- Location
- none of your business
Agreed, want moar glorious instruments of death
Reliquary Drive Failure: (Warframe SI/AU)
- Thread starter HarakoniWarhawk
- Start date
- Sci-Fi
Chapter Fourteen: Mind The Step And Hope For The Best.
HarakoniWarhawk
Striking from the Skies
- Location
- Holy Terra
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Y'all can thank Broldakka over on SB for this one; well, that and writing some Post-War Mara and family in Halo snippets on QQ.
Music for the chapter is from Miracle of Sound.
"Clear the hall!"
I reacted to the now-familiar shout from Kaz and hugged a wall alongside my fellow Tenno as he moved into the vacated space and opened fire. Thunder and lightning erupted into existence from the muzzle of his doom cannon and scythed through the wailing horde of the damned. Buzzing, snapping chains of lightning created a web alongside the radioactive shrapnel, ensnaring the now-screaming shades a split second before the hallway exploded. A wave of heat washed over me as I cheered at the top of my lungs, exchanging high-fives with Kira and Tavor while Kaz disappeared in a cloud of vapourised coolant. Apparently, a love of excessive devastation against targets that deserved it was something every Tenno shared, something I knew my protector wasn't entirely comfortable with.
That's why I made sure to wave at his outline in my HUD while he visibly and audibly replaced the spent ammo block, pushing enough positive emotions into our bond to make the silly lump briefly pause to wave back.
"Hallway's clear," Tanner informed Kaz once he left the dissipating cloud. "Bean kept a watch."
The Kubrow in question chuffed from his spot at the next intersection, prompting a mostly-faked sigh from the big Grineer, who totally wasn't looking forward to chewing us out for forgetting to keep watch. I flashed my older brother a thankful hand sign behind Kaz's back before hurrying to catch up when he began walking down the hall. Something easier said than done, given the Grineer's longer stride, a thought that heralded a suspiciously rapid slow down to let me keep pace. Kaz didn't say anything as my family and Immeya's group settled into position on either side of him, weapons and glowing hands ready to fire, but I knew a proud smile lurked behind his white mask.
"I'm not smiling," Kaz denied under his breath.
Silly Grineer, I can hear you smiling. "That's what you said when you started running the boot camp."
Scattered laughter pushed back the medbay's oppressive atmosphere as my siblings caught the quip and agreed with the unspoken sentiment. Immy gamely pretended to cough to hide her amusement, the redhead's admirable attempt failing as Kaz grumbled something under his breath and broke her composure. And yet, despite the playful joking around, nobody spent too long without scanning their surroundings. Memories of the first trip here stood in stark relief to Kaz and Immeya's family along for round two: electric boogaloo, uneasily existing alongside one another. I caught Wally in the gleam of a shattered mirror as we entered a somewhat more damaged section, but my Doppelganger merely shook her head and vanished as we passed out of sight.
The reassurance didn't stop me from taking solace in brushing my fingers against the Mara Detron at my hip, though.
It wasn't long before our cautious forward pace slowed, but not for lack of caution on our parts; no, that'd be too easy. What had Immeya directing her sibling to take cover long before the next corridor while we hid behind Kaz came down to a lack of spooky void zombies. I closed my eyes and searched the Void for any hint of the pervasive wrongness exuded by the monsters, yet, other than our group's mild collective nervousness, there wasn't so much as a peep. The entire thing was made all the more nerve-wracking by a seemingly unified desire to stay quiet and hunker down, which lasted as long as it took Immeya's irritation to override her caution and speak.
Insert a witty quip here about fiery redheads that I was way too fucking spooked to voice out loud.
"Hey, Tanner?" Immeya asked as she peered around a corner. "Wasn't Lillaen supposed to contact us by now?"
My brother glanced up at the ceiling. "You there, 'Lill?"
Speak of the devil, and he shall appear, a discrete port irising open to disgorge the medical Cephalon's mobile drone. I kept a wary eye on the silver and green shell as it floated closer without speaking up until Lillaen reached us and tried to whisper.
"Oh, I'm so very sorry about that, Master Tanner!" he 'whispered' in the loosest sense of the word. "There was this..."
Tanner clamped a hand over the drone's vocaliser and said something too low for me to catch. But, thankfully, it put some sense into the scatterbrain Cephalon as he floated free of my brother's grasp, though much lower than previously, as if embarrassed. I eased around the drifting shell and leaned out around the next corner with an eye on my surroundings and an ear listening out for Lillaen.
"There have been some intriguing energy readings around the hidden compartments," I heard more than saw the drone twirl in place. "I can't rightfully tell what they are, mind, but I've been having a jolly good time following the pattern."
A burst of something at the edge of my Void awareness prompted me to flash Kaz the hand sign for 'scouting' and stick my head around the corner in search of the oddity. The lack of, well, anything noticeable beyond a couple of busted ceiling panels made me frown, the flickering pulse hinting at something I couldn't see for unknown reasons. If I had to put the feeling into words, it's like sensing the ancient RTG-powered navigation beacons littered around Jupiter's orbit in places long-forgotten by Grounders without tuning your array. Pulling my helmet off to check the radio revealed no crossed wires or degraded circuits that might have explained the faint transmission. So, closing my eyes, I pulled upon my connection to the Void and cast a wider net in search of the mystery signal...
"What do you mean they're everywhere?"
Only for Jules' question to wrench me from the zone and ruin my admittedly amateur attempt at looking beyond the immediate area. I left Lillaen's response and the group behind as I moved a short distance down the corridor and crouched beside a somewhat withered plant, absently giving the poor thing a little boost before taking another look at the hall. Despite it looking no different than a minute and several metres ago, I could have sworn a heat distortion clouded the somewhat battered deck plating. Cycling through my mask's new modes (thanks, Kaz!) turned up decking at the exact same temperature as its surroundings which ruled out the heat theory, but I knew there was something there just beyond my comprehension. Unfortunately, that Sol-damned faint signal chose that moment to rise in pitch, a call for something that never reached the point of understanding.
I couldn't shake the feeling that whatever this was had a link to my mystery relative somewhere deeper within the medbay.
"Fuck this bullshit," I muttered and left the plant behind. "I'm coming for you, whatever you are."
I managed all of a step into the hazy patch before two critical things occurred.
The first was Kaz's end of our bond flaring in alarm before the Grineer rushed around the corner in a dead-sprint, causing me to turn and see what the fuss was about.
That led to the second event, which was that I wasn't watching where I was going and felt something hard and angular beneath my boot. I glanced down in time to see the entire hazy patch resolve into a wall-to-wall cluster of hexagonal objects arranged into a distinctive pattern and releasing high-energy particles. Kaz's wordless cry blended with my terrified gasp as I tried to back out of the minefield I'd stumbled into... Forgetting the mine I'd stepped on until my boot lifted, and it clicked.
A flash of light, some barely felt pain in my extremities, and a truncated scream was the last things I experienced before I died.
It didn't hurt nearly as much as I expected, to be honest.
"C'mon, you can't just sit there and do the leaky eye thing."
I resolutely ignored Wally's blunt words and kept my eyes screwed shut, and pretended that he, and the Kuva/Void DNA helix behind him, didn't exist. My helmet lay discarded to one side; the comfort it brought poisoned by how it hadn't helped me b-back there in the medbay. No amount of hugging myself could have stopped another choking sob escaping my throat between panicked gasps for air, not that I needed the stuff here. The Void was a constant presence now all around now, snippets of ethereal singing transitioning to harsh, pulsating rhythms far too organic for my peace of mind the next. Rhyme and reason had long since fled the zone, leaving me alone to deal with the trauma of...
"I'll do all the hard stuff for you, Mara," Wally grumbled just out of arm's reach. "Death's a thing squishies worry about, not you."
"I'm not dead."
Wally made a face at that. Of course, I couldn't see their expression, and I sure as hell didn't want to open my eyes and admit the truth of their words, but I still knew that my Doppelganger made a face. They muttered something too low to catch beneath the background ambience of this memory zone place, and then I heard the sound of flesh hitting flesh. Did Wally just? No, there's no way my shard of the Man in the Wall, who still thought you ate bananas whole, expressed their annoyance with a facepalm.
Yet, sure enough, I cracked an eye open and just about saw my orange-eyed companion covering most of their face with a hand. I'm not going to lie and claim the scene's incongruity was solely responsible for lifting my mood, but I'd still be lying if I didn't give it some of the credit. So, after wiping eyes that didn't need to dry and tucking my fringe away from where it'd come loose, I forced myself upright and wrapped Wally in a desperate, clingy hug. Here, at this moment, physical contact and the security it brought beat out on curling up in a ball and crying my eyes out about a reality taken form behind the being I was embracing. Even as Wally hesitantly returned the hug with jerky, stiff movements, the DNA helix dominating the mindscape stood as a constant reminder of my heritage.
Orokin and Tenno.
Physical and Paracausal.
Bound together through circumstance into something greater than the sum of its parts.
I gazed up at the coruscating strands of Void lightning blending with the faintly glowing bands of Kuva and found the strength to give Wally an extra firm squeeze and to find my voice.
"T-Thanks for sticking with me," I stammered into their shoulder. "And n-not being mean about it."
"I have no clue what you're on about, but I'll say thank you if you let go of me?" Something approaching desperation crossed my copy's face. "Like, please?"
A choked giggle morphed into a full-on belly laugh as I released the panicked shard of an Eldritch being and fell on my ass, laughing all the while. Wally's actual words hadn't been funny in the slightest, yet hearing them get freaked out by a hug after I'd... After I'd died and returned here broke a dam I hadn't been aware existed. Fear, anger, and no small amount of delight leaked into my somewhat hysterical laughter as the true reality of my situation set in while my Doppelganger grew increasingly weirded out.
Here I was, the daughter of a secret Orokin and unknown mother, granted power beyond mortal ken by something that might as well be a god, and I'd survived being blown up by an energy mine. Yet, no amount of dreaming about my past-life's memories of Warframe, nor seeing Tanner's death and resurrection in this very same medbay, could have prepared me for the experience of meeting and cheating the sol-damned Grim Reaper! But I had survived, and the visceral truth settled into the back of my mind as I got my laughter under control and hurt my cheeks from grinning so hard.
"I died," I told Wally with a silly grin.
They cocked their head and then hesitantly nodded. "I've been trying to tell you that since it happened!" They squeaked when I leapt up and hugged them again. "Agh! What's wrong with you?!"
"I'm dead, but I didn't die!"
"I already said that!"
Wally's scream climbed in pitch as I swung us around in a fast-paced twirl, the ambient sounds drowned out by my Doppelganger's cries even as they clung to me for dear life. I felt sorry for the shard that they couldn't experience the all-encompassing joy coursing through my veins nor luxuriate in the luxury of never having to worry about my life again. Power the Orokin would kill for was mine and every Tenno's to enjoy by dint of existing, though I couldn't keep distracting myself forever. Finally, with a heavy heart, I slowed down and released my corpse-pale mirror image to fall on their butt while I shook the last of the manic energy from my system. The Void sang with my mostly restrained joy and ever so briefly let me forget about the circumstances of my arriving here.
Recalling Kaz's all-consuming terror drove me to move toward the towering DNA helix and study the contrasting strands for reasons I couldn't put a finger on despite my best efforts. The question about the mystery signal that'd driven me into the minefield could wait until I'd figured out why in Sol's name there'd been a fucking minefield in the medbay in the first place. Part of me felt more than a little guilty about delaying my revival, prompting a glance towards Wally's staggering form.
"Is everyone waiting for me to come back?" I questioned, biting my lip in worry. "If they are..."
"Nah," my Doppelganger's return smile stretched from ear to ear. "Time here's, uh," they looked up at the fog above our heads and waggled a hand palm down. "Wibbly-Wobbly, or whatever that weird thing you joke about is called."
I released a breath I hadn't realised I'd been holding and flashed the shard a watery smile. "That's g-good to know."
"Of course it is; that's why I said it?" Wally looked me up and down with a frown. "You're weird."
"I know."
The honest admission appeared to surprise my Doppelganger, who stood there with a constipated look on their face while I returned to studying the Kuva half of the helix in search of an answer I wasn't sure was there. I stood there without a response for several drawn-out minutes before I belatedly recalled what'd happened the last time I'd been here. Sure, it might not work, given common sense didn't exist in the Void (or Orokin society), but what did I have to loose not trying it?
"What's an Entrati doing with a minefield surrounding them?" I asked the helix. "And why couldn't I see the damn things?"
Nothing happened in response to my question 'till Wally sauntered over and laid a hand on my shoulder; I had enough time to shoot them a confused glance before one of the Kuva strands midway up the helix flashed and then triggered a memory.
"What the hell is that thing?" Daddy asked with a curious undertone. "And why are you trying to shove it off on me?"
Whoever he was talking with sighed. "It's called a Necramech; my dear wife insisted that you get one before your kid's born," it took everything I had to stop myself from crying. "Well, Quiran's getting one too, but I figured you'd appreciate the Voidrig over the other Necramech."
"Dare I ask why I wouldn't appreciate the one you've giving my brother?"
"It's based on Euleria," Daddy made a noise of understanding. "It's also a very early prototype, so I haven't worked out all the gremlins yet... It's also lacking the regenerating mines of the Voidrig, so it's very much inferior on an explosion-per-metre ratio."
There was a muffled laugh that swiftly grew and was joined by another, deeper voice as the two men laughed for reasons I couldn't fathom. And yet, despite my confusion, my heart ached from hearing my Daddy enjoying himself with family. The other man might be an Orokin (and an Entrati to boot), yet he sounded so ordinary compared to the stories my Dad had warned me about regarding the Golden Lords. I spent so long lost in my own thoughts that I shrieked when a hand landed on my shoulder and tore me back to reality. Wally backed away with a cry of their own when I reflexively swung a fist at them before I could recover, which led to a full minute of embarrassed apologetic mumbling on my part. I only realised that I'd missed the rest of the memory after the fact, which left me...
"The other explosion-obsessed thief mentioned that the mines break when exposed to too much raw Voidstuff," I ignored the momentary hate-filled snarl to focus on my copy's words. "Also something about distress beacons or something, but..." the rest of their words were muffled when I clapped a hand over Wally's mouth.
Nothing I could do about the three extra mouths growing from the side of their head, but that's a fool's errand.
"No time for that; I gotta get back to Kaz and the others!"
I bounced away on jittery limbs, leaving my Doppelganger behind as I rushed back to grab my helmet and secure it over my head despite the uselessness of the gear. Running through the familiar motions of affixing the secure locks and equalising pressure smoothed out my spiky nerves and gave me time to figure out how to do whatever Tanner did to return to the land of the living. I'd seen three versions of him that time, but did that mean it was instinctive to the Tenno, or could I get away with thinking really hard about becoming alive and then I'd go back? Question after question rattled through my skull, more than one resulting in an angry pout as I alternated between snatching glances at the helix and chewing my lip in thought. Unfortunately, my go-to of binging instruction manuals and hand-written notes courtesy of Daddy wouldn't work for breaking the laws of physics, time and some other things I was too hyped to care about.
Dammit, why couldn't I have a beacon to guide me home?
Between one moment and the next, I opened my eyes to track the shifting ghostly forms crossing my immediate vision and confidently poked the one containing a second, brilliantly shining figure.
Fingers crossed he wouldn't be too mad about this...
Kaz had an entire heartbeat to gaze in horror at the explosion engulfing Lady Mara before he reflexively held his arms out to catch the figure that promptly fell into his grip. Words and all thoughts failed the emotionally and physically stunned Grineer as his charge shook her head with a snort and brushed a noticeably longer fringe of cyan hair from her eyes. Despite having witnessed her explode in front of his very eyes, Kaz couldn't see a mark or any difference with Lady Mara, well, except the unexpectedly longer hair now reaching her upper back.
And then she wrapped her arms around the Grineer's neck and buried her face in his neck.
"M'sorry about that, Kaz," she mumbled. "Didn't mean to scare you."
Kaz choked back a disbelieving laugh at his young charge's selfless apology, catching the arrival of the other Tenno and their universal surprised expressions while he struggled to put his thoughts into words. The Grineer despaired when nothing came and ended up rubbing gentle circles on Lady Mara's back while her siblings and companions crowded around him without straying into the now-visible minefield. So, in the end, Kaz abandoned voicing his thoughts and happily settled for banishing the images of his Lady's death with the memory of her unexpected arrival.
Eventually, Mara pulled away and waved down at the other Tenno. "Good news and bad news; which do you wanna hear first?"
The Tenno shared looks at her chipper tone, chief among them Immeya and Tanner for obvious reasons. It seemed to the Grineer that one of them would fret over the Lady's lack of traumatic response, except neither did, much to Kaz's hidden surprise.
"Putting aside that," Immeya's pinched expression betrayed how happy she was about that. "What's the good news?"
Mara wriggled around in Kaz's grip before gesturing down the hallway. "There's a big stompy robot at the other side of the minefields with a cannon bigger than Kaz's."
To the surprise of absolutely nobody who'd interacted with these Tenno, least of all the silently-laughing Grineer proud of how resilient his Lady was, one mention of a massive weapon was enough to excite the children. Kaz glanced down the corridor in the vague hope of spotting the robot in question, making sure that Mara stayed safe in his arms where she belonged, though the mystery machine proved elusive to his search.
Kira raised a hand. "How bad's the bad news if the good is about a super awesome stompy robot?"
A dark shadow crossed Lady Mara's face for all of a moment before her smile somehow ratcheted up to eleven. Kaz did his best to quash his protective urges, he really did, but nothing on this thrice-damned ship was going to harm the only remaining family again... Not after he'd already failed her twice.
"There are a bunch more minefields to go through before we get to the giant robot and my mystery relative," Mara admitted with the barest waver to her upturned lips. "But I can..."
"No," Kaz rumbled, much to his charge's shock. "You're not going anywhere."
Then, before Mara's faltering smile could transform into a pout or, Sol-forbid a flood of tears, he swiftly grabbed the blue-haired girl and placed her on his pauldron. Not for the last time, the Grineer was glad his Lady was short for his age, 'cause it allowed her to grab onto his armour and sit there without risking banging her head. Ruffling her hair wasn't necessary in the slightest, but Mara's answering smile ad the round of laughter from the other Tenno more than made up for the events of the last hour.
Kaz fixed the little ones with a stern look. "Disarm mines from range, children; I don't want to see anyone getting in danger, understood?"
He didn't know why he was surprised when every single one of the Tenno unleashed lances of pure Void towards the minefield and blew it up.
But he was, perhaps from the vague hope that the children weren't all obsessed with explosions?
But then Kaz remembered their reactions to his cannon, and all he could do was smile and ensure Mara stayed safe on his shoulder out of harm's way.
Kaz is really close to 8' tall, so he's perfectly capable of pulling off letting Mara sit on his shoulder like a Big Daddy does with a Little Sister.
Also, enjoy this unexpected surprise chapterand the beginning of Mara's hair growing longer and longer over time.
Music for the chapter is from Miracle of Sound.
"Clear the hall!"
I reacted to the now-familiar shout from Kaz and hugged a wall alongside my fellow Tenno as he moved into the vacated space and opened fire. Thunder and lightning erupted into existence from the muzzle of his doom cannon and scythed through the wailing horde of the damned. Buzzing, snapping chains of lightning created a web alongside the radioactive shrapnel, ensnaring the now-screaming shades a split second before the hallway exploded. A wave of heat washed over me as I cheered at the top of my lungs, exchanging high-fives with Kira and Tavor while Kaz disappeared in a cloud of vapourised coolant. Apparently, a love of excessive devastation against targets that deserved it was something every Tenno shared, something I knew my protector wasn't entirely comfortable with.
That's why I made sure to wave at his outline in my HUD while he visibly and audibly replaced the spent ammo block, pushing enough positive emotions into our bond to make the silly lump briefly pause to wave back.
"Hallway's clear," Tanner informed Kaz once he left the dissipating cloud. "Bean kept a watch."
The Kubrow in question chuffed from his spot at the next intersection, prompting a mostly-faked sigh from the big Grineer, who totally wasn't looking forward to chewing us out for forgetting to keep watch. I flashed my older brother a thankful hand sign behind Kaz's back before hurrying to catch up when he began walking down the hall. Something easier said than done, given the Grineer's longer stride, a thought that heralded a suspiciously rapid slow down to let me keep pace. Kaz didn't say anything as my family and Immeya's group settled into position on either side of him, weapons and glowing hands ready to fire, but I knew a proud smile lurked behind his white mask.
"I'm not smiling," Kaz denied under his breath.
Silly Grineer, I can hear you smiling. "That's what you said when you started running the boot camp."
Scattered laughter pushed back the medbay's oppressive atmosphere as my siblings caught the quip and agreed with the unspoken sentiment. Immy gamely pretended to cough to hide her amusement, the redhead's admirable attempt failing as Kaz grumbled something under his breath and broke her composure. And yet, despite the playful joking around, nobody spent too long without scanning their surroundings. Memories of the first trip here stood in stark relief to Kaz and Immeya's family along for round two: electric boogaloo, uneasily existing alongside one another. I caught Wally in the gleam of a shattered mirror as we entered a somewhat more damaged section, but my Doppelganger merely shook her head and vanished as we passed out of sight.
The reassurance didn't stop me from taking solace in brushing my fingers against the Mara Detron at my hip, though.
It wasn't long before our cautious forward pace slowed, but not for lack of caution on our parts; no, that'd be too easy. What had Immeya directing her sibling to take cover long before the next corridor while we hid behind Kaz came down to a lack of spooky void zombies. I closed my eyes and searched the Void for any hint of the pervasive wrongness exuded by the monsters, yet, other than our group's mild collective nervousness, there wasn't so much as a peep. The entire thing was made all the more nerve-wracking by a seemingly unified desire to stay quiet and hunker down, which lasted as long as it took Immeya's irritation to override her caution and speak.
Insert a witty quip here about fiery redheads that I was way too fucking spooked to voice out loud.
"Hey, Tanner?" Immeya asked as she peered around a corner. "Wasn't Lillaen supposed to contact us by now?"
My brother glanced up at the ceiling. "You there, 'Lill?"
Speak of the devil, and he shall appear, a discrete port irising open to disgorge the medical Cephalon's mobile drone. I kept a wary eye on the silver and green shell as it floated closer without speaking up until Lillaen reached us and tried to whisper.
"Oh, I'm so very sorry about that, Master Tanner!" he 'whispered' in the loosest sense of the word. "There was this..."
Tanner clamped a hand over the drone's vocaliser and said something too low for me to catch. But, thankfully, it put some sense into the scatterbrain Cephalon as he floated free of my brother's grasp, though much lower than previously, as if embarrassed. I eased around the drifting shell and leaned out around the next corner with an eye on my surroundings and an ear listening out for Lillaen.
"There have been some intriguing energy readings around the hidden compartments," I heard more than saw the drone twirl in place. "I can't rightfully tell what they are, mind, but I've been having a jolly good time following the pattern."
A burst of something at the edge of my Void awareness prompted me to flash Kaz the hand sign for 'scouting' and stick my head around the corner in search of the oddity. The lack of, well, anything noticeable beyond a couple of busted ceiling panels made me frown, the flickering pulse hinting at something I couldn't see for unknown reasons. If I had to put the feeling into words, it's like sensing the ancient RTG-powered navigation beacons littered around Jupiter's orbit in places long-forgotten by Grounders without tuning your array. Pulling my helmet off to check the radio revealed no crossed wires or degraded circuits that might have explained the faint transmission. So, closing my eyes, I pulled upon my connection to the Void and cast a wider net in search of the mystery signal...
"What do you mean they're everywhere?"
Only for Jules' question to wrench me from the zone and ruin my admittedly amateur attempt at looking beyond the immediate area. I left Lillaen's response and the group behind as I moved a short distance down the corridor and crouched beside a somewhat withered plant, absently giving the poor thing a little boost before taking another look at the hall. Despite it looking no different than a minute and several metres ago, I could have sworn a heat distortion clouded the somewhat battered deck plating. Cycling through my mask's new modes (thanks, Kaz!) turned up decking at the exact same temperature as its surroundings which ruled out the heat theory, but I knew there was something there just beyond my comprehension. Unfortunately, that Sol-damned faint signal chose that moment to rise in pitch, a call for something that never reached the point of understanding.
I couldn't shake the feeling that whatever this was had a link to my mystery relative somewhere deeper within the medbay.
"Fuck this bullshit," I muttered and left the plant behind. "I'm coming for you, whatever you are."
I managed all of a step into the hazy patch before two critical things occurred.
The first was Kaz's end of our bond flaring in alarm before the Grineer rushed around the corner in a dead-sprint, causing me to turn and see what the fuss was about.
That led to the second event, which was that I wasn't watching where I was going and felt something hard and angular beneath my boot. I glanced down in time to see the entire hazy patch resolve into a wall-to-wall cluster of hexagonal objects arranged into a distinctive pattern and releasing high-energy particles. Kaz's wordless cry blended with my terrified gasp as I tried to back out of the minefield I'd stumbled into... Forgetting the mine I'd stepped on until my boot lifted, and it clicked.
A flash of light, some barely felt pain in my extremities, and a truncated scream was the last things I experienced before I died.
It didn't hurt nearly as much as I expected, to be honest.
"C'mon, you can't just sit there and do the leaky eye thing."
I resolutely ignored Wally's blunt words and kept my eyes screwed shut, and pretended that he, and the Kuva/Void DNA helix behind him, didn't exist. My helmet lay discarded to one side; the comfort it brought poisoned by how it hadn't helped me b-back there in the medbay. No amount of hugging myself could have stopped another choking sob escaping my throat between panicked gasps for air, not that I needed the stuff here. The Void was a constant presence now all around now, snippets of ethereal singing transitioning to harsh, pulsating rhythms far too organic for my peace of mind the next. Rhyme and reason had long since fled the zone, leaving me alone to deal with the trauma of...
"I'll do all the hard stuff for you, Mara," Wally grumbled just out of arm's reach. "Death's a thing squishies worry about, not you."
"I'm not dead."
Wally made a face at that. Of course, I couldn't see their expression, and I sure as hell didn't want to open my eyes and admit the truth of their words, but I still knew that my Doppelganger made a face. They muttered something too low to catch beneath the background ambience of this memory zone place, and then I heard the sound of flesh hitting flesh. Did Wally just? No, there's no way my shard of the Man in the Wall, who still thought you ate bananas whole, expressed their annoyance with a facepalm.
Yet, sure enough, I cracked an eye open and just about saw my orange-eyed companion covering most of their face with a hand. I'm not going to lie and claim the scene's incongruity was solely responsible for lifting my mood, but I'd still be lying if I didn't give it some of the credit. So, after wiping eyes that didn't need to dry and tucking my fringe away from where it'd come loose, I forced myself upright and wrapped Wally in a desperate, clingy hug. Here, at this moment, physical contact and the security it brought beat out on curling up in a ball and crying my eyes out about a reality taken form behind the being I was embracing. Even as Wally hesitantly returned the hug with jerky, stiff movements, the DNA helix dominating the mindscape stood as a constant reminder of my heritage.
Orokin and Tenno.
Physical and Paracausal.
Bound together through circumstance into something greater than the sum of its parts.
I gazed up at the coruscating strands of Void lightning blending with the faintly glowing bands of Kuva and found the strength to give Wally an extra firm squeeze and to find my voice.
"T-Thanks for sticking with me," I stammered into their shoulder. "And n-not being mean about it."
"I have no clue what you're on about, but I'll say thank you if you let go of me?" Something approaching desperation crossed my copy's face. "Like, please?"
A choked giggle morphed into a full-on belly laugh as I released the panicked shard of an Eldritch being and fell on my ass, laughing all the while. Wally's actual words hadn't been funny in the slightest, yet hearing them get freaked out by a hug after I'd... After I'd died and returned here broke a dam I hadn't been aware existed. Fear, anger, and no small amount of delight leaked into my somewhat hysterical laughter as the true reality of my situation set in while my Doppelganger grew increasingly weirded out.
Here I was, the daughter of a secret Orokin and unknown mother, granted power beyond mortal ken by something that might as well be a god, and I'd survived being blown up by an energy mine. Yet, no amount of dreaming about my past-life's memories of Warframe, nor seeing Tanner's death and resurrection in this very same medbay, could have prepared me for the experience of meeting and cheating the sol-damned Grim Reaper! But I had survived, and the visceral truth settled into the back of my mind as I got my laughter under control and hurt my cheeks from grinning so hard.
"I died," I told Wally with a silly grin.
They cocked their head and then hesitantly nodded. "I've been trying to tell you that since it happened!" They squeaked when I leapt up and hugged them again. "Agh! What's wrong with you?!"
"I'm dead, but I didn't die!"
"I already said that!"
Wally's scream climbed in pitch as I swung us around in a fast-paced twirl, the ambient sounds drowned out by my Doppelganger's cries even as they clung to me for dear life. I felt sorry for the shard that they couldn't experience the all-encompassing joy coursing through my veins nor luxuriate in the luxury of never having to worry about my life again. Power the Orokin would kill for was mine and every Tenno's to enjoy by dint of existing, though I couldn't keep distracting myself forever. Finally, with a heavy heart, I slowed down and released my corpse-pale mirror image to fall on their butt while I shook the last of the manic energy from my system. The Void sang with my mostly restrained joy and ever so briefly let me forget about the circumstances of my arriving here.
Recalling Kaz's all-consuming terror drove me to move toward the towering DNA helix and study the contrasting strands for reasons I couldn't put a finger on despite my best efforts. The question about the mystery signal that'd driven me into the minefield could wait until I'd figured out why in Sol's name there'd been a fucking minefield in the medbay in the first place. Part of me felt more than a little guilty about delaying my revival, prompting a glance towards Wally's staggering form.
"Is everyone waiting for me to come back?" I questioned, biting my lip in worry. "If they are..."
"Nah," my Doppelganger's return smile stretched from ear to ear. "Time here's, uh," they looked up at the fog above our heads and waggled a hand palm down. "Wibbly-Wobbly, or whatever that weird thing you joke about is called."
I released a breath I hadn't realised I'd been holding and flashed the shard a watery smile. "That's g-good to know."
"Of course it is; that's why I said it?" Wally looked me up and down with a frown. "You're weird."
"I know."
The honest admission appeared to surprise my Doppelganger, who stood there with a constipated look on their face while I returned to studying the Kuva half of the helix in search of an answer I wasn't sure was there. I stood there without a response for several drawn-out minutes before I belatedly recalled what'd happened the last time I'd been here. Sure, it might not work, given common sense didn't exist in the Void (or Orokin society), but what did I have to loose not trying it?
"What's an Entrati doing with a minefield surrounding them?" I asked the helix. "And why couldn't I see the damn things?"
Nothing happened in response to my question 'till Wally sauntered over and laid a hand on my shoulder; I had enough time to shoot them a confused glance before one of the Kuva strands midway up the helix flashed and then triggered a memory.
"What the hell is that thing?" Daddy asked with a curious undertone. "And why are you trying to shove it off on me?"
Whoever he was talking with sighed. "It's called a Necramech; my dear wife insisted that you get one before your kid's born," it took everything I had to stop myself from crying. "Well, Quiran's getting one too, but I figured you'd appreciate the Voidrig over the other Necramech."
"Dare I ask why I wouldn't appreciate the one you've giving my brother?"
"It's based on Euleria," Daddy made a noise of understanding. "It's also a very early prototype, so I haven't worked out all the gremlins yet... It's also lacking the regenerating mines of the Voidrig, so it's very much inferior on an explosion-per-metre ratio."
There was a muffled laugh that swiftly grew and was joined by another, deeper voice as the two men laughed for reasons I couldn't fathom. And yet, despite my confusion, my heart ached from hearing my Daddy enjoying himself with family. The other man might be an Orokin (and an Entrati to boot), yet he sounded so ordinary compared to the stories my Dad had warned me about regarding the Golden Lords. I spent so long lost in my own thoughts that I shrieked when a hand landed on my shoulder and tore me back to reality. Wally backed away with a cry of their own when I reflexively swung a fist at them before I could recover, which led to a full minute of embarrassed apologetic mumbling on my part. I only realised that I'd missed the rest of the memory after the fact, which left me...
"The other explosion-obsessed thief mentioned that the mines break when exposed to too much raw Voidstuff," I ignored the momentary hate-filled snarl to focus on my copy's words. "Also something about distress beacons or something, but..." the rest of their words were muffled when I clapped a hand over Wally's mouth.
Nothing I could do about the three extra mouths growing from the side of their head, but that's a fool's errand.
"No time for that; I gotta get back to Kaz and the others!"
I bounced away on jittery limbs, leaving my Doppelganger behind as I rushed back to grab my helmet and secure it over my head despite the uselessness of the gear. Running through the familiar motions of affixing the secure locks and equalising pressure smoothed out my spiky nerves and gave me time to figure out how to do whatever Tanner did to return to the land of the living. I'd seen three versions of him that time, but did that mean it was instinctive to the Tenno, or could I get away with thinking really hard about becoming alive and then I'd go back? Question after question rattled through my skull, more than one resulting in an angry pout as I alternated between snatching glances at the helix and chewing my lip in thought. Unfortunately, my go-to of binging instruction manuals and hand-written notes courtesy of Daddy wouldn't work for breaking the laws of physics, time and some other things I was too hyped to care about.
Dammit, why couldn't I have a beacon to guide me home?
Between one moment and the next, I opened my eyes to track the shifting ghostly forms crossing my immediate vision and confidently poked the one containing a second, brilliantly shining figure.
Fingers crossed he wouldn't be too mad about this...
Kaz had an entire heartbeat to gaze in horror at the explosion engulfing Lady Mara before he reflexively held his arms out to catch the figure that promptly fell into his grip. Words and all thoughts failed the emotionally and physically stunned Grineer as his charge shook her head with a snort and brushed a noticeably longer fringe of cyan hair from her eyes. Despite having witnessed her explode in front of his very eyes, Kaz couldn't see a mark or any difference with Lady Mara, well, except the unexpectedly longer hair now reaching her upper back.
And then she wrapped her arms around the Grineer's neck and buried her face in his neck.
"M'sorry about that, Kaz," she mumbled. "Didn't mean to scare you."
Kaz choked back a disbelieving laugh at his young charge's selfless apology, catching the arrival of the other Tenno and their universal surprised expressions while he struggled to put his thoughts into words. The Grineer despaired when nothing came and ended up rubbing gentle circles on Lady Mara's back while her siblings and companions crowded around him without straying into the now-visible minefield. So, in the end, Kaz abandoned voicing his thoughts and happily settled for banishing the images of his Lady's death with the memory of her unexpected arrival.
Eventually, Mara pulled away and waved down at the other Tenno. "Good news and bad news; which do you wanna hear first?"
The Tenno shared looks at her chipper tone, chief among them Immeya and Tanner for obvious reasons. It seemed to the Grineer that one of them would fret over the Lady's lack of traumatic response, except neither did, much to Kaz's hidden surprise.
"Putting aside that," Immeya's pinched expression betrayed how happy she was about that. "What's the good news?"
Mara wriggled around in Kaz's grip before gesturing down the hallway. "There's a big stompy robot at the other side of the minefields with a cannon bigger than Kaz's."
To the surprise of absolutely nobody who'd interacted with these Tenno, least of all the silently-laughing Grineer proud of how resilient his Lady was, one mention of a massive weapon was enough to excite the children. Kaz glanced down the corridor in the vague hope of spotting the robot in question, making sure that Mara stayed safe in his arms where she belonged, though the mystery machine proved elusive to his search.
Kira raised a hand. "How bad's the bad news if the good is about a super awesome stompy robot?"
A dark shadow crossed Lady Mara's face for all of a moment before her smile somehow ratcheted up to eleven. Kaz did his best to quash his protective urges, he really did, but nothing on this thrice-damned ship was going to harm the only remaining family again... Not after he'd already failed her twice.
"There are a bunch more minefields to go through before we get to the giant robot and my mystery relative," Mara admitted with the barest waver to her upturned lips. "But I can..."
"No," Kaz rumbled, much to his charge's shock. "You're not going anywhere."
Then, before Mara's faltering smile could transform into a pout or, Sol-forbid a flood of tears, he swiftly grabbed the blue-haired girl and placed her on his pauldron. Not for the last time, the Grineer was glad his Lady was short for his age, 'cause it allowed her to grab onto his armour and sit there without risking banging her head. Ruffling her hair wasn't necessary in the slightest, but Mara's answering smile ad the round of laughter from the other Tenno more than made up for the events of the last hour.
Kaz fixed the little ones with a stern look. "Disarm mines from range, children; I don't want to see anyone getting in danger, understood?"
He didn't know why he was surprised when every single one of the Tenno unleashed lances of pure Void towards the minefield and blew it up.
But he was, perhaps from the vague hope that the children weren't all obsessed with explosions?
But then Kaz remembered their reactions to his cannon, and all he could do was smile and ensure Mara stayed safe on his shoulder out of harm's way.
Kaz is really close to 8' tall, so he's perfectly capable of pulling off letting Mara sit on his shoulder like a Big Daddy does with a Little Sister.
Also, enjoy this unexpected surprise chapter
thelordofmango
may be stupid
- Location
- under a rock
Has someone been playing destiny?
- Location
- Scotland
Cool new chapter!
HarakoniWarhawk
Striking from the Skies
- Location
- Holy Terra
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Wally has been suffering the effects of spending way too much time with Mara and trying and failing to be more like a squishy during the timeshare moments.
They've becoming something far different from Big Wally, that's for sure.
Been reading Seeker by Keltoi over on SB, a Transformers/Destiny crossover.I have no damn clue about the vast majority of the Destiny stuff, but it's been an amazing, albeit confusing, read.
Paracausal is both an amazing word and something I felt that fit the Tenno really well.
Guns and lots and lots of Void lances/beams.
Nothing like explosive mine disposal with your mind to cheer up a bunch of Tenno.
Chapter Fifteen: Whatever You Do; Don't Blink!
HarakoniWarhawk
Striking from the Skies
- Location
- Holy Terra
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Well, surprise?
Music for the chapter is from Beast in Black (Last Drop of Blood)
Breathe in, breathe out.
Immeya opened herself to the Void's song and tapped the infinite wellspring of potential to bring a ravenous energy lance into existence in a motion she'd performed hundreds of times.
The scintillating beam erupted from the glowing motes within her clenched fist to carve a line across the tightly-packed energy mines blocking the Tenno's path. She closed her eyes with the barest huff of annoyance a split-second before the destabilised explosives went up with a blinding flash of light and a deafening bang that should have hurt Immeya. But the lanky redhead was safe behind her helmet's protective embrace and rode out the explosion without a flinch, only to reopen her eyes to reveal a remarkably undamaged stretch of hallway. Mara hadn't the slightest idea about why the mines never damaged the floor, and Immeya was just glad she didn't have to trudge (or, Sol-forbid, run) across mangled deck plating if it came to it. Then, finally, the Tenno went to key her radio, paused mid-step as she belatedly remembered Kaz's instructions and fired another Void Lance just to be sure.
She tracked the beam's path with a sharp eye until it hit nothing, and only then let her family know it was safe to advance.
Tavor was the first to jog around the corner and immediately brushed hands with Immeya to give his sister a much-needed boost before wordlessly offering his shoulder.
"Thanks, T," the redhead muttered as she accepted the help. "I'd be screwed without you."
Her brother chuckled. "No, you'd just be more tired and have fewer notes to crib."
Immeya lazily elbowed the sarcastic idiot and left him to playfully moan and clutch his ribs while the rest of the little expedition filed into the corridor behind her. No faces were visible at this point; only kids clad in identical envirosuits and expressionless white masks with minimal variation. That wasn't to say she didn't know who was who; the family bond and somewhat more diffuse Tenno link let Immeya sense her distinctive siblings... But the redhead couldn't help but imagine everyone adding a dash of colour to their armour for some added personality. So, while she side-stepped to let Tanner and Bean pass by (and sneak a quick pet on the latter), it wasn't until Kaz arrived with Mara on his shoulder that Immy returned to thinking like a leader.
Sol, but did she miss the days when nobody expected her to be the responsible one!
"I think that's the last of the mines," she called up to her pint-sized counterpart.
Mara gave a thumbs up and went to remove her helmet, only for Kaz to cough and pointedly stare down at the young girl until she dropped her hands and hopped off the Grineer's shoulder. Immy watched the wordless byplay with more than a little amazement that the blue-haired kid had recovered from dying so quickly... And maybe a bit worried about what that implied.
Okay, so reasonably worried, but asking about that could wait until after everyone had left the creepy medbay.
"The signal's..." Mara's asymmetric lenses whirred as she gazed down the hallway. "Yeah, first turn on the left, and we should see it?"
Immy's lips thinned behind her helmet. "You don't sound confident about that."
Her fellow Tenno chuckled, but there wasn't any mirth to be heard.
"We'd be dead if the Necramech was up and wandering about," Mara looked back at Kaz for reassurance. "I don't know anymore; sorry, Immy."
"It's okay, we've gotten this far anyway; might as well go play with the giant stompy robot."
Unless Immeya's ears failed her, a faint genuine giggle escaped her companion's helmet, prompting a rumbling chuckle from the forgotten Grineer standing guard over the two girls. Yet, despite the terrible attempt at humour, a wry smile managed to sneak its way onto the redheaded Tenno's face despite the looming spectre of murderous giant robots.
Kaz interrupted the moment by stepping between the pair. "I will take point should the worst occur," he raised his voice for everyone to hear. "If I get shot at, I'm ordering you all to run back to the entrance."
Something in the Grineer's tone had Immeya straightening up and listening, and she wasn't alone in that regard. Even Bean, Tanner's excitable Kubrow and a massive pain in the butt, sat on their rump without a peep or moving a muscle.
"Good," the heavily-armoured Clone hefted their doom cannon. "Five-metre separation; go!"
Training took over where Immy would have once stood confused, her feet carrying her to hide behind a decorative pillar ahead and on the opposite side from Jules as directed. Each following Tenno picked a hiding spot further back, readying weapons and glowing hands without pointing them in Kaz's direction as he strode down the corridor. Immeya licked her abruptly dry lips between nervous mental tugs on the surrounding Void to reassure her that it was always within reach. Which was somewhat redundant, given she literally lived and breathed the Void, but the response lingered in that part of Immy's mind where the night terror's lurked. The violet motes swirling around the redhead's clenched fist ebbed and flowed with her thumping heartbeat as the advancing Grineer readied his cannon and paused at the edge of the corner. Immeya swore she heard someone gasp behind her when Kaz briefly stuck his head around the bend, probably to check, before storming out of sight.
Nobody moved for what felt like aeons before heavy footfalls heralded the Grineer's reemergence; cannon held loosely in one hand while the other rested on the rifle on his hip.
"Move up carefully, Little Ones," Kaz sounded weirdly unsure. "You'll need to see this for yourself."
To nobody's surprise, Mara quickly matched Immy's pace despite the height disparity to jointly ease past the massive Grineer and see what all the fuss was about. A veritable hellscape of smoking holes and carbon-scored panels greeted the girls, the lingering smoke blocked by their mask's filters, yet Immeya couldn't see what had Kaz acting so oddly... And then she saw the statues. What'd been faint half-seen shadows within the smog clogging the far end of the corridor resolved into creepy-looking shimmering metal figures scattered around with no rhyme or reason. Of course, the elder Tenno was the furthest thing from an artist, but she was pretty sure people's statues didn't have super long arms and legs twisted like no limb ever should. It was enough to make her sick just looking at the things, which led the redhead's darting gaze to an errant flash of golden between the statues.
"What's with the holdup..." Kira trailed off with a squeak when she spotted the statues. "I hate those things."
Mara turned to her sister. "Thank Sol for that; I thought it was just me!"
Immeya tuned the pair out as she fumbled with her helmet's controls to change the vision mode to something that could see through the smoke. Night vision made her eyes hurt; the thermal vision was a giant white blob that also hurt her eyes, and then she hit Magscan and hissed through clenched teeth. Mara's description of these Necramechs had been light on details beyond them being tall and robotic, but there was a frakking enormous giant robot in the middle of the creepy statues that couldn't be anything but a Necramech! As Immy stared at the machine with its inverted cone-shaped body and spindly limbs, it jerkily twitched in the redhead's direction and raised a skeletal hand towards her.
"Stompy robot's there!" Immeya cried, only to be drowned out by a snarling clatter that cut right to her soul.
Nobody had a chance to hide behind Kaz's protective bulwark before the giant robot lurched out of the smoke right as Immeya deactivated her magscan, revealing a horrifically damaged war machine that managed two steps and promptly collapsed with a sad-sounding warble. Dead silence fell over the assembled Tenno as the kids came down from their adrenaline high and realised that the black-and-gold giant robot wasn't a threat; fear and tension bleeding into the surrounding Void in stops and starts.
"I don't think it will hurt us," Rell noted softly.
Multiple pairs of eyes snapped towards the stoic boy, who accepted the response with a shrug and an outstretched hand aimed at the Necramech's mangled frame. Immy followed his finger and immediately noticed the cracked spinning ball... thing exposed within the machine's chest via a hole the size of her fist. The ball thing juddered and sparked as she watched, the six rings surrounding the blue core slowly but surely slowing second by second. Further examination ceased when a mountain of cryotic-blue armour plate blocked the redhead's vision as Kaz put himself in front of the group and knelt down to peer into the hole.
"Good catch, Rell," he praised, glancing back at the stoic Tenno for a moment. "It's no power core I've ever seen, but it's definitely damaged."
The Necramech's angular head ground sideways to regard the Clone with a nigh-inaudible warble and nothing else, giving Immy the courage to approach (well away from the arm-mounted chainblade) and hesitantly lay a hand on the machine. It felt solid beneath her gauntlet in a way that wasn't merely physical as if the Necramech was a fixed point that wouldn't budge no matter what you threw at it. As far as unwelcome surprises went, the heavily-damaged war machine wasn't the worst the elder Tenno had experienced since the Misjump, not by a long shot. Her courage emboldened her more hesitant kin to mirror the gesture, soon resulting in everyone clustering around the giant robot with growing interest. A faint sense of unease permeated the group link whenever someone glanced at the wibbly-wobbly statues, but Immeya was too busy daring to pet the Necramech's head to worry about it. Now that she was up close and personal, the sheer number of tiny runes and symbols etched into the gold and black metal was impossible to miss no matter where she looked.
Now, what else was she supposed to be looking for... "Sol, dammit, we need to keep moving." Immy waved in the statue's general direction. "Mara's relative is past those lot."
Excitement and curiosity turned to a reluctant agreement between one blink and the next, nobody understandably acting all that enthused about having to get past the creepy statues to complete their mission. Mara bounced to her feet before Immeya could continue and bounced over to whisper something into Kaz's ear, heralding the big Grineer coughing into a fist and standing up.
"I think it's best if we leave a party with the Necramech to ensure it doesn't block our path," he paused long enough for Immy to realise what he was going for. "Four should be enough, I do believe."
Immeya shared a look followed by a nod with Mara, knowing that her pint-sized sister companion was responsible for Kaz's offer and very much appreciating the save.
"Raise your hands if you want to stay with the big stompy robot," she ordered.
After a moment's hesitation, because nobody wanted to be first, Tanner raised his hand, followed by Jules, Kira and Tavor after a few seconds of hushed conversation. Immy threw her siblings a thumbs up to assuage their guilt (which they were feeling, she knew it) and brutally quashed the angry snake coiling in her stomach before it could leak through the bond. She wasn't annoyed about them hiding; she wasn't, and repeating that helped the redhead come to terms by the time she patted Mara on the shoulder.
"We'll be in and out before you know it," the elder Tenno reassured her sibling.
Mara's expressionless mask darted between Kaz, Rell and Immeya before they nodded and none-too-subtly touched the Mara Detron on their hip.
"Right... Yeah, in and out, no fuss." Mara squared her shoulders and stepped forwards. "Let's get this over with."
Except, right after saying that, the blue-haired girl jogged back to Tanner and Bean before pulling the older boy's head down to her (and the Kubrow's) level, exchanging a few inaudible words and a hug that had Immeya copying the gesture. For once, she was grateful for the helmets as they stopped Tavor and Jules from seeing her worried expression and vice-versa. Immeya clapped her siblings on the shoulder, steeled herself to leave them behind, and then rejoined Mara, Rell and Kaz to pass between the creepy statues. She wasn't ashamed to admit that she hid behind the large Grineer when they took the lead, as much from the safety he offered as avoiding looking too closely at the metallic figures with their far too long limbs and empty eye sockets. A flicker in the corner of the redhead's vision resolved into her Reflection, peering up at one such statue with a confused pout, the doppelganger briefly meeting Immy's eyes and vanishing with a hesitant wave.
A leaden weight settled in Immeya's gut as she continued onwards, simultaneously reassured by the gesture and dreading the reason for her Reflection's confusion.
She opened herself to the Void's song of infinite potential and kept a fistful of glowing motes ready... Just in case.
"They're just creepy statues around a breach leading to an off-the-books Orokin medbay," I whispered to myself after we'd entered the debris-filled hole in the wall. "Don't think about the missing eyes, don't think about them..."
Alas, the soulless gaping sockets appeared in my mind's eyes despite my best efforts, their owner's faces stretched beyond comfort and locked in a rictus of agony I couldn't imagine enduring. So I did everything except cling to Kaz like a maglock, which was good because Immeya and Rell had similar ideas and kept the Liche within arm's reach. It was an effort to keep up with him when every one of the Clone's steps was four of mine, but I didn't want to linger in the breach any longer than absolutely necessary. So my free hand never left the butt of my Mara Detron as we scrambled over cratered decking and fragmented chunks of Necramech armour to find ourselves in a disgustingly golden hallway.
Well, I think it's supposed to be gold underneath all the carbon scoring and battle damage, but said damage made it hard to be sure without getting up close and personal.
"Stick close to me, Little Ones," Kaz advised, voice tight and doom cannon sweeping the area. "Mara, direction?"
The nigh-inaudible song I'd been catching snippets of since I'd arrived bloomed into a discordant melody as I opened myself to the Void; gentle chimes breaking up mid-note alongside wet-sounding drums that perfectly synched with my heartbeat. I repressed a disgusted shudder and clamped down until I could barely hear the song while retaining enough of a link to pinpoint a direction.
"It's somewhere at bearing sixty," I kept an eye on my HUD and endured a split-second connection. "Y-Yeah, sixty-four is it."
I pretended that I didn't feel Immy and Rell worriedly looking at my shivering form.
"Bearing six-four, aye," Kaz echoed.
What followed was undoubtedly the most nerve-wracking time of my (admittedly) short life, handily beating the escape through the maintenance tunnels after the Misjump. I wasn't sure what I expected to find, but hallway after hallway of barely-navigatable corridors and trashed rooms wasn't it. Massive gouges shorn in walls and floors by the Necramech's chainblade, deformed and warped ornamentation that's been blown to pieces; Sol, it was easier to list undamaged things than it was otherwise! Most of the filigree-clad doors were intact and locked, a few bits of furniture tucked into cubbies and, oddest of all, an open room full of overgrown plants that I briefly peeked into. I enjoyed watching the gently-waving fronds and leaves for a few seconds before noticing the lack of a breeze and getting the frak out of there.
If you can't see what's making something move, it's probably hostile.
If not for Immy and Rell staying calm, I'd have snapped and run screaming as the discordant song grew louder the closer we got to the source, but they stood their ground and kept going. I didn't blame Tanner and the others for hanging back with the Necramech, especially not when Kaz forced a jammed door open with his fists to reveal the source of the signal that'd been forever haunting me.
"What the fuck..." Immeya hissed in shock.
The floor continued for a half-dozen feet before abruptly terminating in an enormous gaping chasm, whose edges were visibly glowing and releasing acrid smoke, which stretched across the remainder of the sizeable chamber. I snuck a glance over the edge and instantly regretted it when I couldn't see any bottom through the haze of smoke and what looked like mist further down. Blackened and melted lumps of what might have been medical equipment lay thrown against and embedded into the walls of a Lorist's sanctum, which we all ignored to focus on something incredibly out of place.
There was a blue-haired teenage girl strapped down to an operating table and connected via tubes to an incomprehensible series of liquids... Oh, and the entire thing was hanging dead-centre above the fiery chasm of doom. Only the tiniest breach in her enclosed Zariman suit even let me see the lock of cryotic-blue hair, but I didn't need my eyes to hear the song coming from her. Unfortunately, any chance of questioning her fell into the trap of needing to get to her across the massive fucking chasm!
I turned to my protector. "Uh, Kaz, how are we..."
His response was a finger pressed to my mask before laying his cannon down, taking a knee and then unslinging the back from his back to rummage through its depths. The silent Clone pulled out a random assortment of capacitors, electronics and miscellaneous kits that he had set aside before flashing me the hand sign for tape. I confusedly pulled the Space Tape from my belt and handed it off to watch Kaz spend several minutes putting all the junk together with judicious usage of the roll. Immy joined me in having absolutely no fucking clue what the Liche was doing off to one side while Rell nodded to himself and bent down to offer a few words lost to the discordant song buzzing in my ears. Moments later, Kaz flicked a jury-rigged switch and pointed the vaguely-dish-shaped device in the operating table's direction. I gasped as the free-hanging array painstakingly leaned in Kaz's direction, supporting cable audibly creaking from the huge magnetic draw before the entire thing snapped free and rocketed across the chasm.
I scream in fright.
Immeya screamed in fright.
Rell calmly backed up several paces with the barest flicker of Void-assisted movement.
Kaz snarled a vicious Sednan curse and wrapped the entire frakking surgical table in a bear hug that sent him skidding back in a sparking trail. I watched on, stupefied by the incredible sight, before leaping forwards to help my loyal protector cut the straps holding the restraining straps so that he could throw her over his shoulder. Kaz's urgency blew through our bond to the point I refused to question the rush and helped collect everything he'd set aside to build the super magnet.
The Grineer's mask swept across our upraised faces. "We're moving."
That was it, nothing else or any explanation, just a curt order that we all obeyed as if the hounds of hell were after us.
Our exit took a fraction of the time now that we had what we were here for, though I stumbled to a halt when we left the secret area to find our family standing around an upright (if unsteady) Necramech.
Tavor waved at us. "Hey, we poked a thing and Stompy's following..."
"No time for that," Immy barked, casting a nervous glance over her shoulder. "Just get it to follow us home."
We ran, each and every one of us, never looking back and, in my case, refusing to acknowledge that the discordant song had split up. One half clung to the teen we'd rescued and set my teeth on edge something fierce... But the other half remained in the room with the immense chasm plunging into the Zariman's depths.
And I couldn't help but feel as if I'd seen the creepy statues before...
Unseen by the long-fled Tenno and companions, the statues flanking the breach turned eyeless faces in the direction they'd left.
And peeled themselves from the floor and walls to kneel as a laughing shadow fell over them.
"Don't forget to blink, Kiddies~."
Also, have a quick and dirty NovelAI-generated Mara. Not perfect, but it's pretty close.
Music for the chapter is from Beast in Black (Last Drop of Blood)
Breathe in, breathe out.
Immeya opened herself to the Void's song and tapped the infinite wellspring of potential to bring a ravenous energy lance into existence in a motion she'd performed hundreds of times.
The scintillating beam erupted from the glowing motes within her clenched fist to carve a line across the tightly-packed energy mines blocking the Tenno's path. She closed her eyes with the barest huff of annoyance a split-second before the destabilised explosives went up with a blinding flash of light and a deafening bang that should have hurt Immeya. But the lanky redhead was safe behind her helmet's protective embrace and rode out the explosion without a flinch, only to reopen her eyes to reveal a remarkably undamaged stretch of hallway. Mara hadn't the slightest idea about why the mines never damaged the floor, and Immeya was just glad she didn't have to trudge (or, Sol-forbid, run) across mangled deck plating if it came to it. Then, finally, the Tenno went to key her radio, paused mid-step as she belatedly remembered Kaz's instructions and fired another Void Lance just to be sure.
She tracked the beam's path with a sharp eye until it hit nothing, and only then let her family know it was safe to advance.
Tavor was the first to jog around the corner and immediately brushed hands with Immeya to give his sister a much-needed boost before wordlessly offering his shoulder.
"Thanks, T," the redhead muttered as she accepted the help. "I'd be screwed without you."
Her brother chuckled. "No, you'd just be more tired and have fewer notes to crib."
Immeya lazily elbowed the sarcastic idiot and left him to playfully moan and clutch his ribs while the rest of the little expedition filed into the corridor behind her. No faces were visible at this point; only kids clad in identical envirosuits and expressionless white masks with minimal variation. That wasn't to say she didn't know who was who; the family bond and somewhat more diffuse Tenno link let Immeya sense her distinctive siblings... But the redhead couldn't help but imagine everyone adding a dash of colour to their armour for some added personality. So, while she side-stepped to let Tanner and Bean pass by (and sneak a quick pet on the latter), it wasn't until Kaz arrived with Mara on his shoulder that Immy returned to thinking like a leader.
Sol, but did she miss the days when nobody expected her to be the responsible one!
"I think that's the last of the mines," she called up to her pint-sized counterpart.
Mara gave a thumbs up and went to remove her helmet, only for Kaz to cough and pointedly stare down at the young girl until she dropped her hands and hopped off the Grineer's shoulder. Immy watched the wordless byplay with more than a little amazement that the blue-haired kid had recovered from dying so quickly... And maybe a bit worried about what that implied.
Okay, so reasonably worried, but asking about that could wait until after everyone had left the creepy medbay.
"The signal's..." Mara's asymmetric lenses whirred as she gazed down the hallway. "Yeah, first turn on the left, and we should see it?"
Immy's lips thinned behind her helmet. "You don't sound confident about that."
Her fellow Tenno chuckled, but there wasn't any mirth to be heard.
"We'd be dead if the Necramech was up and wandering about," Mara looked back at Kaz for reassurance. "I don't know anymore; sorry, Immy."
"It's okay, we've gotten this far anyway; might as well go play with the giant stompy robot."
Unless Immeya's ears failed her, a faint genuine giggle escaped her companion's helmet, prompting a rumbling chuckle from the forgotten Grineer standing guard over the two girls. Yet, despite the terrible attempt at humour, a wry smile managed to sneak its way onto the redheaded Tenno's face despite the looming spectre of murderous giant robots.
Kaz interrupted the moment by stepping between the pair. "I will take point should the worst occur," he raised his voice for everyone to hear. "If I get shot at, I'm ordering you all to run back to the entrance."
Something in the Grineer's tone had Immeya straightening up and listening, and she wasn't alone in that regard. Even Bean, Tanner's excitable Kubrow and a massive pain in the butt, sat on their rump without a peep or moving a muscle.
"Good," the heavily-armoured Clone hefted their doom cannon. "Five-metre separation; go!"
Training took over where Immy would have once stood confused, her feet carrying her to hide behind a decorative pillar ahead and on the opposite side from Jules as directed. Each following Tenno picked a hiding spot further back, readying weapons and glowing hands without pointing them in Kaz's direction as he strode down the corridor. Immeya licked her abruptly dry lips between nervous mental tugs on the surrounding Void to reassure her that it was always within reach. Which was somewhat redundant, given she literally lived and breathed the Void, but the response lingered in that part of Immy's mind where the night terror's lurked. The violet motes swirling around the redhead's clenched fist ebbed and flowed with her thumping heartbeat as the advancing Grineer readied his cannon and paused at the edge of the corner. Immeya swore she heard someone gasp behind her when Kaz briefly stuck his head around the bend, probably to check, before storming out of sight.
Nobody moved for what felt like aeons before heavy footfalls heralded the Grineer's reemergence; cannon held loosely in one hand while the other rested on the rifle on his hip.
"Move up carefully, Little Ones," Kaz sounded weirdly unsure. "You'll need to see this for yourself."
To nobody's surprise, Mara quickly matched Immy's pace despite the height disparity to jointly ease past the massive Grineer and see what all the fuss was about. A veritable hellscape of smoking holes and carbon-scored panels greeted the girls, the lingering smoke blocked by their mask's filters, yet Immeya couldn't see what had Kaz acting so oddly... And then she saw the statues. What'd been faint half-seen shadows within the smog clogging the far end of the corridor resolved into creepy-looking shimmering metal figures scattered around with no rhyme or reason. Of course, the elder Tenno was the furthest thing from an artist, but she was pretty sure people's statues didn't have super long arms and legs twisted like no limb ever should. It was enough to make her sick just looking at the things, which led the redhead's darting gaze to an errant flash of golden between the statues.
"What's with the holdup..." Kira trailed off with a squeak when she spotted the statues. "I hate those things."
Mara turned to her sister. "Thank Sol for that; I thought it was just me!"
Immeya tuned the pair out as she fumbled with her helmet's controls to change the vision mode to something that could see through the smoke. Night vision made her eyes hurt; the thermal vision was a giant white blob that also hurt her eyes, and then she hit Magscan and hissed through clenched teeth. Mara's description of these Necramechs had been light on details beyond them being tall and robotic, but there was a frakking enormous giant robot in the middle of the creepy statues that couldn't be anything but a Necramech! As Immy stared at the machine with its inverted cone-shaped body and spindly limbs, it jerkily twitched in the redhead's direction and raised a skeletal hand towards her.
"Stompy robot's there!" Immeya cried, only to be drowned out by a snarling clatter that cut right to her soul.
Nobody had a chance to hide behind Kaz's protective bulwark before the giant robot lurched out of the smoke right as Immeya deactivated her magscan, revealing a horrifically damaged war machine that managed two steps and promptly collapsed with a sad-sounding warble. Dead silence fell over the assembled Tenno as the kids came down from their adrenaline high and realised that the black-and-gold giant robot wasn't a threat; fear and tension bleeding into the surrounding Void in stops and starts.
"I don't think it will hurt us," Rell noted softly.
Multiple pairs of eyes snapped towards the stoic boy, who accepted the response with a shrug and an outstretched hand aimed at the Necramech's mangled frame. Immy followed his finger and immediately noticed the cracked spinning ball... thing exposed within the machine's chest via a hole the size of her fist. The ball thing juddered and sparked as she watched, the six rings surrounding the blue core slowly but surely slowing second by second. Further examination ceased when a mountain of cryotic-blue armour plate blocked the redhead's vision as Kaz put himself in front of the group and knelt down to peer into the hole.
"Good catch, Rell," he praised, glancing back at the stoic Tenno for a moment. "It's no power core I've ever seen, but it's definitely damaged."
The Necramech's angular head ground sideways to regard the Clone with a nigh-inaudible warble and nothing else, giving Immy the courage to approach (well away from the arm-mounted chainblade) and hesitantly lay a hand on the machine. It felt solid beneath her gauntlet in a way that wasn't merely physical as if the Necramech was a fixed point that wouldn't budge no matter what you threw at it. As far as unwelcome surprises went, the heavily-damaged war machine wasn't the worst the elder Tenno had experienced since the Misjump, not by a long shot. Her courage emboldened her more hesitant kin to mirror the gesture, soon resulting in everyone clustering around the giant robot with growing interest. A faint sense of unease permeated the group link whenever someone glanced at the wibbly-wobbly statues, but Immeya was too busy daring to pet the Necramech's head to worry about it. Now that she was up close and personal, the sheer number of tiny runes and symbols etched into the gold and black metal was impossible to miss no matter where she looked.
Now, what else was she supposed to be looking for... "Sol, dammit, we need to keep moving." Immy waved in the statue's general direction. "Mara's relative is past those lot."
Excitement and curiosity turned to a reluctant agreement between one blink and the next, nobody understandably acting all that enthused about having to get past the creepy statues to complete their mission. Mara bounced to her feet before Immeya could continue and bounced over to whisper something into Kaz's ear, heralding the big Grineer coughing into a fist and standing up.
"I think it's best if we leave a party with the Necramech to ensure it doesn't block our path," he paused long enough for Immy to realise what he was going for. "Four should be enough, I do believe."
Immeya shared a look followed by a nod with Mara, knowing that her pint-sized sister companion was responsible for Kaz's offer and very much appreciating the save.
"Raise your hands if you want to stay with the big stompy robot," she ordered.
After a moment's hesitation, because nobody wanted to be first, Tanner raised his hand, followed by Jules, Kira and Tavor after a few seconds of hushed conversation. Immy threw her siblings a thumbs up to assuage their guilt (which they were feeling, she knew it) and brutally quashed the angry snake coiling in her stomach before it could leak through the bond. She wasn't annoyed about them hiding; she wasn't, and repeating that helped the redhead come to terms by the time she patted Mara on the shoulder.
"We'll be in and out before you know it," the elder Tenno reassured her sibling.
Mara's expressionless mask darted between Kaz, Rell and Immeya before they nodded and none-too-subtly touched the Mara Detron on their hip.
"Right... Yeah, in and out, no fuss." Mara squared her shoulders and stepped forwards. "Let's get this over with."
Except, right after saying that, the blue-haired girl jogged back to Tanner and Bean before pulling the older boy's head down to her (and the Kubrow's) level, exchanging a few inaudible words and a hug that had Immeya copying the gesture. For once, she was grateful for the helmets as they stopped Tavor and Jules from seeing her worried expression and vice-versa. Immeya clapped her siblings on the shoulder, steeled herself to leave them behind, and then rejoined Mara, Rell and Kaz to pass between the creepy statues. She wasn't ashamed to admit that she hid behind the large Grineer when they took the lead, as much from the safety he offered as avoiding looking too closely at the metallic figures with their far too long limbs and empty eye sockets. A flicker in the corner of the redhead's vision resolved into her Reflection, peering up at one such statue with a confused pout, the doppelganger briefly meeting Immy's eyes and vanishing with a hesitant wave.
A leaden weight settled in Immeya's gut as she continued onwards, simultaneously reassured by the gesture and dreading the reason for her Reflection's confusion.
She opened herself to the Void's song of infinite potential and kept a fistful of glowing motes ready... Just in case.
"They're just creepy statues around a breach leading to an off-the-books Orokin medbay," I whispered to myself after we'd entered the debris-filled hole in the wall. "Don't think about the missing eyes, don't think about them..."
Alas, the soulless gaping sockets appeared in my mind's eyes despite my best efforts, their owner's faces stretched beyond comfort and locked in a rictus of agony I couldn't imagine enduring. So I did everything except cling to Kaz like a maglock, which was good because Immeya and Rell had similar ideas and kept the Liche within arm's reach. It was an effort to keep up with him when every one of the Clone's steps was four of mine, but I didn't want to linger in the breach any longer than absolutely necessary. So my free hand never left the butt of my Mara Detron as we scrambled over cratered decking and fragmented chunks of Necramech armour to find ourselves in a disgustingly golden hallway.
Well, I think it's supposed to be gold underneath all the carbon scoring and battle damage, but said damage made it hard to be sure without getting up close and personal.
"Stick close to me, Little Ones," Kaz advised, voice tight and doom cannon sweeping the area. "Mara, direction?"
The nigh-inaudible song I'd been catching snippets of since I'd arrived bloomed into a discordant melody as I opened myself to the Void; gentle chimes breaking up mid-note alongside wet-sounding drums that perfectly synched with my heartbeat. I repressed a disgusted shudder and clamped down until I could barely hear the song while retaining enough of a link to pinpoint a direction.
"It's somewhere at bearing sixty," I kept an eye on my HUD and endured a split-second connection. "Y-Yeah, sixty-four is it."
I pretended that I didn't feel Immy and Rell worriedly looking at my shivering form.
"Bearing six-four, aye," Kaz echoed.
What followed was undoubtedly the most nerve-wracking time of my (admittedly) short life, handily beating the escape through the maintenance tunnels after the Misjump. I wasn't sure what I expected to find, but hallway after hallway of barely-navigatable corridors and trashed rooms wasn't it. Massive gouges shorn in walls and floors by the Necramech's chainblade, deformed and warped ornamentation that's been blown to pieces; Sol, it was easier to list undamaged things than it was otherwise! Most of the filigree-clad doors were intact and locked, a few bits of furniture tucked into cubbies and, oddest of all, an open room full of overgrown plants that I briefly peeked into. I enjoyed watching the gently-waving fronds and leaves for a few seconds before noticing the lack of a breeze and getting the frak out of there.
If you can't see what's making something move, it's probably hostile.
If not for Immy and Rell staying calm, I'd have snapped and run screaming as the discordant song grew louder the closer we got to the source, but they stood their ground and kept going. I didn't blame Tanner and the others for hanging back with the Necramech, especially not when Kaz forced a jammed door open with his fists to reveal the source of the signal that'd been forever haunting me.
"What the fuck..." Immeya hissed in shock.
The floor continued for a half-dozen feet before abruptly terminating in an enormous gaping chasm, whose edges were visibly glowing and releasing acrid smoke, which stretched across the remainder of the sizeable chamber. I snuck a glance over the edge and instantly regretted it when I couldn't see any bottom through the haze of smoke and what looked like mist further down. Blackened and melted lumps of what might have been medical equipment lay thrown against and embedded into the walls of a Lorist's sanctum, which we all ignored to focus on something incredibly out of place.
There was a blue-haired teenage girl strapped down to an operating table and connected via tubes to an incomprehensible series of liquids... Oh, and the entire thing was hanging dead-centre above the fiery chasm of doom. Only the tiniest breach in her enclosed Zariman suit even let me see the lock of cryotic-blue hair, but I didn't need my eyes to hear the song coming from her. Unfortunately, any chance of questioning her fell into the trap of needing to get to her across the massive fucking chasm!
I turned to my protector. "Uh, Kaz, how are we..."
His response was a finger pressed to my mask before laying his cannon down, taking a knee and then unslinging the back from his back to rummage through its depths. The silent Clone pulled out a random assortment of capacitors, electronics and miscellaneous kits that he had set aside before flashing me the hand sign for tape. I confusedly pulled the Space Tape from my belt and handed it off to watch Kaz spend several minutes putting all the junk together with judicious usage of the roll. Immy joined me in having absolutely no fucking clue what the Liche was doing off to one side while Rell nodded to himself and bent down to offer a few words lost to the discordant song buzzing in my ears. Moments later, Kaz flicked a jury-rigged switch and pointed the vaguely-dish-shaped device in the operating table's direction. I gasped as the free-hanging array painstakingly leaned in Kaz's direction, supporting cable audibly creaking from the huge magnetic draw before the entire thing snapped free and rocketed across the chasm.
I scream in fright.
Immeya screamed in fright.
Rell calmly backed up several paces with the barest flicker of Void-assisted movement.
Kaz snarled a vicious Sednan curse and wrapped the entire frakking surgical table in a bear hug that sent him skidding back in a sparking trail. I watched on, stupefied by the incredible sight, before leaping forwards to help my loyal protector cut the straps holding the restraining straps so that he could throw her over his shoulder. Kaz's urgency blew through our bond to the point I refused to question the rush and helped collect everything he'd set aside to build the super magnet.
The Grineer's mask swept across our upraised faces. "We're moving."
That was it, nothing else or any explanation, just a curt order that we all obeyed as if the hounds of hell were after us.
Our exit took a fraction of the time now that we had what we were here for, though I stumbled to a halt when we left the secret area to find our family standing around an upright (if unsteady) Necramech.
Tavor waved at us. "Hey, we poked a thing and Stompy's following..."
"No time for that," Immy barked, casting a nervous glance over her shoulder. "Just get it to follow us home."
We ran, each and every one of us, never looking back and, in my case, refusing to acknowledge that the discordant song had split up. One half clung to the teen we'd rescued and set my teeth on edge something fierce... But the other half remained in the room with the immense chasm plunging into the Zariman's depths.
And I couldn't help but feel as if I'd seen the creepy statues before...
Unseen by the long-fled Tenno and companions, the statues flanking the breach turned eyeless faces in the direction they'd left.
And peeled themselves from the floor and walls to kneel as a laughing shadow fell over them.
"Don't forget to blink, Kiddies~."
Also, have a quick and dirty NovelAI-generated Mara. Not perfect, but it's pretty close.
fought one of those for the first time last night. Strangest looking enemy I've fought yet in warframe not gonna lie. I am eagerly looking to the next installment though!
- Pronouns
- Female
Liking the story so far, although I'm curious why the population of the Zariman 10-0 is so low compared to canon. As far as I can tell, the Zariman had a few million children on board, alongside even more adults, given it was a colony ship made to be able to colonize the Tau System. As near as I can tell from the lore, there aren't any new Tenno being made, meaning all Tenno were onboard the Zariman.
On a related note, I'm pretty sure there were actually 2 Zariman 10-0's. The civilian colony ship, and the military one that didn't have any civilians onboard at all. The Tenno are from the colony ship, but when they got rescued out of the void they exited into the wrong version of their solar system. I think that's why there's confusion about there being children on a military vessel.
Other than that, I'm enjoying this story a lot. Not enough stories cover events on the Zariman.
On a related note, I'm pretty sure there were actually 2 Zariman 10-0's. The civilian colony ship, and the military one that didn't have any civilians onboard at all. The Tenno are from the colony ship, but when they got rescued out of the void they exited into the wrong version of their solar system. I think that's why there's confusion about there being children on a military vessel.
Other than that, I'm enjoying this story a lot. Not enough stories cover events on the Zariman.
HarakoniWarhawk
Striking from the Skies
- Location
- Holy Terra
- Pronouns
- She/Her
The population of the Zariman being so low is because, in this AU, if more relevant further down the timeline, the Ten-Zero Tenno are a First Founding of sorts.
They're the Ur-Tenno, the first and very much frakking best there is... But there's only so many of them and the Empire always needs more that will be more pliable to their orders.
That's where the Dreamers come in...
If I ever get round to writing the future of this (and get my Muse to finish the damn thing), then I can explain more.
- Location
- none of your business
And by that logic, the Orokin subjected fuck knows how many other children to Void Exposure to make more of them
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
I mean, it certainly is on-brand for them.
- Location
- none of your business
Considering even half the shit they pulled in Canon, it makes 100% pure sense for that kinda shit to be On-Brand for them and yet another reason why them getting slaughtered was completely and utterly justified
I mean... it's on brand for them... but I don't think it's on brand for the Void.
The Void isn't going to go "you toss in kids I spit out Tenno". And.., like, the Orokin response to the Tenno wasn't "cool, let's make more" it was "Blasphemous Void Demons... that we can't actually kill... Margulis! Do Something!"
The Void isn't going to go "you toss in kids I spit out Tenno". And.., like, the Orokin response to the Tenno wasn't "cool, let's make more" it was "Blasphemous Void Demons... that we can't actually kill... Margulis! Do Something!"
I kind of agree but with them dicking around in the void during Continuity Rituals, one of them being a finger stealer and the implications of Eternalism implying some forms of precog is possible (and time travel flat out is) setting the Orokin up to suffer/die isn't necesseraly out of the question especially if it further's some other goal of an entity there in.
Also given the size of the ship I could quiet believe there are other pockets of surviving children cut off or hiding that the focus group with Mara aren't aware off. Perhaps even more Colonists in cryo of some sort with enough awake passangers to witness the Seven's Glory or some such.
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