The Eternal Storm
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Cephalon Ordis Maintenance Program Online.
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User C/Access Cephalon Ordis Secondary Memory Matrix.
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Accessing...
1 Data File Folder Found/Operator Mission Observation Entries.
User C/Open Folder.
Accessing...
198 Files Found.
User C/Run Security Scan Lv 3.
Security Scan Initiated...
ANOMALY DETECTED!
Unregistered Data Entry Found/File Sub Folder: X/File Subject: Unknown/Time Stamp: Absent.
Chance Of Viral Threat Medium!/Recommend File Isolation And Data Purge.
User C/Open Sub Folder X.
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Password Required:(Sunset) ******
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Accessing...
ERROR: Data Corruption Detected!/File Sub Folder: X Data Integrity at 0.5%.
Warning!/Chance Of System Threat High!/Recommend Data Purge.
User C/Run File Data Recovery.
Warning!/Chance Of System Threat High!/Strongly Recommend Data Purge.
User C/Bypass Security Protocol:Run File Data Recovery/Command Code (10ZER0) ******
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File Data Integrity at 0.7%...
File Data Integrity at 0.9%...
File Data Integrity at 1.0%...
1 File Recovered/File #001.
User C/Play File:001.
Synchronizing User Cognitive Relay Interface...
Accessing Memory Weave File...
- File 001: Blast Off -
Space. Space is the place. It's so quiet out here, in the star speckled black where all is stillness and silence. Out here everything was alright, everything was calm, all was still and serene. No noise, no action, no disturbances to the peace.
Here there was no war. No thundering of gun to the hammering beat of the heart that made all ears ring. No burning of muscles or aching creak of bone spurred to the sight of blood on blades. No foes to slay and no innocents to save. No unending battle to win and no fresh crisis to avert.
Out here there were no Grineer to hunt him, no Corpus to chase him, no Infested trying to absorb him, and no Sentients trying to erase him. They were all far far away, in the cradling light of the Origin System, waging their war against one another and everyone else.
But not here in this corner of space. His space. Out here it was just him and that's just what he needed, some space. Quiet peaceful vast space, between him and everything else. A place in space to just be.
He was Tenno, the legend, the warrior, the devil, the angel, the betrayer, the hero. Bearer of the legendary Warframes and living legacy of the Orokin Empire. A myth, a walking fairytale centuries old. He was all these things and yet just one person. One of many who all bore the same name.
The Tenno are a nation of individuals that were everywhere when needed and nowhere when sought. A shadowed force ever on the move and never anywhere for too long. Only ever seen and heard on the field of battle as a cataclysmic force of steel and fury that swept across their foes with unbridled power and skill unmatched by any.
Many believed them to be unstoppable. But he, this singular Tenno, was not unstoppable, not everlasting in strength. Even he needed to rest his body, relax his mind, and recharge his spirit. Which was not an easy thing to do when surrounded by a swirling storm of chaos and conflict.
So he came here, to the edge of known space, the farthest from the ever burning light that was his home star his species had ever gone. Only here at the border between his home and the endless expanse of star speckled black could he be far enough away from the call of battle to be able to tune it out and focus on himself.
He wouldn't be here long, just long enough to find himself again. The war would still be there when he got back. He'd be surprised if it wasn't.
Whether it would be a pleasant surprise or a horrible one, depending on the exact outcome, is a series of possibilities he'd rather not think about however. No, this was not the time to lose himself to potentially depressing stressful thoughts of the “what if” variety.
He needed to relax, rekindle his inner strength and sharpen his bladed focus. The sooner he could do that then the sooner he could get back to the people who needed him and out here with nothing else around for literal light years he doubted he would be disturbed. An maybe, just maybe, the voices would be quiet for once.
An he almost believed that, until the proximity alarm that was his ship cephalons panicked voice shattered his tranquility like a storm of bullets through thin glass.
====
A small figure seated in a meditative lotus position upon the sole carpeted spot of the floor within the metal room twitched violently at having his concentration broken. Drabed in a simple black full body suit with blue accents that ended just below his chin his young face twisted into a grimace making for a very pained look as his pale skin contorted with blackened scars that spread across the near entirety of his face. Like roots of a black tree growing from the center of the his temple between his eyes and outward with six small purposefully shaped silver metal stubs anchored into where the rugged flesh seemed thickest before it faded into his skin the further out to the edges of his profile.
Charred black eye lids opened at half lid revealing full shining star orbs of purest white nested in the blackest void, the starry light quickly dimmed allowing normal true blue iris eyes settled in healthy blood veined white sciera to be seen save for the constant dilating pulsing blue circles within the pupils that gave an indication there was something unnatural going on inside the luminous spheres. A puff of a sigh escaped the Tennos lips as he ran a black covered hand up over his pale scarred forehead to his near bare stubbled head, “Ordis, calm done for five ticks and then report.”
As Tenno spoke he fluidly rose from his seated posture at the large windowed wall that gave him a wonderful view of the star filled universe and turned around to face the rest of his personal quarters before heading for the door at the opposite side. Already anticipating that this disturbance wouldn't be settled quickly he mentally issued a command to his Somachord to pause the meditation track currently playing via the gray plated Cognitive Relay attached to the right of his forehead as he said, “And do it at a slower pace please. Some of us can't speak or process information at the speed of light.”
He didn't spare a glance to the many items that decorated the smooth rounded metal walls and embedded display cases he passed as he ascended the small steps to the elevated floor that led to his destination of the self sealing automated hatch doors that opened to the rest of his homes interior.
After precisely five seconds the electric crackle of Ordis, his personal artificial intelligence construct space ship pilot, technician, assistant, companion, friend, and all around space nanny answered him.
“Apologies operator, I know you didn't wish to be disturbed but I thought you would like to know that I- HAVE MET THE ENEMY!! - have detected several objects approaching us at high speeds.”
That got his attention.
“There is a high probability that they're enemy vessels!”
That got him running.
He sprinted the rest of the way down the corridors of the floor up the ramp to and past the service hall of the second level to the front of his star vessel and hopped up an access ramp that was still in the process of lowering into the forward docked Liset landing craft that doubled as his Orbiters primary cockpit and started scanning the endless stars outside the large frontal one way glass view port.
“Has the cloak field been compromised!?” He asked, keeping his star bright eyes on their twinkling namesakes for any impostors. “What faction?”, he added.
“No Operator, void cloak integrity is at one hundred percent, we have not been detected.”
He sounded unsure almost apologetic, he was probably beating himself up about failing his duties somehow in some silly way and was interpreting Tenno being on edge as being angry and disappointed in him. Tenno would normally quickly abolish these baseless anxieties but right now the situation at hand came first.
“And I believe that based on the energy readings and pattern of their movements, plus the absence of constant pointless radio chatter, they are either Corpus drones or Sentients.” The situation definitely came first. “We should have visual confirmation in seventeen point fifty six seconds.”
Too fast. They would be on top of them in moments. Not enough time to drop the cloak and move without being seen.
“Shall I power up the weapon systems and- BLOW THEM OUT OF THE STARS!! -await your command to fire?”
Sometimes Ordis' outbursts from his bloodthirsty past persona were a treat to hear and had good ideas that the Tenno could get behind. But this was not one of those times.
While the Orbiter had plenty of shielding and armor, and the personal additions of auto cannon turrets and missile pods made it capable of dishing out damage as well as taking it, it was still a stealth ship. Not a battle cruiser. It couldn't maneuver well and its armaments weren't as many or powerful as a war ship. It was essentially a sneaky flying house with some guns and a fancy stealth generator. A dog fight would be suicide.
“No Ordis, keep the cloak up and maintain position. No emissions or noise. Until they fire the first shot we assume they don't know we're here.”
A preemptive strike may have been a wiser decision but until he knew for certain that they knew he was here he would play it safe and calm. They shouldn't know he was here, he never told anybody about his excursions into frontier space. Not even his own clan could know where he was exactly in the entirety of the galaxy.
So most likely these were scouts sent by paranoid minds to search for a threat that wasn't there or someone was hoping to get lucky and find something in all this emptiness. Whichever it was, he wasn't about to give them the satisfaction of being right. Tenno didn't back down from a potential fight but that didn't mean they wouldn't welcome an avoidable one.
As he contemplated his strategy in his mind his eyes saw them. Dozens of little stars had started moving out of alignment with the rest and were quickly growing in brightness and size. The fluid movement and color of the streaking lights were enough to clue him in to their identity before he could see their flowing thin wire framed bodies. Sentients.
Those gangly coat hanger limbed flashlight brained murder machines were moving like a school of the deadliest fish in the starry ocean and coming straight towards him. This made more sense, the Corpus never did anything unless their was a high chance for success or profit in it. But the Sentients didn't care about material wealth or even chance, they were near immortal machines that were thorough in everything they did. They would have the common sense to send patrols along the fringes of the Origin System to keep their prey trapped within or intercept fleeing refugees and would have the infinite mechanical patience to actually stick to the strategy no matter the lack of results.
Tenno was going to have to find a new quiet place to have his alone time. Provided he managed to get out of this mess. As the kaleidoscope of deadly lights approached his personal space his nerves began to cool from hot tension to cold intent.
“Ordis, maintain covert cover and don't fire unless fired upon first, if they engage don't try to outmatch them. Just keep them away and scattered and make a full burn back toward Origin space.”
He backed away from the glass canopy and knelt upon the floor atop the raised rounded access hatch that would let him slide into the under level of the docked Liset. Where the loadout of equipment he used in his last mission was still securely stored and ready to receive him.
“I'll handle them myself, and make you a window for a void jump. Plot a course for the inner belt and prepare for protocol hard rock.”
The protocol was a simple plan and a often used one for Tenno, head to the one place in the system that even the enemy wouldn't go lightly and lose them in the ever tumbling and colliding giant rocks that made up the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Going to the Kuiper Belt would've been fine as well but the inner system was friendly territory. Well, more friendly than the outer system anyway. A Tenno does their best to think ahead and if something went wrong, he would have a higher chance of being able to get timely help from capable bodies if he was closer to home than farther away.
Since his enemies were Sentients and thus most likely not to follow him through the hellscape of the Void he was sure his chances of escape were high. Machines they may be but even they didn't like the idea of becoming sterilized. Tenno always found it interesting and humorous that sapient machines who condemned organic life as a blight would harbor such a primal fear of having their ability to continue their species taken from them. Guess it didn't matter if you were blood or metal, if you where smart enough to perceive something you had that was important then you would fear its lose.
But that didn't mean they wouldn't be bold or that some wouldn't see his termination as a worthy price for their sacrifice of potential prodigy. After all, he was well acquainted with one being that had made that choice for her mission.
~Failure~
His focus slipped. His cool mind began to heat up with emotions as whispers began to hiss from a place he shouldn't be hearing them from.
~Betrayer~
Tenno was starting to feel a hot force of something churning in his chest.
~Murderer~
“No!... No.Now is not the time for that. They are not her. Don't go there.”
“Operator?” Sweet static filled his ear and brought him back. “Are you alright? I detected a slight surge of void energy emanating from you.” How could he be such a lovable godsend and such an annoying busybody at the same time?
A deep cooling breath filled his lungs. “I'm fine Ordis. Focus on the enemy.”, he replied with a voice of curt calm.
“Ah! Yes, of course Operator. Um, about that, it seems that they aren't actually coming straight at us but rather will make a very very close pass.”
Tenno opened his eyes, not trying to remember when he had clamped them shut, and observed the approaching fleet of alien glow sticks.
Dozens of wired drones were spinning in a circular net pattern around a single large ship that had a passing semblance to a deep sea squid. Swimming backwards with six bony limbs connected to form a twisted spiraling cone at its front and what looked like a closed flower bud for a tail end, while the trademark caged orb of pure light at the center served as the eye and heart connected the two ends. It was spinning at the very center nexus of the rotating formation in sync with the drones. That behavior was new, as was the larger alien body, it wasn't one Tenno had encountered before. It didn't look like the Orphix invasion ships that had rained all across the system heralding the beginning of the New War. If only he could remember everything from the Old War then he may have an idea of what he was dealing with.
But despite the large circumference of the spinning net the angle of their approach seemed off for a direct intercept and instead they appeared to be heading up and overhead. Ordis was right, like he was about most calculations, the spinning mass of enemies would just pass them by. And they did, the predatory swarm flowed right over the top of the orbiter completely oblivious to the presence of their prey.
But stars almighty were they too close for comfort. Tenno didn't move, didn't blink, barely breathed, he felt that if he so much as spoke the swarm would hear him and be upon him in an instant with beams of pure white hot fire. A few feet closer and some would have been bouncing off of the Lisets canopy like giant bugs on a windshield. For Tenno, being this close to his ancient foe and not unloading a shotgun into their shining cores made the perilous situation even stranger to say the least.
Seconds that felt like hours passed in the silence. Not even Ordis dared to brake it. The streaking lights didn't slow, within a minute they were gone from Tennos sight, but he could still see them. The central holographic console in front of him was projecting a radar display that showed a clustered line of little red triangles sweeping over the center of a pulsing circle.
A few more seconds and they would completely overtake the Orbiter. It looked like Tenno and Ordis would be spared from battle this day in space. As the line of dots began to clear the inner circle that was the Orbiters sphere of space Tenno took a slow breath and-
+THUNK+
… “Shit.”
Sprang into action!
“Ordis!” Tenno shouted as the floor hatch sank down and split open and he fell down.
“Engines engaged Operator! Weapons are- GOING LOUD!!”, Ordis answered, his declaration punctuated by a muffled boom! No doubt the sentient drone that had inadvertently tagged them had just been vaporized. The last thing it saw being the business end of a decloaking plasma cannon firing point blank into its star light face. Normally such a moment, recorded by the outer hull cameras, would require an instant replay. But Tennos mind was focused elsewhere as he went through the motions of donning his awaiting armor in the only way a Tenno could. By embracing the Void.
Once he had slid down the access hatch he invoked a power from deep within himself, an alien force that had become so much a part of him and his life that calling upon it was as natural to him as breathing. As the energy erupted outward from within his deepest depths he felt every cell of his body go numb for a split second before becoming overwhelmed with sensation as every fiber of his body felt like it was combusting into flame while growing and being stretched in every direction. Like molten metal being poured into a mold nearly twice his size. It hurt like hell.
But after an instant it was over and then he felt so good, like waking up from a deep slumber that was so rejuvenating he couldn't remember the phantom pain of the nightmare he had endured. Instead his body was awash with euphoria as he felt his muscles ripple with power, his bones settle into solid unyielding strength, and his skin cooled into metal while he tingled all over with an all encompassing energy. An as his body experienced the joys of waking up his mind did the opposite and embraced the sweet enrapturing comfort of slumber. He felt his conscious lift into a weightless cloud as his eyes closed and his minds eye opened. Beholding the universe through the lucid Second Dream, a state of being awake but not, that borderland between consciousness and dreamland. The mental place were one was in their purest state of self and it felt like anything was possible.
This was Transferance. The binding of his mind, body, and very soul to that of a surrogate host, a vessel designed and built to act as a conduit for his alien energies. The Warframe. The body, the face of the Tenno. His other half, so simple and yet complex, best described with existing wisdom as a mysterious weaponized armor controlled solely by the Tenno. Through the Warframe, Tenno could cheat death, channel the mysterious Void energy and face scores of enemies without fatigue.
He didn't have long to settle into his new skin before he felt the g-forces of being launched out the forward bow of the Orbiter like a torpedo. A hulking horned mass of white and black metal armor with golden accents came roaring out of the Orbiter and into the stars on blue comet wings.
Rhino, the unstoppable force, had joined the fight.
Rhino came about on white and gold wings trailing blue, the Odonata archwing attached at his lower back allowing him to direct his momentum, and quickly surveyed his battlefield. The Sentients were swarming around the Orbiter. Some diving and strafing before making nimble maneuvers to dart away from pursuing mini missiles while others where trying to get in close to pound at the ships outer hull with their clubbed arms but were being chased off by cannon fire. Ordis was undoubtedly having a frustrating time, that was to be expected, but what confused Rhino was that the larger enemy ship hadn't begun pursing or even joined the battle but was just sitting in place. That was troubling. But first things first, Ordis needed breathing room to make a void jump and while those drones lacked firepower to kill a beast as large as the Orbiter they could cause irreparable damage to the ships engines and leave them stranded and at the swarms mercy. The enemy numbers had to be culled.
Rhino reached to his left wing and unsheathed from its inner fold a gray and white slab of steel that telescoped out to assemble a massive laser blue edged blade, the Veritux. He dashed forward to meet his enemy with his blade held in front of him with his off hand bracing the back of the blade. With one streaking pass he cleaved straight through several drones leaving severed limbs and split bodies in his wake. He quickly spun about and angled for the other side of the Orbiter before rocketing once more into the haze of enemies. The same results were achieved as he left debris fields of amputated bodies and sparking shards of metal in his wake.
The drones quickly took notice and focused in mass upon him now, breaking off from their swooping attacks against the Orbiter and began trailing after him unleashing a rain of focused beams from their shining cores. He wanted this, he Blinked away from the Orbiter, teleporting out of the enemies fire and further out into open space. The drones quickly followed without missing a beat and began spreading out to try and envelop their target. Rhino twirled in place to face them and his wings then flared out to his sides as several pulses of light flashed from them an several mini missiles scattered out from within the wings and rocketed to meet the pursuing drones. They broke formation and tried to avoid the incoming explosives but the Seeking Fire Missiles tracked their targets without fail an several explosions marked their successful impacts.
A quarter of the drones had been dismantled so far but that still left the majority, most of which were still coming at him while a few others were circling back to harass the Orbiter. “Not happening.” Rhino boosted forward as a large blue sparkling square field materialized in front of him. Living up to his name Rhino charged through the attacking drones with his Energy Shell deflecting their beams and knocking them away. He caught up with the others harassing his ship and quickly began zipping from one target to the next cleaving them neatly in half with ease. Beams of light danced around him as the drones he had just run over came for him again and the ones he had pursued turned and let loose their own bolts.
As the drones closed around him he blinked away to avoid their blinding gazes of death, boosting further for a small distance the drones obediently followed with all of them in tow this time. Rhino swiveled around but kept his velocity up flying backwards to continue the chase as he stowed his over sized blade back in its wing sheath. He then reached for his right wing to pull out a large black and yellow lined box that whirred and clanked as it expanded out into a quad barreled flak cannon and with a satisfying pull of the trigger the Grattler began unloading a rapid fired spray of death into the trailing enemies. The lead drones were quickly pulverized into shrapnel by the force of the fist sized explosive flak bullets streaming into them and the rest quickly spread out again to avoid the onslaught.
The battle was going well as now more than half the drones had been decimated at only twelve minutes in but Rhino still had a worry in his mind. A quick glance showed that the larger vessel still hadn't engaged, instead it just seemed to be staying idle in space, and was its core glowing that brightly before?
“Operator the Orbiter is clear, Void fold imminent, get back to the ship!”
His nanny was calling, better head back. Rhino stowed his flack cannon and once again shield charged his way through the remaining drones before rapidly blinking to catch up to his flying space house.
If Rhino had looked back he would have seen the Sentient ship had suddenly began blossoming open on both ends with massive flowing petals unfurling at the rear and its many frontal arms unclasping and straightening as its starred core began glowing brighter with pooling energy.
“Void fold in thirty seconds Operator, hurry inside!”
Rhino made one last blink to the starboard side of the Orbiter and clasped a hold on the smooth outer hull as an airlock opened to admit him inside.
“Void Fold in fifteen seconds, fourteen, thirteen, twelve, -” Ordis suddenly stopped his countdown, “Wait, that Sentient ship, I'm detecting massive energy building within it!”
Rhino stopped short of fully entering the threshold of the airlock and leaned back as his horned head turned to eye the enemy vessel. He beheld a fully bloomed massive scarlet flower of power twirling in space with a blazing star at the center of its four petals and six pointing rotating rigid spears with streaks of jagged light dancing between them at the front aiming perfectly right at him.
If the warframes faceless armored helms didn't cover their eyes then Rhino was sure his would have grown to be the size of Lua.
“It's going to fire! Ordis Evade!”, he screamed!
“Operator I can't! The engines are about to fold into the void! We'll veer off course and-”
“MOVE DAMMIT!!”
The Orbiter suddenly lurched and shook as several maneuvering vents and airlocks on its port side popped open all at once causing the ship to quickly boost to its right out of its original flight path and then start rapidly barrel rolling. Rhino gripped the siding of the airlock he was nested in hard bending the metal under his strong grip to keep himself from being flung out and away from the rapidly spinning vessel. Even his wings reflexively flared out to brace themselves against the doorway as the universe spun in front of him. The ship was truly out of control now and any normal opponent would have had trouble getting a clean shot on such an erratic target.
But the Sentients weren't normal, the shining flower simply swiveled on its axis perfectly on point with its rolling target and fired. A solid beam of blinding pure white lanced out of the petaled cannon quicker than lightning and pierced straight through one of the Orbiters six engines.
The resulting explosion of the released energy from the charging engine was a spectacular miniature nova of fire and light, even the ever suffocating silence of space was shattered by the colossal reverberating boom. The glorious light show was over in a literal flash as the fire quickly suffocated in the vacuum of space leaving a nebula cloud of burnt dust and glinting specks of charred metal spinning in its wake. And nothing else. The few surviving Sentient drones flew around and across the ashen cloud searching for any hint of invisible deception and found none.
The Orbiter and the Tenno were gone.
- End of File -
Author's Note
Notes: If you don't know the Warframe universe then you can check out their wiki page because there is a lot of information that well require context for those unfamiliar with the game to understand what exactly is going on and I'm not going to go out of my way to bring a library of info into the story. They also have pictures, but if enough people want me to post screenshots to give a better picture of my characters personal warframes and equipment then I'll get some pics up for you all to see.
Reviews are welcome and please keep comments decent.
The Eternal Storm
Data Recovery In Progress...
2 Files Recovered.
User C/Play File:002.
Synchronizing User Cognitive Relay Interface...
Accessing Memory Weave File...
- File 002: To Boldly Go -
*Thunk*
The Void.
It was a weird place, an enigma, an endless expanse of emptiness that defied the laws of reality. Nothing made sense there. Not like outer space, at least space had things in it like stars and planets and the odd comet that all followed an observable set of rules. The Void had no rules.
Even after decades of research, experimentation, and exploration by the greatest minds of an immortal generation no progress had been made to even answer the first question. What is the void? Not even the Tenno could answer that question despite their intimate past with the twisted hellscape. Mainly because none of them could remember most of their time there, and even if they did one certain Tenno didn't think they would be able to adequately form an answer anyway, and he didn't think he wanted to be able to.
*Thunk*
Tenno hated the void, the very idea of going back to that place was a sickening thought, and being there was never a good experience. His many missions across the Origin System had taken him to the strangest and most inhospitable of places but none had as sinister a feeling in the air as the Void. The many derelicts and abandoned towers that had been left adrift for millennia in that forbidden realm were the only places he had ever dared to go and even then it was out of necessity.
The monstrosities he faced in those places weren't direct products of their extra dimensional environment but they still had enough of a resemblance to his personal demons that confronting them gave him plenty of goosebumps every time he dived in. Even traveling via void jumps upset him.
*Thunk*
A void jump was a process of traveling a great distance by briefly entering the fold, the border space between the Void and the Universe humanity called home, a literal way of skirting around the laws of physics to allow for faster than light travel. A great convenience for space goers and ninja warriors alike. But whether it was an enjoyable experience depended on who you asked.
Sure some would say the colors and flashing images seen during a fold jump were pretty, made the experience mystical, even beautiful, but those people were not Tenno. None knew better than the Tenno that the dangers of the Void don't just affect the body but the mind as well. The Void had a dangerous corruptive effect on the minds of sentient beings, turning rational and peaceful minds into mad animals of malicious intent, no one could explain this sinister phenomenon. Even brief exposure of a small dose of ambient void energy could warp a persons perception and twist their personalities into any number of possible psychosis.
*Thunk*
Even from the safety of a shielded cockpit being so close to the Void would make Tennos stomach knot into a heavy iron ball every time. So seeing it up close and personal outside of his Orbiter, even while inside the walking fortress that was his warframe Rhino, was a terrifying experience for the space ninja. Especially while spinning so wildly out of control and that the veil seemed to be having the mother of all maelstroms at the same time didn't help his stress.
For even though he hadn't been physically harmed the maelstrom had did a number on his psyche. His mind felt twisted and torqued into gray matter noodles. The experience was harrowing enough that it had even caused him to black out.
*Thunk!*
He didn't know how long he had been unconscious but the pounding headache and lethargy of fog around his thoughts told him it wasn't too long. Not long enough to fully sleep off his ordeal. An while he would have gladly continued to sleep to regain his mental strength something was pulling at his senses in an aggravating manner he did not appreciate.
*THUNK!*
“Alright! What is that!?” Rhino opened his hidden armored eyes to behold a blurry giant light inches from his face. He stared with a blank mind, was this the light every one saw at the end of the tunnel? The light reared back and,
*THUNK!*
Smacked against his plated face. Rhino's clouded vision cleared a little and the identity of the antagonistic light illuminated itself to be a little blue and gold gourd shaped hand bag with a giant built in flashlight at the fat end. It was Carrier the Sentinel Companion.
The little portly machine was shining him right in the face and was apparently trying to revive him by ramming its large light bulb of an eye into his dual layered cranium. Which while it didn't actually hurt it wasn't helping the planet sized headache he was having. He swatted it away, or rather he tried, would his arms could move. He glanced about to see he was still braced spread eagle against the airlock in the Orbiter and that he had bent the metal grips he made around his hands so tightly his fingers had practically melded with the walls.
*THUNK!*
“Okay! Thats it!” Rhino reared back his head ready to headbutt the assaulting ammo pouch but then his skull exploded as an ear splitting shriek pierced straight into his brain.
“Operator!You'realive!Saysomething!Please!Whyaren'tyousayinganything?Didyourbrainturntomush fromoverexposuretothevoid?Ohstarsitdiddidn'tit!Ohwhydidn'tyougetinsidewhenyouhadthechance!Now youravegetableandtheonlyonesI'llbeabletohaveaconversationwithwillbethesentinelsandthepets!”
“ORDIS!” The bound Rhino roared! “SHUT! UP!”
The noise mercifully ceased, “... I need a minute.”
With some slow effort, and careful not to tear the walls anymore than he already had, Rhino wriggled his large armored fingers free from his metal hand holds. The metal easily gave and once free of his braces he shooed away the fat flashlight before it could strike again and with it out of his face he could see out the still open airlock door into the serene be-speckled starscape of space. But it wasn't the sight of the stars that brought him comfort but the giant round curve of a certain blue and green planet. Earth. They had made it, a bit of an overshoot from what he had intended but better this than winding up inside of the planet, or the sun.
He floated out of the door frame with wings and sentinel in tow getting a grander view of humanities birth place, half of it vibrant in the light of the systems sole yellow star and the other half falling under the curtain of night. His aches diminished with the growing comfort of beholding the majestic sight. But his warm feelings were then cruelly cooled as he took notice of his more immediate surroundings. Large pieces of burnt metal, twisted steel, and fried wires floated all around him in a miniature asteroid field. Spinning about he saw what looked like a spaceship but clearly was no longer a spaceship. The whole of his mobile star home was blackened and malformed into what resembled a charred piece of wood. And that was being nice in respect to his home, a more accurate description would be that his spaceship looked like shit.
“Operater are you alright? Please tell me your alright!” The minute was up.
“I'm fine Ordis,” Rhino calmly answered, “I'm at least in better shape than you. Give me a sitrep.”
“Well operator I have good news, bad news, and- TERRIBLE NEWS! -more bad news.”
The headache was already coming back, “Oh great, I think I can guess but whats the bad news?”
“The Orbiter is- F.U.B.A.R! -critically damaged, only 33.3 percent of my systems are online. At least I believe that is correct, I'm sorry Operator but I can't give you a more detailed damage report until my internal systems are fixed enough to do a proper diagnostic.”
Rhino mimed a silent sigh, “Okay, whats the good news?”
“You're still alive!” The Cephalon jubilantly answered.
Rhino's shoulders slumped as he fought down the urge to palm his face lest he send himself flying away from the mighty force of the hit. “I guess I can't complain.” He took a nonexistent breath to mentally brace himself then asked the dreaded question, “And what's the terrible news?”
“We're lost.” Was the instant and far too calm reply.
“… What?”, squeaked the mighty Rhino.
“We're lost.” repeated the frighteningly calm cracked cube.
Another pregnant pause, “What do you mean lost?” Rhinos headache was coming back with avengeance.
“I mean I don't know where we are. Are you sure your brain is functioning correctly Operator?”
“I know what lost means Ordis, what I meant was how are we lost? Earth is right there!” At this point Rhino was gesturing and flinging his limbs wildly about, the only thing keeping him in place was his archwings auto gyroscopic systems canceling his exasperated momentum.
“That is not Earth Operator.” Ordis answered in a quiet tremulous voice that froze Rhino mid pose.
“Again, what?”
“Just look operator. That planet, it is not the Earth. And the stars, they don't match up with my navigation charts. Even with my systems so damaged I can still see that we are not in the Origin system anymore.”
Not Earth? Impossible! That had to be Earth, what else could it be? Ordis must be more damaged than he thought if he was making mistakes like not being able to identify the very planet of their origin. But one thing got the Operators attention, something that had his spine tingling and his heart heavy with fear. Ordis sounded scared
Really scared, the kind of deep mind numbing scared that causes ones voice to tremble and break even when you're outer appearance was calm. Ordis only got that scared in two situations, when the Operator was in direct peril or heading into peril, or when Ordis himself was backed into a corner with despair. Tenno had only heard this fear in Ordis twice before and those memories still chilled him to the heart. For Ordis to be this scared it meant that one or both of those conditions was met.
But what Ordis said couldn't be true. Right? Rhino rotated around to eye the planet behind him. He surveyed the planetary surface looking for something, anything, that could prove Ordis was wrong. That he was simply suffering a malfunction due to damage. But the more Tenno looked the more dread creeped up into his mind. His warframes built in cyber enhanced neuroptics zoomed in and showed him something he was quickly wanting to deny. The continents, the oceans, they were all wrong! Nothing looked right.
The conjoined continent that should have been the Americas was split in two and smaller and they were so close to Europe and Africa that the Atlantic Ocean was half its size, the British Isles were nearly twice their size, and the ice caps of the planets poles were huge! But that wasn't even half of the strange differences that Rhino saw. The Gulf of Mexico looked like a giant horseshoe, the east half of Africa resembled a roaring lions head, the Netherlands were the curved horns of a goats head, Italy's booted peninsula looked like a horses leg, and Alaska was a moose head! The list went on and on the more he looked, until he couldn't look anymore and turned back around to face the burnt wreck of his vessel.
“No way. No. Way.”
He closed his eyes, reset his optics then looked back at the planet. Nope. Still not Earth. His head snapped back and he cradled it in his hands. Ordis was right, that wasn't Earth. They were in a completely different star system! But that couldn't be right, right? That was impossible right? What were the odds? Maybe the void exposure altered his perception, maybe they were still in the fold seeing an illusion or suffering a lingering effect of its energy. Just because the planets surface looked different didn't mean that wasn't the Earth- and then he saw it.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw the angel herald of the night sky. Lua. The moon was beginning to peek out from behind the Earth. Only it wasn't Lua, not the one he was intimately familiar with. Not only was it bigger, it was whole, pure, in one piece. No arching ivory spires or encircling golden rings anchored to a torn shattered surface. But it wasn't what the Moon was missing that got his attention but what it had instead.
“Ordis, is that a unicorn in the moon?”
“I'm afraid so Operator.” The legendary face of the man in the moon had indeed been replaced by what looked like the horned head of the mythical equine of lore. This was beyond illusions or faulty eyes, a warped mind couldn't come up with something this specific or so many differences that were uniform in theme.
But how?! How could they even be here? They hadn't been in the fold that long had they? It may have felt like an eternity to him but no way were they in there long enough to travel such a great distance. Void jumping was fast but not that fast. No, if they were in there long enough to come out in another star system they would have needed an unfathomable amount of energy to keep them in the fold long enough to reach such a place. An with his ship in such a damaged state there was no way they could've had enough power to manage such a feat.
But the facts were adding up and the proof was undeniable. Rhinos cradling hands tightened around his helm and the massive hulk of metal muscle curled up in on himself. Unless the Void really had turned his mind to mush, and affected Ordis too, then this was reality. This was the truth. He was in an alien star system.
“No. NoNoNONO! Not again! NOT AGAIN! This isn't happening. This isn't happening. This isn't really happening! Nothing makes sense! This is impossible!”
Rhinos impenetrable head was quaking with pressure at this point as the Operators mind felt close to bursting. Old thoughts and memories buried deep were quickly rising to the surface. Ancient terrors locked away in the dark battered at their cages as the light faltered. Rhinos breaths were ramping up and his mighty unshakable frame was rattling like Ostron spirit chimes in the wind of a storm. His vision was going black, his heart drumming like machine guns in his ears he-
*Thunk*
He went still... then uncurled his head to look up into the shining starlit eye of Carrier.
*Thunk*
The little Sentinel was headbutting him again but with a much more subdued intent this time. A low sorrowful whine cooed from the little machine as its lighted eye dimmed and nuzzled his horned brow.
“Operator, are you okay? Is there a rupture in your warframe? Is your brain having a delayed hemorrhaging reaction??”
As the maternal cephalon began firing off questions Rhinos quaking mind began to steady and lull into a calmer state. Most of the time the mad cubes fretful ramblings grated on his nerves but in this case his frantic static was actually a great comfort. He uncurled and relaxed his frame as he let his mind go blank to the cephalons white noise while Carrier continued to rub against his helm. He reached up and patted its side and it beeped in a jubilant tone before rubbing against him even more.
The little drones weren't considered as intelligent as their more aggressive alien cousins but they were surprisingly perceptive. The biggest unspoken reason they were ever kept by the Tenno as companions was because of the fact that they seemed to possess the ability of social empathy. They could sense when another being was in distress and learn from their observations to form a response to appeal to the emotional needs of that being. They were like little animals rather than machines in that regard and Ordis' only choice of proxy to provide physical comfort to his Operator.
Some Tenno would often jokingly refer to their Cephalons and Sentinels as 'Deep Space Insanity Avoidance Companions'. Oh how underrated they had made that function sound.
“Ordis.” Rhino said.
“Yes Operator?” Ordis quickly replied, ceasing his string of inquires.
“Thanks.” Rhino said softly.
“Er. Um, you're welcome Operator.”, replied the off guard cube. “Uh may I ask, for what?”
“The usual.” Rhino answered with an unseen but audible smile.
“What?” Asked the perplexed program.
Rhino drifted towards the Orbiter.
“Ordis, deploy the rest of the Sentinels,” Rhino softly ordered. “Have them start collecting as much salvage as they can and gather all the larger metal fragments together before they drift too far.”
He sent a mental command to his golden decorated archwing and it detached from his lower back and sped away towards the front of the Orbiter to store itself back into the forward launcher. As he gripped the airlock doorway, much gentler this time, he said, “I'm coming in to survey the damage and see if I can get some of your systems back online.”
“Oh uh, very well Operator. I'll get them right on that and direct you on the proper maintenance of my system connections as best I can.”
But before Rhino could enter Ordis continued, “Operator? I can assume that once your done repairing my internal systems we'll start work on getting the Orbiter space worthy again. But after that, may I ask, what is it you are planning to do then?”
The golden white armored frame of war halted just before entering his mobile sanctum, pausing only for a moment before continuing on in.
“To move forward Ordis. To move forward.”
==*==
As the Tenno left the stars to survey his home from within several small starlit bodies scattered outward into space, the Sentinels, deployed as per instructions of their computerized commander set to their task. They beeped in super light speed to one another and coordinated their scavenging pattern to quickly begin collecting the smaller viable pieces of their home before they where lost in the vast expanse.
They zipped and whizzed about like dutiful celestial bees. Vacuuming up the smallest pieces around them while bumping or pushing the larger pieces back towards their metal body of origin. Only occasionally colliding with one another and devolving into short fights consisting of aggressive flashes and high pitched beeps and chirps before just as quickly breaking away from one another to continue their anointed task. Dutiful they were, but not the most attentive of entities, for if they were then they might have noticed something amid the nebula of salvage that didn't belong.
Hidden amidst the cloud of twisted metal was a small orb, dull and blackened as the rest of the material that had corralled around it. But this metals origin was not the same as the pieces of ship that surrounded it. As the small dutiful Sentinels continued their task unable to see it the orb pulsed a faint light. It dulled, then lit, then dulled again. Quick and subtle, in a rhythm akin to heartbeat. It drifted away from the central mass of the salvage mess no different than the rest of the debris, but then it began to move quicker. As its pulsing light began to pick up speed so to did its drifting pace. Soon its light became a solid glow as it removed itself from the rest of the metal nebula and streaked across open space. It rocketed towards the only place it could possibly go, the waiting world below.
Fire born of adiabatic heating quickly engulfed the plummeting sphere as it punctured through the atmosphere its own shining light mixing with the flames to give off the likeness of a majestic fireball. The dark alien sphere was camouflaged by the light as a shooting star in the night sky for many to see and make innocent wishes and hopeful prayers on what they thought was a messenger of heaven but was actually a sinister fraud that would bring no tidings of joy or peace. Even to one certain majestic rainbow maned individual who watched from the open terrace of her royal home it was a passing moment of wonder. Allowing one who is too wise to wish to indulge in a glimmer of hope that everything would work out in the near future. That the terrible evil she knew was coming would be vanquished in a way that would bring a happy ending to a sad story all the while unaware that the falling comet was actually a harbinger of more terrible things to come.
As the alien star streaked across the sky and down behind the horizon and peaking mountains towards lands of barren wilderness most wouldn't be able to see its fall from the heavens and many would just dismiss it after a glance but one young creature would see its final destination. All too close. As the sphere fell, hot and intense, to the waiting dirt below a small filly who was gray in every shade sat waiting to meet it. As the falling star got brighter and larger in her view her awe filled face quickly began to morph to one of terror at the imminent danger of the rapidly approaching fireball and wisely sprinted in the opposite direction as fast as her short legs could move.
*BOOOOOM!!!*
The shockwave of the impact and the accompanying explosion of dirt was enough to send the young filly tumbling and rolling head over hooves many times before coming to a grinding halt with chin firmly implanted in soil and hind legs with plot pointed skyward. Not a flattering pose to be sure. Dazed and dizzy for a few short minutes she soon corrected her bodies alignment to its natural poise and shook her shaken senses back into alignment as the dust fell off her furred body. After a moment of silence the disturbed cloud of earth drawn up from the stars landing began to settle and the filly could see her surroundings again and beheld a massive crater in the earth that would have been her grave had she not moved.
Now while most creatures would have obeyed their basic instincts and fled after such an event, this gray little pony obeyed her curiosity. And rather than backing away from the crater she began to tentatively creep closer. Clearly enticed by the now eerie light radiating from within the hole she crept closer 'till she had reached the sunken edge and peered down within. An there resting deep in the center of the bowled earth she beheld a glowing sphere.
Now being so young and her people having no knowledge of the things that dwelled among the stars she understandably couldn't have known of the many dangers possibly associated with a strange object that fell from the sky. So of course the foreign rock was a beautiful gem in her eyes, a rare specimen from heaven, and not an obvious threat to her life and the lives of everyone on the planet. So of course she promptly slid down into the crater, walked up to the glowing rock, pried it out of the compacted ground and picked it up to get a closer look by bringing it right up to her face.
…
Fortunately for her nothing else happened after that, the space orb remained an orb and the soft glow dimmed down and didn't relight. Not realizing the danger it truly represented she didn't think twice before trotting out of the crater with her prize towards her humble home. A hop in her steps as she was delighted to add this new wonderful addition to her growing collection of stone elements. But as she trotted on with a happy smile she failed to notice that the precariously balanced Orb upon her back had taken a shine to itself as a mysterious colorless gel had begun to coat its surface.
The Orb pulsed a faint flash as the lustrous gel layer grew just a little bit more.
- End of File -
