely at worst. Whenever you are ready."
Grymm glanced out the bay window to his left to see his Liset hovering alongside the carrier. "I will be there in approximately five Earth-minutes," he said with a malicious grin hidden under his helmet. He deactivated his comms link and backed up, away from the window. He then dashed toward it like he was possessed and dove at and out the window into the vacuum of space. Twisting around like a graceful ballerina, he unsheathed his scythe once again and used it like and ice pick to hook on to the Liset. He waited a few seconds until a hole was cut out under him and slid away. He fell into the interior of the ship and watched the hatch the ship made reset itself and close, where it was reabsorbed into the ship.
"Good old Orokin tech and its self-replication," he said jovially. He sauntered over to the navigation module of the ship and knelt down, focusing his consciousness. As he thought about where he wanted to go, the Liset obeyed, and it fired up its thrusters, charging bravely ahead into the depths of the solar system.
