Synopsis: Taylor is kidnapped and stuffed into a cryopod by a Grineer science/raiding party in...
Space Ninja Summer Camp ( Warframe/Worm )
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Prologue
- Location
- MN
Synopsis: Taylor is kidnapped and stuffed into a cryopod by a Grineer science/raiding party in 2009 while at summer camp. The Grineer's ship suffers a malfunction and is trapped in the Void. Taylor wakes and is eventually discovered by a Tenno party.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Worm is owned by Wildbow and Warframe is owned by DE. Read and support Wildbow and if you're feeling adventurous, try Warframe. It's fun and more importantly, free to play!
An excellent Warframe review. ( I thought so anyway )
An excellent Warframe Starter Guide video series.
And, once that has made you want to play the game to see what all the fuss is about...
My in game handle is the same as my name here and I play on the PC. Feel free to say hi.
[Camp Itchawanda - July 2009]
"Taylor, over here!" Twelve, but almost thirteen years old Elsa Briggs yelled, gesturing for her new slightly older friend to join her next to a bush covered with pretty butterflies. Elsa was an only child, but unlike Taylor, her father was a CEO and whose mother was a former model who felt that her body had been ruined by childbirth. As a result, they both foisted off the intelligent, burgeoning beauty on an ever changing roster of nannies. Elsa had no friends. No real friends anyway, but somehow, the tall and gangly Taylor Hebert managed to cut through all of Elsa's cynicism and for the first time in her life, she felt like she had a friend, a real friend who didn't care about her money and liked her for who she was.
Taylor laughed and joined her next to the bush. "What is it?"
Elsa pointed to the bush covered in black and orange butterfly wings, "Look, Monarch Butterflies, aren't they beautiful?" She spoke in a hushed tone, afraid that the sound of her voice would scare away the insects.
"Oh my gosh, don't move!" Taylor whispered, her eyes round as saucers.
Stilling instantly and feeling a touch of panic over her friend's warning. What if Taylor was warning her about a bear or worse, a skunk? "What is it?" She gulped as she glance to the side without turning her head to look at her friend.
Taylor's eyes glanced to the top her head as she whispered, her voice and eyes filled with wonder. "You have a bunch of Butterflies hanging on your hair and I wish I had a camera…"
Without moving her head and remaining as still as possible, Elsa glanced behind herself, "In my backpack's side pocket, my phone…"
Taylor seemed to hesitate for a moment before gingerly reaching to the indicated pocket and extracting Elsa's phone. "How do I?" Taylor looked intimidated by the relatively simple, yet very expensive smartphone she now held in her hands.
"Just push the button on the front and then, touch the camera icon." Elsa helplessly whispered as her friend fumbled with her simple phone. How could Taylor not know how to use a cell phone? Her current phone was almost a year old and she was due to get a new one. She knew Taylor wasn't rich, but surely her family could afford a basic cell phone. She decided to inform her father that she would be giving Taylor her old phone when it was time to get a new one.
"Okay…" Taylor hesitantly replied as she followed her instructions. A digitized shutter click sound immediately followed, "Oops, took a picture of the ground." Taylor giggled excitedly, "This is kinda neat."
"Hurry, before they fly away…" Elsa whispered urgently, hoping that her friend would be able to take the picture.
[Click!]
"Got it!" Taylor laughed, her voice filled with awe, "This came out great, look!" She said as she turned the screen toward Elsa.
The picture was amazing and she couldn't believe her hair looked with all the black and orange butterflies perched on her head. She looked like a fairy queen. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Taylor's sharp intake of breath and the panic in her eyes.
["Gut soana klem!"] A digitized feminine voice yelled from her right, catching her attention.
Elsa glanced over her shoulder and spotted a scary cybernetic woman with red glowing eyes with no hair running toward them with a large sword in her hand. Making the woman even stranger and scarier was the fact that both of her legs from the knee down were clearly cybernetic. Behind the woman were large male versions of the female, but they carried bulbous rifles of some kind. They looked like soldiers, but like none she had ever seen.
"Run…" Taylor whispered just as the female cyborg thing stopped and pointed her arm at the two of them. Elsa felt herself being pushed by Taylor as a rope shot out of the female's arm towards where she had been standing. Instead of hitting Elsa with the whip-like rope, it struck her friend. The rope wrapped around Taylor's body in an instant before violently retracting and yanking Taylor off her feet, pulling through the air toward the scary woman robot thing and her friends.
Elsa dodged behind a tree and didn't stop running as the sound of high speed objects flew over her head and splintered trees. She was being shot at! Her heart pounded in her chest as adrenaline coursed through her body, making her feel like she was running faster than a deer as she dodged trees and jumped over logs. The sounds of the scary robot's electronic tinged voices yelling out behind her as the they noisily crashed through the underbrush behind her quickly faded away, but she didn't stop until she burst out of the trees and spotted the buildings of Camp Itchawanda.
"Taylor! Capes! Monsters! Run!" Elsa somehow managed to yell despite feeling like her lungs would never feel full again.
Taylor woke lying on her back and feeling colder than she could ever remember feeling in her life. The chill seemed to reach all the way to her bones, momentarily overriding the pain in her body from the physical abuse she had suffered during and after her capture by the Slaughterhouse 9 inspired soldiers. She didn't think the humanoid soldiers were actually built by the dreaded group, but she didn't know any other villain group who might be able to build the horrifying caricatures of human faces grafted onto misshapen robot bodies.
Shivering uncontrollably and her teeth chattering, Taylor winced with pain as she reflexively curled herself into a fetal position in an attempt to get warm. Her chest and back ached from being grabbed and pulled off her feet by the female cyborg's whip thing. Her knees and hands hurt from the many times she was yanked forward and fell during the forced march to the cyborg soldier's tinker shuttle craft.
At first, she thought they were taking her to the tinker who worked on them and that the strange tinker thing was more like a hovercraft. It would float above the trees and whisk her away to the supervillain tinker's secret lair where he would reveal all his diabolical plans. Her 007 escape plans started to fall apart when the tinker shuttle thing kept climbing and she caught sight of Earth rapidly growing smaller through a small view-port.
When did a cape villain build a secret, outer space lair and how did they keep the Simurgh away? What was she going to do now, she was trapped and there was no escape! With that thought, the pain, adrenaline and stress caught up with her. She felt herself losing consciousness. Her last coherent thought was whether she would ever see her father again.
[Destination.]
She dreamed of two large, things, flying through space. One seemed injured, shattered as motes of light tumbled from its body as it tumbled out of control towards a planet that looked like Earth.
[Agreement.]
She felt a their attention upon her. Would they rescue her? A shimmering star shot towards her, filling her dream with hope.
[Traj-]
[Connection Lost…]
Something changed, causing Taylor to wake. She was laying on her back, in a bed of some sort and she was cold, so very cold. Did her cabin's heater break again and where was her blanket? Suddenly, she remembered and adrenaline surged through her system. She had to escape! Her eyes shot open and with a sharp intake of breath, she bolted upright and promptly banged her head against a solid surface.
"Ow!" She yelped before leaning back and rubbing her forehead as she took in her surroundings.
She was no longer in the shuttle and it appeared that her dream of being rescued by giant space whales was just that, a silly dream, because instead of the tinker shuttle or a space age jail cell with a glowing forcefield doorway; she found herself encased inside of a high tech, metal and glass coffin. Rubbing her forehead and shivering as her breath instantly turned to vapor, she cautiously looked through the transparent covering.
Outside of her coffin, pod thing, she saw regularly spaced blood red lights fitfully illuminating what appeared to be a large open area. Did the tinker, mutant soldiers take her to their secret lair, spaceship thing? Was in a cargo hold of some sort?
Glancing up, through the top of her coffin, she spotted pale, ghostly lights drifting randomly through a large open space. Occasionally, the wisp lights would pass close to a wall or ceiling, giving her a brief glimpse of and a sense of the scale of the cavernous room her coffin was located in.
"Okay, there has got to be a way out of this thing…" Forcing herself to remain calm and not panic, Taylor carefully ran her hands along the edges of the coffin, looking for a button or lever that might open her enclosure. As she searched for a way out, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed one of the softly glowing wisps drifting toward her enclosure. Expecting it to go over or around her coffin, she gasped with surprise when the wisp passed through the coffin and with no way to dodge in the tight confines, the light flowed through her body.
Taylor nerves felt like they were on fire as the light seemed to fill her body. The pain quickly passed, leaving behind a mild tingly feeling, like she had touched a nine volt battery. She quickly decided that letting the wisps touch her was a bad idea, but there was little she could do to avoid the wisps when she was trapped inside of her coffin. She redoubled her efforts to find a way out, her effort made more difficult due to the cramped space and poor lighting.
Another wisp passed through her body, interrupting her search. After the pain passed, she restarted her search for a way out of her prison. Thus motivated, her fingers found what felt like a button located close to where her hand would have rested if she had remained lying flat on her back as the coffin's design intended. Pushing it, the lid of her coffin clicked and then, with a hiss of pressurized air lifted away on a hinge located near her head.
Taylor jumped out of her coffin as quickly as she could and promptly tripped due to the unexpected height difference between her coffin and the metal deck, causing her to wince in pain as she stressed her abused chest and back muscles. The cold metal deck provided additional evidence that she was on a ship of some kind. With a reluctant roll, she dodged a slow moving wisp, causing her even more pain from her sore and abraded hands and knees. She almost felt like the wisps were targeting her.
Her hypothesis was given additional evidence when a ghost surprised her by coming out of the floor and passing through her body, rising out of her chest. The fire in her nerves hurt again, but either she was becoming numb to the pain or it was somehow hurting less, maybe both. She wasn't sure, but she wished the wisps would stop tormenting her.
"Go away!" Taylor hissed at a wisp heading toward her. Amazingly enough, it altered its course and passed by without ramming into her. "Wow, I can't believe that worked…" she muttered as she warily watched the wisp sedately float past her.
Taylor quickly lost track of the days she spent on what she determined to be a space ship. She knew that it had been at least a week or two or three since she woke in the cold, dark hold of the ship, but it could have been more than a month due to how quickly she tired and needed to sleep. Thankfully, the few Crazy Green Meanies --or CGM's as she had started calling the aliens-- left alive on the ship were too large to fit into the small ducts and air vents she used to move throughout the ship as she foraged for food and water.
The ghosts seemed to help her now. Instead of shocking her, a ghost passing through her body made her feel more energized and alert. Maybe she had simply become numb to the pain.
On the plus side, she had super powers and if, no when, she got home, she could finally be a hero fighting crime like she and Emma, her best of the best and only friend until Elsa, always dreamed of. Sure, her power was a little underwhelming compared to her idol, Alexandria, but being able to turn herself invisible for a short period of time was nothing to sneeze at. Sure, it kinda drained her and left her feeling tired, but it was still a superpower and it helped keep her alive.
The first time she used her power, she had just found a small cache of fresh water, rations and what appeared to be ammunition and was in the process of returning to her hideout when she spotted the hulking male CGM walking down the corridor toward her.
His bloodshot eyes widened with surprise as he spotted her small form. Taylor panicked and she desperately wished that she wasn't there as the CGM blinked and started to call out, but then, the craziest thing happened, the CGM paused, as if confused, glanced around a few times, muttered something and then, walked away like he hadn't seen anything even though she was still standing, clutching her meager findings to her chest and frozen with fear in the middle of the corridor.
Glancing down at her body, Taylor realized that she was invisible, or mostly invisible. She could see a faint, lightly glowing outline of her body, but nothing else. How did the CGM not see her? Unsure how long she would remain invisible, she quickly ducked into the shadow of a nearby barrel and just in time because her super power faded and she felt a wave of exhaustion pass through her body just as she did so. Apparently, turning yourself invisible took a lot out of a person.
The feeling of exhaustion quickly passed and Taylor used the opportunity to return to the relative safety of the alien ship's duct-work. She got better at controlling her invisibility power and even discovered that she could perform a jumping dash that sorta worked like a short range teleport. The more she practiced using her super power, the easier it became and more importantly, the less it left her feeling exhausted. She was excited. According the PRT's rating system, she was both a Stranger and Mover, but she really wished that she had a Blaster power because the CGM's still scared her to death.
Taylor quickly became an expert at using her Stranger power to avoid detection and raid for supplies, but the supplies, even the nasty tasting CGM ration packs she found were getting harder and harder to find. The scarcity of supplies in the current part of the ship was forcing her to expand her search area. On a more positive note, there seemed to be fewer of the aliens left alive because they kept killing each other, which made it easier to avoid the few left alive, but the few that remained were definitely not sane, if they ever were.
Once, during a foraging expedition, Taylor found a secure hiding spot with a view of the outside of the ship. If the window hadn't also provided a good view of the ship's outer skin, with its hatches and gun ports clearly visible, she might not have believed the window really was a view of the outside because what she saw didn't look anything like what she expected space to look like. No stars and no planets to be seen, just blackness and brilliantly glowing clouds swirling around like thick paint mixing with water.
Despite the lack of anything familiar, Taylor actually found the view to be peaceful and relaxing. It almost felt like the clouds of light outside of the ship was her friend. However, due to the lack of a familiar planet or even stars, she didn't have much hope of being rescued, but it didn't hurt to dream about Alexandria, Legend and Eidolon swooping in and with the might of the legendary Triumvirate, handily defeating the CGM's and saving the world from alien invasion. Oh yeah, and rescuing her in the process.
The alien ship was huge and it took Taylor a few weeks to make her way from the what seemed to be the stern of the ship, where the cargo hold was located, and into the bow and bridge area of the ship. She preferred to find a good hiding spot to use as a base and raid supplies from there, returning to eat, sleep and dream of returning home before venturing out again. She found many more supply caches, unlocked supply lockers and view ports into what she was affectionately starting to call, The Dark, but hunger and thirst drove her to explore more parts of the ship and take larger risks while doing so.
At first, the section of the ship that looked like a command bridge to her, complete with a dead CGM sitting in a captain's chair looked like a jackpot to her. It had an abundance of unopened supply caches and an entire room of unlocked wall lockers to choose from. She was sure that this area could provide her with at least, a week or two's worth of food and water. Heck, maybe even a month because she had only explored about half of the area.
Taylor was rudely jarred from her dreams of wealth by the sudden arrival of a crushing grip on her arm followed by the harsh, guttural yell of a CGM. She panicked and tried to break free from the CGM's grip, but he was too strong.
"No, let me go!" Taylor desperately tried to twist herself out of the CGM's grasp. She was surprised to discover that it was the only mostly "dead" CGM she had seen sitting in the Captain's Chair. Apparently, he wasn't actually dead and now after dodging CGM's for what felt like months, she was going to pay for letting her guard down.
"Let. Me. Go!" Taylor pushed and just when she was about to give up hope, a surge of power flowed through her body and a bright flash smacked into the CGM, forcing him to let her go and knocking him off his feet. He flew back a good two or three meters and crashed against his chair.
"Wow…" Taylor glanced down at her hand with stunned amazement. "I did that?"
Her attention quickly returned to the now, extremely mad CGM as he regained his feet and started to stalk toward her with a determined expression. She saw murder in his crazed eyes and knew that if he reached her, she was dead.
For the first time in her life, Taylor needed to kill someone. Not just needed, like she could go without TV for a few days, but had to kill, a living, thinking, well, maybe insane, but still another thinking being. She felt her power responding to her desire and for the first time, she didn't want to control it because she feared that it would accidently hurt herself or someone else. She let it go, all of it, and her focus narrowed down to a tiny spot on the approaching CGM's armored chest.
The only way to stop him was to get through his thick chest armor and with that thought, Taylor screamed, "NO!", and a beam of energy shot from her arm, hitting the CGM square in his chest. At first, the beam didn't seem to be doing much, but a fraction of a second later, it effortlessly cut through the CGM's armor and erupted out of his back. The CGM stumbled back a step, shock clearly written on his face. Insane hatred rapidly replaced his shock and gritting his teeth against the pain, he took another step forward.
Taylor kept her laser beam on and despite the intense drain she was feeling, she gritted her teeth and screamed with anger, anger at the CGM's for kidnapping her, anger at being trapped inside an alien ship for who knew how long and especially, anger at the CGM now trying to kill her. She just wanted to go home, see her best friend and force her dad to give her a hug and this asshole was trying to kill her.
With that thought, she swept her laser beam to the side and felt nothing but grim satisfaction when it cut cleanly through the CGM's chest, neatly bisecting him from where her beam initially entered on his lower left chest as it crossed diagonally up, across where a human's heart would be before exiting above his left shoulder blade.
The crazed light left the CGM's eyes as it bonelessly toppled backwards, landing on his side against his chair. Completely drained of power and exhausted, Taylor fell to her knees, panting heavily as barely contained giggles worked to escape her from her mouth. She did it, she survived and even better, she learned that she also had a Blaster power, like Legend. She could be a hero and if, no, when she got home, that was exactly what she planned on being, a hero.
Taylor felt vindicated. The bridge area was the jackpot in terms of supplies. Apparently, the CGM officers ate marginally better than the rank and file. Instead of rations tasting like stale cardboard seasoned with too much salt, the officer rations tasted like fresh printer paper seasoned with salt and a hint of sugar. Taylor found it highly amusing that she had become a connoisseur of alien space rations.
A few weeks passed and she was in the process working her way through the bridge after returning from an unexplored section of the ship with some fresh rations when she felt it. She wasn't sure what "it" was, but she knew that The Dark was trying to tell her something. She didn't know what it was trying to tell her because it didn't communicate with words. The Dark communicated with emotions, sometimes too subtle to consciously notice, but when she paid attention, she could sometimes get an inkling of what The Dark was trying to tell her.
The Dark did not like the CGMs. Anytime a CGM came near her, Taylor got a clear danger warning. The current feeling wasn't a danger warning. If anything, it felt like the opposite of a danger warning and the feeling was growing stronger with every passing second.
Just in case she was getting the wrong signal, Taylor decided to duck under a console and hide.
"Tenno, there is a time-limited mission alert available. Check navigation." Lotus, aka Spacemom, announced as her holographic presence materialized in Becca's field of view.
"What is it Lotus?" She asked as she activated her Arsenal and made her Nyx Warframe ready for battle.
"Sensors have detected a disabled Grineer Cruiser in the Void. Your mission is to infiltrate the ship and steal any navigation and intelligence files you find." Lotus promptly replied as Becca's navigation system sprang to life and highlighted the section of the Void the cruiser was located in.
"The Void and a data recovery mission on a Grineer ship, hmmm." Becca swapped out her Lex Prime sidearm for the Kohmak automatic hand shotgun. She decided to keep her cherished Soma Prime assault rifle as her main weapon with the double dagger Fang Prime as her go-to-hell melee weapon option.
"How long has the ship been in the Void without shielding?" Becca asked, concerned about running into insane survivors. Not that the Grineer weren't insane already, but driven more insane due to Void energy exposure could make dealing with them more tricky.
"Anywhere from one to three months, initial scans were inconclusive." Lotus promptly replied, slightly surprising Becca since it was rare to receive follow-up information from the Lotus.
"That long, huh, guessing there won't be many survivors to worry about, if any..." Becca figured she could easily solo the mission, but after a second of consideration, she elected to pull up the clan roster and send a mission invite to her regular team members.
"Yo, whatcha got for me babe?" Lan, from his Volt Warframe, responded almost instantly. His casual attitude causing her a pang of fond annoyance.
"A Void mission. The details should be hitting your systems now." Becca responded as Karl, her second pick accepted the mission invite causing his Rhino Warframe to show up on the team roster.
Lan ignored her mild reproach, "Sa-weet! I need more Argon Crystals."
"It's not an Orokin base. If you bothered reading the mission details…" Becca muttered, mostly to herself, but made sure that her mic was active.
"Yaho!" Alyssa cheerfully sang as her Mirage Warframe appeared on the team roster. "Becca, Karl and umm, Lan, I can't wait to see you all again! Weeeelll, maybe not Lan, but what else can I say? Hehe"
"Oh, come on Alyssa, honey, even you?" Lan cried with mock indignation as the three Tenno landing craft of her clanmates and friends arrived on her main viewscreen.
"Especially you," Karl piped in, his deep voice deadpan.
"Ouch…" Lan muttered before sighing dramatically, "I guess I'll just have prove to you all how awesome I am by carrying you all even more this time."
The team chatter died down the moment they inserted into the stricken Grineer vessel. It had life support and with the emergency lighting, the corridor leading away from their insertion point looked a little forbidding. It didn't help that there was a pair of dead Grineer slumped against the bulkhead. A female Scorpion missing most of her skull with her machete buried to the hilt in the chest of a Bombardier still holding his sidearm.
"Well, don't see that everyday…" Lan snickered softly over the team channel. "Wish they off'ed each other more often."
"The Void doesn't like them either." Becca smirked.
"Terminals located and added to your map. Tenno, I need you to get inside enemy data vaults and retrieve crucial intelligence data." Lotus' announcement brought the four Tenno back on track.
"I'll take location A, Lan, grab B, Karl-" Becca started to call out assignments, but her teammate cut her off.
"C, got it." Karl interrupted her as his words turned into action and his warframe rapidly began moving away from the team.
Lan simply shrugged, giving Becca the impression that he was blessing them all with a shit eating grin before he disappeared with a visible blur as he activated his speed power. Intentionally waiting until Rhino was out of his area of effect, excluding his teammate from the speed boost before he zipped past him like he was standing still.
"Okaay, Alyssa?" Becca turned to her visibly buoyant teammate.
"I'll go with you. You always find the best toys to play with!" Alyssa giggled, giving Becca a mischievous thumbs ups.
"Tenno, my sensors have detected an Operator energy signature." Concern and confusion colored Lotus' voice as a fourth waypoint sprang into existence on their mission map.
"What?" Becca felt equal parts horror and the desire to kill as many Grineer as possible well up inside herself. Horror because the Grineer had never captured one of her brothers or sisters before. Her mind ran in desperate circles as she considered what the sick tortures the Grineer might have done to one of her own.
She felt her sister's hand on her armored shoulder. "You go, I'll grab the data." Alyssa softly encouraged her.
Becca glanced to her friend and curtly nodded her warframe's head before springing into action and vaulting down the ill lit corridor, heading toward the location marked on her map. She passed and without slowing, gleefully alleviated some of her bloodlust by dispatching any Grineer still alive and in her path of travel. None of her hated foes saw death coming for them before her blades flashed, filled with void energy, killing the target of her wrath and removing its body from existence as the Void consumed the Grineer, leaving no evidence behind.
Reaching the bridge and general location indicted on her map, Becca slowed to a walking pace as her mind took in the bloody details and scanned the area for threats while she also tried to spot her fellow Tenno. The bridge was a mess with the bodies of Grineer officers laying on the deck, collapsed over their stations with their throats cut or their brains blown out from self inflicted gunshot wounds, evidenced by their sidearm still clutched in their hand. She smiled with satisfaction. Void induced insanity couldn't have happened to better targets.
The only anomaly on the bridge was the body of the ship's captain, his body crumpled against the captain's chair. Something seemed off about his body and as she crouched down for a closer inspection of the body, her hunch was proven under closer examination of his wounds. While all the other dead Grineer had easy to identify and categorize gunshot, blade or blunt force wounds, the ranking officer's thick command armor had been cut open and his body nearly bisected by a weapon that only a fellow Tenno operator could weld, a Void Beam.
The discovery only led to more questions for her. Starting with, why would a fellow Tenno resort to using Transference mode to kill their enemy when they could've used their Warframe and weapons? Where was the unknown Operator's Warframe and why haven't they tried to contact her? Was the unknown Tenno running stealth frame and if so, why were they hiding from her?
Becca cautiously rose from her crouch and activated her Codex Scanner. She frowned with confusion as her scanner revealed that all the nearby supply caches had been broken open and emptied. Slowly rotating in place and scanning the room, she stopped when her scanner detected and outlined the shape of a female Operator attempting to hide underneath a console.
"What the…" Becca absently spoke on the team channel as she realized that the Tenno Operator wasn't using Transference from her Warframe. The unknown Operator and her sister Tenno was actually present, in the flesh. How did the Grineer get their hands on fellow Tenno and why hadn't anyone known? Her anger at the hated Grineer almost boiled over. The sick bastards would pay for this.
"Almost got the Nav data, what's going on Becca?" Lan called out.
She didn't know what to say. "Umm, still working on it. Finish your objective and come to the bridge."
"Annnd, done. Be right there babe!" Lan cheerfully taunted her.
"Good…" Becca uncharacteristically waved away his sexist reply instead of yelling at him like she normally would. It was clear that her sister Tenno was aware of her presence, but why would she want to hide from her. Becca took a step forward, but stopped when the unknown Operator screamed in panic and raised her arm when it was clear that her hiding spot had been discovered. Her sister was ready to defend herself with a Void Beam, but why? What did the Grineer do to the girl that would make her fear one of her own?
She glanced back at the dead Grineer officer and snarled with anger before turning back to the Operator. Afraid that she somehow appeared threatening, she deactivated her Codex Scanner and activated her external speakers. "Hey there, are you okay? The Grineer are dead now, you can come out now." Becca said as she gestured for the Operator to come out from underneath the control console.
Instead of relaxing and coming out from her hiding place, the Operator yelled, her words unrecognized but the feeling of overwhelming panic clear from the tone of the girl's voice. Becca spotted the Operator's Void Beam activate and she reflexively dodged to the side before the girl could get it on target. She wasn't worried about the damage the beam might cause to her Warframe. Her shields and armor could easily handle a glancing blow, but it would be stupid to stand still and take an easily avoided hit.
The Operator's Void Beam stopped and she emerged from her hiding spot, most of the panic gone from her expression, replaced with determination, but she was clearly still scared of her Becca's Warframe. Instead of a Transference suit, the girl wore fiber based clothing that was torn and covered with dirt, grime and blood, hopefully Grineer blood. What in the Void did the Grineer do to her and why did they take her out of her suit?
Her questions went unanswered as the girl continued to repeat the same unintelligible phrase as she cautiously glanced around, looking for an escape route while she continued to hold her arm up, ready to try firing on her again.
"Whoa, calm down. I'm here to help you." Becca holstered her Soma and half raised her arms in an attempt to show the girl that she wasn't planning on shooting her.
The girl appeared to relax a little, but continued to cautiously back up, towards an exit. Just in time for Lan, in his Volt Warframe, to make his appearance from that exit.
"Honey, I'm- whoa!" He jumped back with surprise as the girl screamed and reflexively shot her Void Beam at him.
Becca screamed, "Don't!", as she helplessly watched Lan's Prisma Grakata assault rifle automatically rise into a firing position.
Lan seemed to realize his mistake, even as his finger pulled the trigger. It was too late to stop the mechanical action from happening, but his battle honed reflexes did what they could evan as a rapid fire burst erupted from the barrel of his weapon. The first round was on target and struck the girl in her leg, punching clean through, shattering bone and causing her to began a slow motion collapse to the deck. Under normal situations, the remaining rounds of the five to ten round burst caused by a single pull of the trigger would've hit center mass as her teammate walked his weapon up his target's body for a finishing headshot, but he somehow managed to pull his weapon away.
Becca would say this for the girl, she was a fighter because even as she fell, she continued to try and bring her Void Beam on target and hit her attacker. It was in that moment that she realized that the girl truly didn't recognize their Warframes as friendly. Becca activated Transference and emerged from her Warframe with her Zariman hood down, showing her bare head and more importantly, human face.
The girl's Void Beam shifted across the bridge, leaving a deep gouge on a nearby bulkhead as her action drew the girl's attention toward her. At the sight of her bare face and human body, the girl's beam abruptly flickered and died as she once again spoke words in an unknown language. Becca might not have understood her words, but she clearly read the surprise, confusion and relief written on the girl's face before her injury caused her to cry out in pain.
As her Nyx Warframe stood impassively by, Becca, in her Operator form ran to the girl and began to administer first aid, not that there was much she could do, but her presence seemed to calm the girl. "Lan, health restore, now!"
The girl looked at her with wonder in her eyes as she reached up, attempting to touch her face. She spoke again, but Becca couldn't understand her words. The girl didn't seem to know or remember her own language, but on a positive note, she wasn't speaking using the horrible Grineer dialect.
As the health restore pulsed and the green, healing energy washed over her sister, she shuddered with relief when her wound instantly healed and vanished, as if it never was, leaving clear skin behind. The only evidence remaining was the large, torn hole and the girl's blood on her strange plant fiber based leggings.
Even with the healing, the girl was still severely malnourished and her lips were cracked from dehydration. It was a testament to her fighting spirit that she was able to put up as much of a fight as she did. She visibly tried to fight her exhaustion and rise to her feet.
"Whoa, calm yourself sister. I'll help you." Becca smiled, trying to reassure the girl, but once again there seemed to be a language barrier. Resorting to body language, she pointed back to her immobile Warframe.
"Watch…" She said, hoping that showing her ending Transference would help remind her sister Tenno that Becca and her Warframe were the same.
The girl desperately held onto her arm and spoke to her as Becca attempted to pull away and return to her Warframe. "It's fine, watch." She smiled reassuringly as she gently disengaged herself from the girl's grip.
Understanding seemed to dawn in the girl's eyes as Becca walked back to her Warframe and with a final glance back to her sister Tenno, she ended Transference and merged her consciousness with her Warframe.
Once again in control of her Warframe, Becca took a cautious step toward the girl, who despite her initial apprehension, now seemed in awe as she relaxed and allowed her to pick her up.
Becca didn't miss the glare the girl gave to Lan as he moved past them and towards the extraction point. Becca foresaw a lot of ribbing at his expense after word got out that he accidentally shot a fellow Tenno.
Lan boosted her and the pair met a surprised Alyssa and Karl at the extraction point. Becca would've liked to introduce her rediscovered sister to her friends, but the poor girl must have been exhausted because in spite of the speed, jumps and rapid twists and turns, she fell asleep in Becca's arms at the halfway mark.
Full disclosure mode, activated:
I've been playing a [lot] of Warframe lately and this idea just won't leave me. I wondered, how would I give Taylor Warframe powers and have it not break SOD ( for most people ) and what would have happened without Taylor? So, in the interest in getting some feedback and finding out if I'm onto something or just polishing a turd, I decided to start posting.
I really don't have an ending planned for this because from what I understand of how strong the sandbagging Destruction Engines actually are and despite how over-powered Warframes are, I don't really see how the Endbringers ( all of them ) can be defeated by a single Warframe/Tenno. Simurgh, maybe damaged and forced to retreat due to Void powered shenanigans negating her precog. Levi is a maybe. Scion/Zion, not a chance. If anyone has some thoughts on that conundrum, feel free to send them my way.
Taylor's mindset: She spent 15 years killing Corpus, Grineer and Infested. She's a hammer and anything that tries to kill her is a nail. She has zero interest in staying on Earth Bet. It's no longer her home and her "family" are her clan and the Tenno. Her father, Emma and friend from camp are the only ties she has to Earth Bet
Well, that's how I will attempt to portray our beloved Queen of Escalation...
I have no idea how many chapters I will write/post before I lose steam. So, I apologize in advance, but I currently have the Prologue and 3 chapters written.
Enough of my lame excuses and on with the Prologue.
I've been playing a [lot] of Warframe lately and this idea just won't leave me. I wondered, how would I give Taylor Warframe powers and have it not break SOD ( for most people ) and what would have happened without Taylor? So, in the interest in getting some feedback and finding out if I'm onto something or just polishing a turd, I decided to start posting.
I really don't have an ending planned for this because from what I understand of how strong the sandbagging Destruction Engines actually are and despite how over-powered Warframes are, I don't really see how the Endbringers ( all of them ) can be defeated by a single Warframe/Tenno. Simurgh, maybe damaged and forced to retreat due to Void powered shenanigans negating her precog. Levi is a maybe. Scion/Zion, not a chance. If anyone has some thoughts on that conundrum, feel free to send them my way.
Taylor's mindset: She spent 15 years killing Corpus, Grineer and Infested. She's a hammer and anything that tries to kill her is a nail. She has zero interest in staying on Earth Bet. It's no longer her home and her "family" are her clan and the Tenno. Her father, Emma and friend from camp are the only ties she has to Earth Bet
Well, that's how I will attempt to portray our beloved Queen of Escalation...
I have no idea how many chapters I will write/post before I lose steam. So, I apologize in advance, but I currently have the Prologue and 3 chapters written.
Enough of my lame excuses and on with the Prologue.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Worm is owned by Wildbow and Warframe is owned by DE. Read and support Wildbow and if you're feeling adventurous, try Warframe. It's fun and more importantly, free to play!
An excellent Warframe review. ( I thought so anyway )
An excellent Warframe Starter Guide video series.
And, once that has made you want to play the game to see what all the fuss is about...
My in game handle is the same as my name here and I play on the PC. Feel free to say hi.
* = Frames likely to make an appearance
** = Frames in story and very much planned to make an appearance
** = Frames in story and very much planned to make an appearance
- Ash Prime
- Banshee Prime*
- Ember Prime
- Equinox
- Frost Prime
- Gara
- Harrow
- Hydroid Prime
- Inaros
- Ivara**
- Limbo
- Loki Prime
- Mag Prime*
- Mesa
- Mirage Prime*
- Nekros Prime
- Nezha*
- Nova**
- Nyx
- Oberon Prime
- Octavia
- Rhino*
- Saryn Prime
- Titania
- Trinity Prime**
- Valkyr Prime**
- Vauban Prime
- Zephyr
First Contact
[Camp Itchawanda - July 2009]
"Taylor, over here!" Twelve, but almost thirteen years old Elsa Briggs yelled, gesturing for her new slightly older friend to join her next to a bush covered with pretty butterflies. Elsa was an only child, but unlike Taylor, her father was a CEO and whose mother was a former model who felt that her body had been ruined by childbirth. As a result, they both foisted off the intelligent, burgeoning beauty on an ever changing roster of nannies. Elsa had no friends. No real friends anyway, but somehow, the tall and gangly Taylor Hebert managed to cut through all of Elsa's cynicism and for the first time in her life, she felt like she had a friend, a real friend who didn't care about her money and liked her for who she was.
Taylor laughed and joined her next to the bush. "What is it?"
Elsa pointed to the bush covered in black and orange butterfly wings, "Look, Monarch Butterflies, aren't they beautiful?" She spoke in a hushed tone, afraid that the sound of her voice would scare away the insects.
"Oh my gosh, don't move!" Taylor whispered, her eyes round as saucers.
Stilling instantly and feeling a touch of panic over her friend's warning. What if Taylor was warning her about a bear or worse, a skunk? "What is it?" She gulped as she glance to the side without turning her head to look at her friend.
Taylor's eyes glanced to the top her head as she whispered, her voice and eyes filled with wonder. "You have a bunch of Butterflies hanging on your hair and I wish I had a camera…"
Without moving her head and remaining as still as possible, Elsa glanced behind herself, "In my backpack's side pocket, my phone…"
Taylor seemed to hesitate for a moment before gingerly reaching to the indicated pocket and extracting Elsa's phone. "How do I?" Taylor looked intimidated by the relatively simple, yet very expensive smartphone she now held in her hands.
"Just push the button on the front and then, touch the camera icon." Elsa helplessly whispered as her friend fumbled with her simple phone. How could Taylor not know how to use a cell phone? Her current phone was almost a year old and she was due to get a new one. She knew Taylor wasn't rich, but surely her family could afford a basic cell phone. She decided to inform her father that she would be giving Taylor her old phone when it was time to get a new one.
"Okay…" Taylor hesitantly replied as she followed her instructions. A digitized shutter click sound immediately followed, "Oops, took a picture of the ground." Taylor giggled excitedly, "This is kinda neat."
"Hurry, before they fly away…" Elsa whispered urgently, hoping that her friend would be able to take the picture.
[Click!]
"Got it!" Taylor laughed, her voice filled with awe, "This came out great, look!" She said as she turned the screen toward Elsa.
The picture was amazing and she couldn't believe her hair looked with all the black and orange butterflies perched on her head. She looked like a fairy queen. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Taylor's sharp intake of breath and the panic in her eyes.
["Gut soana klem!"] A digitized feminine voice yelled from her right, catching her attention.
Elsa glanced over her shoulder and spotted a scary cybernetic woman with red glowing eyes with no hair running toward them with a large sword in her hand. Making the woman even stranger and scarier was the fact that both of her legs from the knee down were clearly cybernetic. Behind the woman were large male versions of the female, but they carried bulbous rifles of some kind. They looked like soldiers, but like none she had ever seen.
"Run…" Taylor whispered just as the female cyborg thing stopped and pointed her arm at the two of them. Elsa felt herself being pushed by Taylor as a rope shot out of the female's arm towards where she had been standing. Instead of hitting Elsa with the whip-like rope, it struck her friend. The rope wrapped around Taylor's body in an instant before violently retracting and yanking Taylor off her feet, pulling through the air toward the scary woman robot thing and her friends.
Elsa dodged behind a tree and didn't stop running as the sound of high speed objects flew over her head and splintered trees. She was being shot at! Her heart pounded in her chest as adrenaline coursed through her body, making her feel like she was running faster than a deer as she dodged trees and jumped over logs. The sounds of the scary robot's electronic tinged voices yelling out behind her as the they noisily crashed through the underbrush behind her quickly faded away, but she didn't stop until she burst out of the trees and spotted the buildings of Camp Itchawanda.
"Taylor! Capes! Monsters! Run!" Elsa somehow managed to yell despite feeling like her lungs would never feel full again.
~**~
Taylor woke lying on her back and feeling colder than she could ever remember feeling in her life. The chill seemed to reach all the way to her bones, momentarily overriding the pain in her body from the physical abuse she had suffered during and after her capture by the Slaughterhouse 9 inspired soldiers. She didn't think the humanoid soldiers were actually built by the dreaded group, but she didn't know any other villain group who might be able to build the horrifying caricatures of human faces grafted onto misshapen robot bodies.
Shivering uncontrollably and her teeth chattering, Taylor winced with pain as she reflexively curled herself into a fetal position in an attempt to get warm. Her chest and back ached from being grabbed and pulled off her feet by the female cyborg's whip thing. Her knees and hands hurt from the many times she was yanked forward and fell during the forced march to the cyborg soldier's tinker shuttle craft.
At first, she thought they were taking her to the tinker who worked on them and that the strange tinker thing was more like a hovercraft. It would float above the trees and whisk her away to the supervillain tinker's secret lair where he would reveal all his diabolical plans. Her 007 escape plans started to fall apart when the tinker shuttle thing kept climbing and she caught sight of Earth rapidly growing smaller through a small view-port.
When did a cape villain build a secret, outer space lair and how did they keep the Simurgh away? What was she going to do now, she was trapped and there was no escape! With that thought, the pain, adrenaline and stress caught up with her. She felt herself losing consciousness. Her last coherent thought was whether she would ever see her father again.
[Destination.]
She dreamed of two large, things, flying through space. One seemed injured, shattered as motes of light tumbled from its body as it tumbled out of control towards a planet that looked like Earth.
[Agreement.]
She felt a their attention upon her. Would they rescue her? A shimmering star shot towards her, filling her dream with hope.
[Traj-]
[Connection Lost…]
Something changed, causing Taylor to wake. She was laying on her back, in a bed of some sort and she was cold, so very cold. Did her cabin's heater break again and where was her blanket? Suddenly, she remembered and adrenaline surged through her system. She had to escape! Her eyes shot open and with a sharp intake of breath, she bolted upright and promptly banged her head against a solid surface.
"Ow!" She yelped before leaning back and rubbing her forehead as she took in her surroundings.
She was no longer in the shuttle and it appeared that her dream of being rescued by giant space whales was just that, a silly dream, because instead of the tinker shuttle or a space age jail cell with a glowing forcefield doorway; she found herself encased inside of a high tech, metal and glass coffin. Rubbing her forehead and shivering as her breath instantly turned to vapor, she cautiously looked through the transparent covering.
Outside of her coffin, pod thing, she saw regularly spaced blood red lights fitfully illuminating what appeared to be a large open area. Did the tinker, mutant soldiers take her to their secret lair, spaceship thing? Was in a cargo hold of some sort?
Glancing up, through the top of her coffin, she spotted pale, ghostly lights drifting randomly through a large open space. Occasionally, the wisp lights would pass close to a wall or ceiling, giving her a brief glimpse of and a sense of the scale of the cavernous room her coffin was located in.
"Okay, there has got to be a way out of this thing…" Forcing herself to remain calm and not panic, Taylor carefully ran her hands along the edges of the coffin, looking for a button or lever that might open her enclosure. As she searched for a way out, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed one of the softly glowing wisps drifting toward her enclosure. Expecting it to go over or around her coffin, she gasped with surprise when the wisp passed through the coffin and with no way to dodge in the tight confines, the light flowed through her body.
Taylor nerves felt like they were on fire as the light seemed to fill her body. The pain quickly passed, leaving behind a mild tingly feeling, like she had touched a nine volt battery. She quickly decided that letting the wisps touch her was a bad idea, but there was little she could do to avoid the wisps when she was trapped inside of her coffin. She redoubled her efforts to find a way out, her effort made more difficult due to the cramped space and poor lighting.
Another wisp passed through her body, interrupting her search. After the pain passed, she restarted her search for a way out of her prison. Thus motivated, her fingers found what felt like a button located close to where her hand would have rested if she had remained lying flat on her back as the coffin's design intended. Pushing it, the lid of her coffin clicked and then, with a hiss of pressurized air lifted away on a hinge located near her head.
Taylor jumped out of her coffin as quickly as she could and promptly tripped due to the unexpected height difference between her coffin and the metal deck, causing her to wince in pain as she stressed her abused chest and back muscles. The cold metal deck provided additional evidence that she was on a ship of some kind. With a reluctant roll, she dodged a slow moving wisp, causing her even more pain from her sore and abraded hands and knees. She almost felt like the wisps were targeting her.
Her hypothesis was given additional evidence when a ghost surprised her by coming out of the floor and passing through her body, rising out of her chest. The fire in her nerves hurt again, but either she was becoming numb to the pain or it was somehow hurting less, maybe both. She wasn't sure, but she wished the wisps would stop tormenting her.
"Go away!" Taylor hissed at a wisp heading toward her. Amazingly enough, it altered its course and passed by without ramming into her. "Wow, I can't believe that worked…" she muttered as she warily watched the wisp sedately float past her.
Taylor quickly lost track of the days she spent on what she determined to be a space ship. She knew that it had been at least a week or two or three since she woke in the cold, dark hold of the ship, but it could have been more than a month due to how quickly she tired and needed to sleep. Thankfully, the few Crazy Green Meanies --or CGM's as she had started calling the aliens-- left alive on the ship were too large to fit into the small ducts and air vents she used to move throughout the ship as she foraged for food and water.
The ghosts seemed to help her now. Instead of shocking her, a ghost passing through her body made her feel more energized and alert. Maybe she had simply become numb to the pain.
On the plus side, she had super powers and if, no when, she got home, she could finally be a hero fighting crime like she and Emma, her best of the best and only friend until Elsa, always dreamed of. Sure, her power was a little underwhelming compared to her idol, Alexandria, but being able to turn herself invisible for a short period of time was nothing to sneeze at. Sure, it kinda drained her and left her feeling tired, but it was still a superpower and it helped keep her alive.
The first time she used her power, she had just found a small cache of fresh water, rations and what appeared to be ammunition and was in the process of returning to her hideout when she spotted the hulking male CGM walking down the corridor toward her.
His bloodshot eyes widened with surprise as he spotted her small form. Taylor panicked and she desperately wished that she wasn't there as the CGM blinked and started to call out, but then, the craziest thing happened, the CGM paused, as if confused, glanced around a few times, muttered something and then, walked away like he hadn't seen anything even though she was still standing, clutching her meager findings to her chest and frozen with fear in the middle of the corridor.
Glancing down at her body, Taylor realized that she was invisible, or mostly invisible. She could see a faint, lightly glowing outline of her body, but nothing else. How did the CGM not see her? Unsure how long she would remain invisible, she quickly ducked into the shadow of a nearby barrel and just in time because her super power faded and she felt a wave of exhaustion pass through her body just as she did so. Apparently, turning yourself invisible took a lot out of a person.
The feeling of exhaustion quickly passed and Taylor used the opportunity to return to the relative safety of the alien ship's duct-work. She got better at controlling her invisibility power and even discovered that she could perform a jumping dash that sorta worked like a short range teleport. The more she practiced using her super power, the easier it became and more importantly, the less it left her feeling exhausted. She was excited. According the PRT's rating system, she was both a Stranger and Mover, but she really wished that she had a Blaster power because the CGM's still scared her to death.
Taylor quickly became an expert at using her Stranger power to avoid detection and raid for supplies, but the supplies, even the nasty tasting CGM ration packs she found were getting harder and harder to find. The scarcity of supplies in the current part of the ship was forcing her to expand her search area. On a more positive note, there seemed to be fewer of the aliens left alive because they kept killing each other, which made it easier to avoid the few left alive, but the few that remained were definitely not sane, if they ever were.
Once, during a foraging expedition, Taylor found a secure hiding spot with a view of the outside of the ship. If the window hadn't also provided a good view of the ship's outer skin, with its hatches and gun ports clearly visible, she might not have believed the window really was a view of the outside because what she saw didn't look anything like what she expected space to look like. No stars and no planets to be seen, just blackness and brilliantly glowing clouds swirling around like thick paint mixing with water.
Despite the lack of anything familiar, Taylor actually found the view to be peaceful and relaxing. It almost felt like the clouds of light outside of the ship was her friend. However, due to the lack of a familiar planet or even stars, she didn't have much hope of being rescued, but it didn't hurt to dream about Alexandria, Legend and Eidolon swooping in and with the might of the legendary Triumvirate, handily defeating the CGM's and saving the world from alien invasion. Oh yeah, and rescuing her in the process.
The alien ship was huge and it took Taylor a few weeks to make her way from the what seemed to be the stern of the ship, where the cargo hold was located, and into the bow and bridge area of the ship. She preferred to find a good hiding spot to use as a base and raid supplies from there, returning to eat, sleep and dream of returning home before venturing out again. She found many more supply caches, unlocked supply lockers and view ports into what she was affectionately starting to call, The Dark, but hunger and thirst drove her to explore more parts of the ship and take larger risks while doing so.
At first, the section of the ship that looked like a command bridge to her, complete with a dead CGM sitting in a captain's chair looked like a jackpot to her. It had an abundance of unopened supply caches and an entire room of unlocked wall lockers to choose from. She was sure that this area could provide her with at least, a week or two's worth of food and water. Heck, maybe even a month because she had only explored about half of the area.
Taylor was rudely jarred from her dreams of wealth by the sudden arrival of a crushing grip on her arm followed by the harsh, guttural yell of a CGM. She panicked and tried to break free from the CGM's grip, but he was too strong.
"No, let me go!" Taylor desperately tried to twist herself out of the CGM's grasp. She was surprised to discover that it was the only mostly "dead" CGM she had seen sitting in the Captain's Chair. Apparently, he wasn't actually dead and now after dodging CGM's for what felt like months, she was going to pay for letting her guard down.
"Let. Me. Go!" Taylor pushed and just when she was about to give up hope, a surge of power flowed through her body and a bright flash smacked into the CGM, forcing him to let her go and knocking him off his feet. He flew back a good two or three meters and crashed against his chair.
"Wow…" Taylor glanced down at her hand with stunned amazement. "I did that?"
Her attention quickly returned to the now, extremely mad CGM as he regained his feet and started to stalk toward her with a determined expression. She saw murder in his crazed eyes and knew that if he reached her, she was dead.
For the first time in her life, Taylor needed to kill someone. Not just needed, like she could go without TV for a few days, but had to kill, a living, thinking, well, maybe insane, but still another thinking being. She felt her power responding to her desire and for the first time, she didn't want to control it because she feared that it would accidently hurt herself or someone else. She let it go, all of it, and her focus narrowed down to a tiny spot on the approaching CGM's armored chest.
The only way to stop him was to get through his thick chest armor and with that thought, Taylor screamed, "NO!", and a beam of energy shot from her arm, hitting the CGM square in his chest. At first, the beam didn't seem to be doing much, but a fraction of a second later, it effortlessly cut through the CGM's armor and erupted out of his back. The CGM stumbled back a step, shock clearly written on his face. Insane hatred rapidly replaced his shock and gritting his teeth against the pain, he took another step forward.
Taylor kept her laser beam on and despite the intense drain she was feeling, she gritted her teeth and screamed with anger, anger at the CGM's for kidnapping her, anger at being trapped inside an alien ship for who knew how long and especially, anger at the CGM now trying to kill her. She just wanted to go home, see her best friend and force her dad to give her a hug and this asshole was trying to kill her.
With that thought, she swept her laser beam to the side and felt nothing but grim satisfaction when it cut cleanly through the CGM's chest, neatly bisecting him from where her beam initially entered on his lower left chest as it crossed diagonally up, across where a human's heart would be before exiting above his left shoulder blade.
The crazed light left the CGM's eyes as it bonelessly toppled backwards, landing on his side against his chair. Completely drained of power and exhausted, Taylor fell to her knees, panting heavily as barely contained giggles worked to escape her from her mouth. She did it, she survived and even better, she learned that she also had a Blaster power, like Legend. She could be a hero and if, no, when she got home, that was exactly what she planned on being, a hero.
Taylor felt vindicated. The bridge area was the jackpot in terms of supplies. Apparently, the CGM officers ate marginally better than the rank and file. Instead of rations tasting like stale cardboard seasoned with too much salt, the officer rations tasted like fresh printer paper seasoned with salt and a hint of sugar. Taylor found it highly amusing that she had become a connoisseur of alien space rations.
A few weeks passed and she was in the process working her way through the bridge after returning from an unexplored section of the ship with some fresh rations when she felt it. She wasn't sure what "it" was, but she knew that The Dark was trying to tell her something. She didn't know what it was trying to tell her because it didn't communicate with words. The Dark communicated with emotions, sometimes too subtle to consciously notice, but when she paid attention, she could sometimes get an inkling of what The Dark was trying to tell her.
The Dark did not like the CGMs. Anytime a CGM came near her, Taylor got a clear danger warning. The current feeling wasn't a danger warning. If anything, it felt like the opposite of a danger warning and the feeling was growing stronger with every passing second.
Just in case she was getting the wrong signal, Taylor decided to duck under a console and hide.
~**~
"Tenno, there is a time-limited mission alert available. Check navigation." Lotus, aka Spacemom, announced as her holographic presence materialized in Becca's field of view.
"What is it Lotus?" She asked as she activated her Arsenal and made her Nyx Warframe ready for battle.
"Sensors have detected a disabled Grineer Cruiser in the Void. Your mission is to infiltrate the ship and steal any navigation and intelligence files you find." Lotus promptly replied as Becca's navigation system sprang to life and highlighted the section of the Void the cruiser was located in.
"The Void and a data recovery mission on a Grineer ship, hmmm." Becca swapped out her Lex Prime sidearm for the Kohmak automatic hand shotgun. She decided to keep her cherished Soma Prime assault rifle as her main weapon with the double dagger Fang Prime as her go-to-hell melee weapon option.
"How long has the ship been in the Void without shielding?" Becca asked, concerned about running into insane survivors. Not that the Grineer weren't insane already, but driven more insane due to Void energy exposure could make dealing with them more tricky.
"Anywhere from one to three months, initial scans were inconclusive." Lotus promptly replied, slightly surprising Becca since it was rare to receive follow-up information from the Lotus.
"That long, huh, guessing there won't be many survivors to worry about, if any..." Becca figured she could easily solo the mission, but after a second of consideration, she elected to pull up the clan roster and send a mission invite to her regular team members.
"Yo, whatcha got for me babe?" Lan, from his Volt Warframe, responded almost instantly. His casual attitude causing her a pang of fond annoyance.
"A Void mission. The details should be hitting your systems now." Becca responded as Karl, her second pick accepted the mission invite causing his Rhino Warframe to show up on the team roster.
Lan ignored her mild reproach, "Sa-weet! I need more Argon Crystals."
"It's not an Orokin base. If you bothered reading the mission details…" Becca muttered, mostly to herself, but made sure that her mic was active.
"Yaho!" Alyssa cheerfully sang as her Mirage Warframe appeared on the team roster. "Becca, Karl and umm, Lan, I can't wait to see you all again! Weeeelll, maybe not Lan, but what else can I say? Hehe"
"Oh, come on Alyssa, honey, even you?" Lan cried with mock indignation as the three Tenno landing craft of her clanmates and friends arrived on her main viewscreen.
"Especially you," Karl piped in, his deep voice deadpan.
"Ouch…" Lan muttered before sighing dramatically, "I guess I'll just have prove to you all how awesome I am by carrying you all even more this time."
The team chatter died down the moment they inserted into the stricken Grineer vessel. It had life support and with the emergency lighting, the corridor leading away from their insertion point looked a little forbidding. It didn't help that there was a pair of dead Grineer slumped against the bulkhead. A female Scorpion missing most of her skull with her machete buried to the hilt in the chest of a Bombardier still holding his sidearm.
"Well, don't see that everyday…" Lan snickered softly over the team channel. "Wish they off'ed each other more often."
"The Void doesn't like them either." Becca smirked.
"Terminals located and added to your map. Tenno, I need you to get inside enemy data vaults and retrieve crucial intelligence data." Lotus' announcement brought the four Tenno back on track.
"I'll take location A, Lan, grab B, Karl-" Becca started to call out assignments, but her teammate cut her off.
"C, got it." Karl interrupted her as his words turned into action and his warframe rapidly began moving away from the team.
Lan simply shrugged, giving Becca the impression that he was blessing them all with a shit eating grin before he disappeared with a visible blur as he activated his speed power. Intentionally waiting until Rhino was out of his area of effect, excluding his teammate from the speed boost before he zipped past him like he was standing still.
"Okaay, Alyssa?" Becca turned to her visibly buoyant teammate.
"I'll go with you. You always find the best toys to play with!" Alyssa giggled, giving Becca a mischievous thumbs ups.
"Tenno, my sensors have detected an Operator energy signature." Concern and confusion colored Lotus' voice as a fourth waypoint sprang into existence on their mission map.
"What?" Becca felt equal parts horror and the desire to kill as many Grineer as possible well up inside herself. Horror because the Grineer had never captured one of her brothers or sisters before. Her mind ran in desperate circles as she considered what the sick tortures the Grineer might have done to one of her own.
She felt her sister's hand on her armored shoulder. "You go, I'll grab the data." Alyssa softly encouraged her.
Becca glanced to her friend and curtly nodded her warframe's head before springing into action and vaulting down the ill lit corridor, heading toward the location marked on her map. She passed and without slowing, gleefully alleviated some of her bloodlust by dispatching any Grineer still alive and in her path of travel. None of her hated foes saw death coming for them before her blades flashed, filled with void energy, killing the target of her wrath and removing its body from existence as the Void consumed the Grineer, leaving no evidence behind.
Reaching the bridge and general location indicted on her map, Becca slowed to a walking pace as her mind took in the bloody details and scanned the area for threats while she also tried to spot her fellow Tenno. The bridge was a mess with the bodies of Grineer officers laying on the deck, collapsed over their stations with their throats cut or their brains blown out from self inflicted gunshot wounds, evidenced by their sidearm still clutched in their hand. She smiled with satisfaction. Void induced insanity couldn't have happened to better targets.
The only anomaly on the bridge was the body of the ship's captain, his body crumpled against the captain's chair. Something seemed off about his body and as she crouched down for a closer inspection of the body, her hunch was proven under closer examination of his wounds. While all the other dead Grineer had easy to identify and categorize gunshot, blade or blunt force wounds, the ranking officer's thick command armor had been cut open and his body nearly bisected by a weapon that only a fellow Tenno operator could weld, a Void Beam.
The discovery only led to more questions for her. Starting with, why would a fellow Tenno resort to using Transference mode to kill their enemy when they could've used their Warframe and weapons? Where was the unknown Operator's Warframe and why haven't they tried to contact her? Was the unknown Tenno running stealth frame and if so, why were they hiding from her?
Becca cautiously rose from her crouch and activated her Codex Scanner. She frowned with confusion as her scanner revealed that all the nearby supply caches had been broken open and emptied. Slowly rotating in place and scanning the room, she stopped when her scanner detected and outlined the shape of a female Operator attempting to hide underneath a console.
"What the…" Becca absently spoke on the team channel as she realized that the Tenno Operator wasn't using Transference from her Warframe. The unknown Operator and her sister Tenno was actually present, in the flesh. How did the Grineer get their hands on fellow Tenno and why hadn't anyone known? Her anger at the hated Grineer almost boiled over. The sick bastards would pay for this.
"Almost got the Nav data, what's going on Becca?" Lan called out.
She didn't know what to say. "Umm, still working on it. Finish your objective and come to the bridge."
"Annnd, done. Be right there babe!" Lan cheerfully taunted her.
"Good…" Becca uncharacteristically waved away his sexist reply instead of yelling at him like she normally would. It was clear that her sister Tenno was aware of her presence, but why would she want to hide from her. Becca took a step forward, but stopped when the unknown Operator screamed in panic and raised her arm when it was clear that her hiding spot had been discovered. Her sister was ready to defend herself with a Void Beam, but why? What did the Grineer do to the girl that would make her fear one of her own?
She glanced back at the dead Grineer officer and snarled with anger before turning back to the Operator. Afraid that she somehow appeared threatening, she deactivated her Codex Scanner and activated her external speakers. "Hey there, are you okay? The Grineer are dead now, you can come out now." Becca said as she gestured for the Operator to come out from underneath the control console.
Instead of relaxing and coming out from her hiding place, the Operator yelled, her words unrecognized but the feeling of overwhelming panic clear from the tone of the girl's voice. Becca spotted the Operator's Void Beam activate and she reflexively dodged to the side before the girl could get it on target. She wasn't worried about the damage the beam might cause to her Warframe. Her shields and armor could easily handle a glancing blow, but it would be stupid to stand still and take an easily avoided hit.
The Operator's Void Beam stopped and she emerged from her hiding spot, most of the panic gone from her expression, replaced with determination, but she was clearly still scared of her Becca's Warframe. Instead of a Transference suit, the girl wore fiber based clothing that was torn and covered with dirt, grime and blood, hopefully Grineer blood. What in the Void did the Grineer do to her and why did they take her out of her suit?
Her questions went unanswered as the girl continued to repeat the same unintelligible phrase as she cautiously glanced around, looking for an escape route while she continued to hold her arm up, ready to try firing on her again.
"Whoa, calm down. I'm here to help you." Becca holstered her Soma and half raised her arms in an attempt to show the girl that she wasn't planning on shooting her.
The girl appeared to relax a little, but continued to cautiously back up, towards an exit. Just in time for Lan, in his Volt Warframe, to make his appearance from that exit.
"Honey, I'm- whoa!" He jumped back with surprise as the girl screamed and reflexively shot her Void Beam at him.
Becca screamed, "Don't!", as she helplessly watched Lan's Prisma Grakata assault rifle automatically rise into a firing position.
Lan seemed to realize his mistake, even as his finger pulled the trigger. It was too late to stop the mechanical action from happening, but his battle honed reflexes did what they could evan as a rapid fire burst erupted from the barrel of his weapon. The first round was on target and struck the girl in her leg, punching clean through, shattering bone and causing her to began a slow motion collapse to the deck. Under normal situations, the remaining rounds of the five to ten round burst caused by a single pull of the trigger would've hit center mass as her teammate walked his weapon up his target's body for a finishing headshot, but he somehow managed to pull his weapon away.
Becca would say this for the girl, she was a fighter because even as she fell, she continued to try and bring her Void Beam on target and hit her attacker. It was in that moment that she realized that the girl truly didn't recognize their Warframes as friendly. Becca activated Transference and emerged from her Warframe with her Zariman hood down, showing her bare head and more importantly, human face.
The girl's Void Beam shifted across the bridge, leaving a deep gouge on a nearby bulkhead as her action drew the girl's attention toward her. At the sight of her bare face and human body, the girl's beam abruptly flickered and died as she once again spoke words in an unknown language. Becca might not have understood her words, but she clearly read the surprise, confusion and relief written on the girl's face before her injury caused her to cry out in pain.
As her Nyx Warframe stood impassively by, Becca, in her Operator form ran to the girl and began to administer first aid, not that there was much she could do, but her presence seemed to calm the girl. "Lan, health restore, now!"
The girl looked at her with wonder in her eyes as she reached up, attempting to touch her face. She spoke again, but Becca couldn't understand her words. The girl didn't seem to know or remember her own language, but on a positive note, she wasn't speaking using the horrible Grineer dialect.
As the health restore pulsed and the green, healing energy washed over her sister, she shuddered with relief when her wound instantly healed and vanished, as if it never was, leaving clear skin behind. The only evidence remaining was the large, torn hole and the girl's blood on her strange plant fiber based leggings.
Even with the healing, the girl was still severely malnourished and her lips were cracked from dehydration. It was a testament to her fighting spirit that she was able to put up as much of a fight as she did. She visibly tried to fight her exhaustion and rise to her feet.
"Whoa, calm yourself sister. I'll help you." Becca smiled, trying to reassure the girl, but once again there seemed to be a language barrier. Resorting to body language, she pointed back to her immobile Warframe.
"Watch…" She said, hoping that showing her ending Transference would help remind her sister Tenno that Becca and her Warframe were the same.
The girl desperately held onto her arm and spoke to her as Becca attempted to pull away and return to her Warframe. "It's fine, watch." She smiled reassuringly as she gently disengaged herself from the girl's grip.
Understanding seemed to dawn in the girl's eyes as Becca walked back to her Warframe and with a final glance back to her sister Tenno, she ended Transference and merged her consciousness with her Warframe.
Once again in control of her Warframe, Becca took a cautious step toward the girl, who despite her initial apprehension, now seemed in awe as she relaxed and allowed her to pick her up.
Becca didn't miss the glare the girl gave to Lan as he moved past them and towards the extraction point. Becca foresaw a lot of ribbing at his expense after word got out that he accidentally shot a fellow Tenno.
Lan boosted her and the pair met a surprised Alyssa and Karl at the extraction point. Becca would've liked to introduce her rediscovered sister to her friends, but the poor girl must have been exhausted because in spite of the speed, jumps and rapid twists and turns, she fell asleep in Becca's arms at the halfway mark.
~**~
Last edited:
Reunion 1.0
- Location
- MN
More polishing and maybe a bit more of the actual story...
Earth Bet grew larger in my Liset's viewscreen by the second and I had to admit, the blue-green marble was a breath-taking sight. Fifteen Earth years had passed since the day I woke in the hold of a Grineer ship and was adopted into my extended and eccentric Tenno family. Fifteen years since I met my sisters Becca and Alyssa and brothers Lan and Karl. I never let Lan forget that he shot me the first time he saw me and it was a good, long running joke. I was really going to miss him and I already couldn't wait until I returned home, to the Origin System.
I wasn't even sure why I had returned to Earth Bet. My mom was dead and I thought that after fifteen years, my dad would probably have been dead too. I knew that Earth-Bet and Brockton Bay were not a friendly place, but my Tenno family had been adamant that I find out what happened to my friends and family. I resisted until Becca told me what happened to her parents on the Zariman Ten Zero and as a result, why my adoptive family felt I needed to return to Earth Bet.
So, using the navigation data Becca's team captured from the Grineer ship they found me on, we built a modified Solar Rail for a one-way trip to my Earth Bet universe. While a little bumpy, the jump successfully inserted my Orbiter just outside the lagrange point for Mars, exactly as planned. I chose Mars over Earth for one major reason.
Simurgh.
I didn't want to take the chance that the Endbringer, if she was still around, would attack and destroy my Orbiter. A secondary consideration was that Mars would make it harder for my arrival to be detected by Earth based systems.
Once we arrived, Ordis happily confirmed that all systems were green and I immediately deployed a few Titan and Distilling Extractors to gather some extra raw materials and instructed Ordis to begin construction on the Solar Rail that would be my way home.
It only took Ordis a few seconds to began sucking up all the radio and television signals Earth Bet leaked and that lead to a major surprise for me. According to the timestamps embedded in the signals, only fifteen months had passed since I had been kidnapped by the Grineer. On Earth Bet, I would legally be only fifteen years old, which was kind of ironic since, thanks to Tenno medical magic and the Technocyte virus that I was "infected" with, I could easily pass as a fifteen year old.
Actually, I didn't really have a choice in my apparent age, but age had never been an issue in a society where everyone looks like a teenager and spend the majority of their time merged with their Warframe. The transition from a Peter Pan world and back into an adult society was going to be a challenge. Of course, I also didn't plan on staying long enough for it to be an issue.
So, here I was, rapidly approaching the planet that gave me life and until I had discovered the time difference, my mission objectives had been a little simpler.
Primary Objectives:
Now, my mission objectives were mostly the same, except I had more hope of actually finding my target's alive and now, what to do if I found my father and Emma alive was another Sentient level problem.
Earth Bet was not a friendly planet. With the Endbringers, Slaughterhouse 9 and all the other S-Class threats, I'd even say it was more dangerous than the Origin Systems Earth I traveled from. With that idea firmly in my mind, Ordis and I spent some time analysing the data. We reached the conclusion that things did not look good for humanity on Earth Bet. At most, human civilization had 30 years before it collapsed. Ordis believed it would happen sooner, like maybe in 20 years. If my dad and the Barnes were still alive, I would try my damndest to get them all to return with me.
"Ordis, are we close enough to access Earth's Codex and confirm the date and more specifically, the year?" I didn't really expect to learn anything new, but it would be nice to confirm the date against Earth-Bet's Codex instead of intercepted radio and television signals.
{"Yes Operator, the date on Earth Bet is Thursday, December 23rd, 2010, but there is still a high amount of latency at this distance."} Ordis sounded miffed, but he wasn't glitching and calling for me to slaughter everyone. So, that was a positive. Why, I couldn't have got a normal, sane Cephalon like everyone else, I didn't understand. Well, okay, I got a spare and mothballed Orbiter and landing craft along with a Mag warframe, but that's not the point. I had actually gotten used to Ordis' personality and wouldn't want anyone else to be my partner.
"Hmm, one and a half days before Christmas…" I glanced around my lander and realized that I hadn't put up my traditional Christmas decorations. I had spiffy, red, blue, yellow and green Christmas tree lights that I would string up around my main view screen, a nice holographic snow drift effect in the corners, even a holographic snowman and random sleigh bells to complete the effect. My brothers and sisters found my decoration habit somewhat amusing, but a soon as I explained the holiday, they all jumped on board with the idea. I think I won them over with the idea of free loot and they really glommed onto the idea and spirit behind Santa Claus.
As I put the finishing touches on the string of lights, I wondered what my dad had been up to while I was gone and I was also worried about his sanity. The holiday season was difficult for people suffering a loss. How did he take my kidnapping on the top of my mom's death?
We both took my mom's death very hard and I could vaguely remember feeling like we were just starting to turn the corner and recover from her loss. I prayed to Lotus that he didn't do anything rash when I was taken. On the plus side, from his perspective, I had only been away on my extended summer camp trip for a year and a half.
Well, my return could be a nice Christmas present for both of us now and with that cheery thought, I activated my holiday display and smiled with satisfaction as my cockpit turned festive. I took a few minutes to just soak in the atmosphere with my Earth centered on my panoramic display surrounded by Christmas tree lights.
We were close enough now that I could see the occasional flash of a man-made objects orbiting Earth, reminding of a potentially bigger problem.
"What is the status of the Simurgh and our ETA to re-entry?" If there was one thing that could mess with my homecoming, it would be an Endbringer.
{"Accessing…"} It took Ordis a few seconds to continue. {"The Endbringer designated as Simurgh is currently in geosynchronous orbit on the opposite side of Earth and over the continent of South America. At our current course and velocity, north polar insertion will begin in 1.37 hours."}
"Good, activate our Void cloak and keep an eye on the her. From what I remember, she has been known to cause problems for spacecraft and I would hate to have the bitch interfere with us now." Those Endbringer things really needed to die. Killing them wasn't my mission, but it wouldn't hurt to see if we could do something about them.
{"Of course Operator. Void Cloak activated."} Ordis said as a rippling haze enveloped my lander, causing us to hopefully disappear from all forms of detection. It worked well enough for the Grineer, Corpus and Infested. So, I had high hopes that it would keep me and my lander from being spotted by the Simurgh and Earth's primitive, RADAR based detection devices.
"One more thing Ordis, as soon as you get a chance, I want you to find out what you can about how we might kill the Endbringers." I asked, more as a way to satisfy my curiosity and keep him busy than out of any real expectation of a solution.
With the current issue taken care of, I had time to worry about my Orbiter and the under construction Solar Rail that would be my ride back to the Origin System and the universe I now considered to be my home. "What is the rail's construction status?"
Ordis sighed, {"Operator, the status is the same it was six hours ago, except it is now six hours later. I will inform you when construction is complete."}
Even though it was physically impossible for me to sweat while I was merged with my Warframe, I still felt sweaty and jittery. "I'm sorry. I guess I'm just nervous about returning home after so long away, but enough of that, what is the status of the Forge we modified to fit?" I asked, glancing over to the small Forge I built and retrofitted into my lander. I was concerned because, unlike the full scale Forge module in my Orbiter, this one was only capable of producing weapon parts and my necessary consumables, like ammunition and weapons.
{"The large Energy, Health and Ammo packs finished hours ago and the Archwing summoning pack will be finished in 3.43 hours. Was there anything else you wanted me to start production on?"}
The Archwing packs could be a problem because I had a limited amount of the needed fish oil. Why they needed fish oil to build was beyond my understanding. Orokin science stuff.
"No, thanks, that's good for now." I said while accessing the Forge's menu to transfer the completed items into my equipment space.
Transfers complete, I walked over to my jury rigged, non-standard Arsenal module. The Arsenal module was normally part of my Orbiter but, as a precaution, I tore out my Market console and slapped in an extra Arsenal module because I wasn't sure if my currently chosen Warframe would be suitable for everything I might encounter on my home planet. My Ivara was a good frame, but I wasn't comfortable with the idea of being limited to a single Warframe while on my mission or having to travel six hours, one way, back to my Orbiter to make a swap for something more suitable for a given threat.
Six hours seemed like a long time to cross interplanetary distances to me, but maybe it was because I was used to using the Tenno relay network to instantly cross interplanetary distances. I guessed that Earth Bet scientists and astronauts would find a six hour travel time from Mars and Earth to be amazing. Or course, I cheated just a tiny bit by traveling through Void Space. My lander was fast and it had good armor and shields, but normal space wasn't empty and running into a pee sized rock while traveling at the speed necessary to make the journey in six hours was not survivable in normal space.
Re-entry proved to be anti-climatic. None of the Earth's primitive, military grade radar systems detected us and even better, the Simurgh never twitched. Even with the cloak active, Ordis and I decided to play it safe by coming into Brockton Bay low and slow from the Atlantic. The route may have taken a tad longer, but we had some intel to gather and it gave Ordis the chance to hack into the North American Codex with less latency.
{"Operator, I have confirmed the location information for your biological paternal figure!"} Ordis proudly exclaimed as my navigation system's holographic map automatically zoomed into Brockton Bay and showed me the address of an apartment building that was closer to the docks than what I recalled as being safe, but again, that was the distant memories of my 13 year old self.
The most significant part was that the address did not match the address of my house and I found the fact rather distressing. "What happened to my house?"
{"Records indicate that it was sold on December 15th, 2009 to a Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Young. They have a male and female offspring, Micheal, currently age eight and Olivia, age ten."}
"I see…" I didn't know how to take the news. I never expected my dad to sell the house. It had been in our family for decades. On the other hand, it was nice that there was a family living there. Maybe they would have better luck than my family had.
"Drop me off at the end of that pier there," I said, pointing to the end of a run down cargo pier that was covered in darkness, "and then, find somewhere nearby to set down and hide because I might need a fast extraction."
{"Affirmative, I have located a partially sunken tanker that should meet our needs and keep me dry. I have little desire to submerge myself in the dirty water of the bay. It would take you forever to clean the mess off my paint job."}
"Good point." I shuddered as I considered the idea of spending hours EVA scrubbing down my lander's exterior. Of course, we had drones that could easily do the work, but that wasn't really the point. Ordis was picky and I didn't want to have to deal with him whining about having grime caked in his exhaust ports.
As we approached the end of the pier, I double checked the loadout for my Ivara Warframe. For my primary weapon I kept the Dread bow for its silence and lethality, but for dealing with swarms, I chose the always handy riven modified Kohmak automatic hand shotgun as my sidearm and last, but not least, for a less than lethal option, I picked my trusty Shaku nunchaku.
{"Excellent armaments, Operator. Please return -covered in blood- safe and sound."} Ordis encouraging words brought a smile to my face. It was just like old times and I'm sure he glitched on purpose. I hoped.
As soon as my Warframe's feet touched the weathered and warped decking, I took a few seconds to find my center and focused on my Zenurik battle meditation.
"I am one with the Void and the Void is me." I whispered as I breathed in, my connection to the Void become clearer and I felt invigorated as void energy flowed through me and my Warframe.
I debated dropping an Energy pack, but I felt exposed on the end of the dock and decided my Energy Siphon would have me to full power before I really needed to go into active full stealth mode. Plus, my Shade Sentinel could help cover for me and I just wanted to run. The rooftops were calling my name and if anyone spotted me, I'd just be another parahuman and a blur of motion as I flew overhead.
It felt good to be back in Brockton Bay. The view from the roof of Anders Pharmaceuticals was amazing! Even at 1AM, I watched as people, real, live people drove to and from their homes. Flashes of blue and red emergency lights appeared, raced from one street to the next. I debated investigated because that is what a hero would do, but decided against it, for now. Pedestrians walked down the sidewalks. I guess calling them pedestrians at 1AM was a bit of a misnomer, but still, humans not wearing pressure suits or combat armor were out and about. The city below me was alive like nothing I had seen during my time in the Origin System.
After a small pause to take it all in, I decided that I had stalled long enough. It was time to find my dad. I bullet jumped most of the gap to the next building in my path and aim glided the rest of the way down to its roof top. Without pausing, I rolled with my landing and jumped to the next building, and the next until I arrived on the roof of my father's apartment building.
I was pretty sure that I had not been detected, but just in case, I activated my cloak and checked the vicinity using a Codex Scanner. Below me, humans and their children slept snugly in their beds. Well, most did. I had to quickly bypass one section due to a male and female enjoying each other's company.
Nothing looked abnormal to me, but I decided to verify with Ordis. "Any chatter on the local communication channels about me?"
{"Nothing Operator. You're in the clear."} Ordis instantly responded.
"Good," I took a deep breath to help calm the butterflies in my stomach, "heading in, wish me luck."
{"Operator, were you visualizing a bloody battle? -Me too!"}
I could only shake my head at his idea of encouragement. Even though my Warframe was stealthed, I ducked into a dark shadow and using Operator mode, I exited my Warframe. After confirming that my Warframe kept its stealth field active, I made my way into the apartment complex via the rooftop access door. I opened my Zariman hood to reveal my face because I figured that knocking on my Dad's door looking like a human might be better than looking like an alien space girl or Earth Bet cape.
The stairwell was empty and after exiting on the eighth floor, I only had to void cloak once to avoid being seen by a drunk man returning from a party or bar. I tried not to giggle when the man's wife or girlfriend yelled at him when he finally managed open his apartment door after fumbling with his keys for a almost a minute.
With a deep breath, I de-cloaked and knocked on the door to my dad's apartment. No sounds from within and I waited for a full thirty seconds before trying again. "Hmm, it appears that my dad might not be home."
I tried the door and of course, it was locked. After placing my ear against the door and not hearing anything from within, not even his snoring, I decided to return to the roof and go with plan B. Merging with my Warframe, I checked my energy reserves. Still at 80%, even with Prowl still active. Okay, it was time to break in and either wake my dad up or find out what I could about his current whereabouts.
Using the fire escape, I made my way down the side of the building and to the window that would hopefully be unlocked and open into my father's apartment. It seemed more likely that my dad would leave a window on the 8th story of an apartment building unlocked than the front door. The fire escape window was locked, but the bathroom window located an easy three meter jump away was open a crack. I guessed that my dad assumed no one would be stupid enough to try entering via a window with a sheer eight story fall beneath it.
It was child's play for me to hop over and enter via the window. A single toothbrush next to the sink, my dad's favorite aftershave and a razor were the only clues to confirm that I had the correct apartment. Using a scanner, I felt depressed to discover that the apartment was empty of lifeforms. Emboldened, I dropped stealth to allow my energy to regenerate as I searched the apartment. The unpaid bills stacked neatly on the kitchen counter confirmed that that apartment belonged to my dad, but it was past 1AM and I knew he sometimes worked late at the docks, but even so; where in the hell was he?
"Ordis, my dad isn't home. Can you check the hospitals and police systems to see if he's been hurt?" I anxiously asked.
{"Operator, I have been actively monitoring all emergency services and Daniel Hebert has not been mentioned in any of them."}
"Okay, thanks. I guess I'll just see what I can find here…" I said as I glanced around his modest, two bedroom apartment. I spotted our old couch and his favorite recliner facing a battered TV and book shelf. I gravitated to the bookshelf and nearly broke down after spotting the last family picture we took before my mom died. I scanned the picture for later reproduction and ran my fingertip along the spines of a few of Mom's favorite books. God, how I missed her and the time she spent reading these books to me before bedtime. I mentally added another mission objective to get copies of these books so I could read them and share them with my brothers and sisters when I returned home.
Other than a few other sentimental knick-knacks on the bookshelf, nothing else jumped out at me. I moved on to the nearest bedroom and was shocked to discover that, aside from it not being in my house, the bedroom was clearly mine. My bed with its down comforter was against the wall with my dresser and vanity on the other wall. My favorite Alexandria poster was tacked onto the wall above my bed. The only thing out of place was a small stack of unopened boxes between my bed and dresser.
It was like my dad never gave up and expected me to return to him at any time. I exited my Warframe, laid down on my bed and cried. He even put Fluffy, my favorite teddy bear on my pillow. I felt the tears flowing freely down my face and let it all out. I must have cried for a good ten to twenty minutes. After I regained my composure, returned to searching the apartment for clues. My body left behind an impression on the comforter and pillow, but other than that, I left no traces behind. I debated trying to erase even those clues of my presence, but decided to leave it alone. I wanted to give my dad a sign that I had returned.
Leaving my Warframe in my room, I checked the second room in the apartment. As the master bedroom, it was slightly larger and I felt mildly disappointed to find my dad's bed unmade. Mom always made a point to make the bed before she left for work and I know Dad didn't always do it after she passed, but the state of their, no, his bed was another painful reminder of what we had both lost.
I hit the jackpot when I spotted the battered desk and run down computer in his room. What little security existed was laughable for me. I found his email and chat history. Apparently, other than badgering the mayor about the ferry and boat graveyard, up until a few months ago, my dad had been actively trying to find me. He had a lot of emails in a Taylor subfolder from a few different private detectives. They all basically said the same thing, a few promising leads found with an attached and blurry photo that kind of looked like me, followed by a "send more money" and "lead panned out, sorry."
Now I felt guilty because I'm sure it wasn't cheap and it was probably why my dad sold the house.
A bigger surprise was the discovery of some, almost love letter emails between my dad and a woman named, Becky. I learned a lot about this Becky woman and after getting over my initial anger at both my dad for feeling something for a woman who wasn't my mother and the woman for clearly having feelings for my dad, I decided to focus on the positives. My dad seemed happier in the more recent exchanges and that was a good thing because some of his earlier emails were down right depressing to read. I was surprised he didn't commit suicide and it looked like I might have to thank this Becky woman for bringing him back to life.
"Ordis, can you track down the physical address of a Becky Sizemore?"
{"None found, but was able to find the address for a Rebecca Sizemore that is registered to the email address listed on your progenitor's -peice of crap- information device."}
I frowned at Ordis' language, but decided to ignore it for now. I opened my map of Brockton Bay with current location highlighted and showing my position in relation to my next objective, Emma's house. "Show me, please."
A mission objective icon appeared, a few miles north east of Emma's house. "Hmm, looks like I could check on Emma on my way to my dad's girlfriend's house…" Yeah, that was hard for me to think and even harder to say. My dad had a girlfriend. I know I shouldn't be surprised, but I was.
Before I left, I made my dad's bed exactly like Mom would've. It might freak him out if I don't find him before he returned to his apartment, but it made me feel better.
Activating my cloak, I exited his apartment --maybe my apartment too?-- and climbed back up to the roof. From there, I dropped my cloak so I could get full movement speed and started on running, jumping and flying my way toward my best friend house. As I got to her neighborhood, I was able to drop my map overlay. I had been here so many times in the past and I felt like I could find her house with my eyes closed.
Unlike finding my father's apartment, I felt giddy with excitement because Emma and I used to always dream and pretend to be super heroes. Hell, she gave me Armsmaster branded panties as a present for my twelfth birthday. We had so much fun together and Emma was the only reason I didn't fall apart when my mom died. Elsa, from camp was a possible friend, but Emma was my first and only best, best friend. I know that I wasn't an Earth Bet parahuman, but I couldn't wait to see the surprised look her face when she saw my Warframe!
Reunion 1.0
Earth Bet grew larger in my Liset's viewscreen by the second and I had to admit, the blue-green marble was a breath-taking sight. Fifteen Earth years had passed since the day I woke in the hold of a Grineer ship and was adopted into my extended and eccentric Tenno family. Fifteen years since I met my sisters Becca and Alyssa and brothers Lan and Karl. I never let Lan forget that he shot me the first time he saw me and it was a good, long running joke. I was really going to miss him and I already couldn't wait until I returned home, to the Origin System.
I wasn't even sure why I had returned to Earth Bet. My mom was dead and I thought that after fifteen years, my dad would probably have been dead too. I knew that Earth-Bet and Brockton Bay were not a friendly place, but my Tenno family had been adamant that I find out what happened to my friends and family. I resisted until Becca told me what happened to her parents on the Zariman Ten Zero and as a result, why my adoptive family felt I needed to return to Earth Bet.
So, using the navigation data Becca's team captured from the Grineer ship they found me on, we built a modified Solar Rail for a one-way trip to my Earth Bet universe. While a little bumpy, the jump successfully inserted my Orbiter just outside the lagrange point for Mars, exactly as planned. I chose Mars over Earth for one major reason.
Simurgh.
I didn't want to take the chance that the Endbringer, if she was still around, would attack and destroy my Orbiter. A secondary consideration was that Mars would make it harder for my arrival to be detected by Earth based systems.
Once we arrived, Ordis happily confirmed that all systems were green and I immediately deployed a few Titan and Distilling Extractors to gather some extra raw materials and instructed Ordis to begin construction on the Solar Rail that would be my way home.
It only took Ordis a few seconds to began sucking up all the radio and television signals Earth Bet leaked and that lead to a major surprise for me. According to the timestamps embedded in the signals, only fifteen months had passed since I had been kidnapped by the Grineer. On Earth Bet, I would legally be only fifteen years old, which was kind of ironic since, thanks to Tenno medical magic and the Technocyte virus that I was "infected" with, I could easily pass as a fifteen year old.
Actually, I didn't really have a choice in my apparent age, but age had never been an issue in a society where everyone looks like a teenager and spend the majority of their time merged with their Warframe. The transition from a Peter Pan world and back into an adult society was going to be a challenge. Of course, I also didn't plan on staying long enough for it to be an issue.
So, here I was, rapidly approaching the planet that gave me life and until I had discovered the time difference, my mission objectives had been a little simpler.
Primary Objectives:
- Visit my mom's grave.
- Find out what happened to my dad, my best friend Emma and return Elsa's phone, if she survived the Grineer assault.
- Get the hell back to my clan and home in the Origin System.
Now, my mission objectives were mostly the same, except I had more hope of actually finding my target's alive and now, what to do if I found my father and Emma alive was another Sentient level problem.
Earth Bet was not a friendly planet. With the Endbringers, Slaughterhouse 9 and all the other S-Class threats, I'd even say it was more dangerous than the Origin Systems Earth I traveled from. With that idea firmly in my mind, Ordis and I spent some time analysing the data. We reached the conclusion that things did not look good for humanity on Earth Bet. At most, human civilization had 30 years before it collapsed. Ordis believed it would happen sooner, like maybe in 20 years. If my dad and the Barnes were still alive, I would try my damndest to get them all to return with me.
"Ordis, are we close enough to access Earth's Codex and confirm the date and more specifically, the year?" I didn't really expect to learn anything new, but it would be nice to confirm the date against Earth-Bet's Codex instead of intercepted radio and television signals.
{"Yes Operator, the date on Earth Bet is Thursday, December 23rd, 2010, but there is still a high amount of latency at this distance."} Ordis sounded miffed, but he wasn't glitching and calling for me to slaughter everyone. So, that was a positive. Why, I couldn't have got a normal, sane Cephalon like everyone else, I didn't understand. Well, okay, I got a spare and mothballed Orbiter and landing craft along with a Mag warframe, but that's not the point. I had actually gotten used to Ordis' personality and wouldn't want anyone else to be my partner.
"Hmm, one and a half days before Christmas…" I glanced around my lander and realized that I hadn't put up my traditional Christmas decorations. I had spiffy, red, blue, yellow and green Christmas tree lights that I would string up around my main view screen, a nice holographic snow drift effect in the corners, even a holographic snowman and random sleigh bells to complete the effect. My brothers and sisters found my decoration habit somewhat amusing, but a soon as I explained the holiday, they all jumped on board with the idea. I think I won them over with the idea of free loot and they really glommed onto the idea and spirit behind Santa Claus.
As I put the finishing touches on the string of lights, I wondered what my dad had been up to while I was gone and I was also worried about his sanity. The holiday season was difficult for people suffering a loss. How did he take my kidnapping on the top of my mom's death?
We both took my mom's death very hard and I could vaguely remember feeling like we were just starting to turn the corner and recover from her loss. I prayed to Lotus that he didn't do anything rash when I was taken. On the plus side, from his perspective, I had only been away on my extended summer camp trip for a year and a half.
Well, my return could be a nice Christmas present for both of us now and with that cheery thought, I activated my holiday display and smiled with satisfaction as my cockpit turned festive. I took a few minutes to just soak in the atmosphere with my Earth centered on my panoramic display surrounded by Christmas tree lights.
We were close enough now that I could see the occasional flash of a man-made objects orbiting Earth, reminding of a potentially bigger problem.
"What is the status of the Simurgh and our ETA to re-entry?" If there was one thing that could mess with my homecoming, it would be an Endbringer.
{"Accessing…"} It took Ordis a few seconds to continue. {"The Endbringer designated as Simurgh is currently in geosynchronous orbit on the opposite side of Earth and over the continent of South America. At our current course and velocity, north polar insertion will begin in 1.37 hours."}
"Good, activate our Void cloak and keep an eye on the her. From what I remember, she has been known to cause problems for spacecraft and I would hate to have the bitch interfere with us now." Those Endbringer things really needed to die. Killing them wasn't my mission, but it wouldn't hurt to see if we could do something about them.
{"Of course Operator. Void Cloak activated."} Ordis said as a rippling haze enveloped my lander, causing us to hopefully disappear from all forms of detection. It worked well enough for the Grineer, Corpus and Infested. So, I had high hopes that it would keep me and my lander from being spotted by the Simurgh and Earth's primitive, RADAR based detection devices.
"One more thing Ordis, as soon as you get a chance, I want you to find out what you can about how we might kill the Endbringers." I asked, more as a way to satisfy my curiosity and keep him busy than out of any real expectation of a solution.
With the current issue taken care of, I had time to worry about my Orbiter and the under construction Solar Rail that would be my ride back to the Origin System and the universe I now considered to be my home. "What is the rail's construction status?"
Ordis sighed, {"Operator, the status is the same it was six hours ago, except it is now six hours later. I will inform you when construction is complete."}
Even though it was physically impossible for me to sweat while I was merged with my Warframe, I still felt sweaty and jittery. "I'm sorry. I guess I'm just nervous about returning home after so long away, but enough of that, what is the status of the Forge we modified to fit?" I asked, glancing over to the small Forge I built and retrofitted into my lander. I was concerned because, unlike the full scale Forge module in my Orbiter, this one was only capable of producing weapon parts and my necessary consumables, like ammunition and weapons.
{"The large Energy, Health and Ammo packs finished hours ago and the Archwing summoning pack will be finished in 3.43 hours. Was there anything else you wanted me to start production on?"}
The Archwing packs could be a problem because I had a limited amount of the needed fish oil. Why they needed fish oil to build was beyond my understanding. Orokin science stuff.
"No, thanks, that's good for now." I said while accessing the Forge's menu to transfer the completed items into my equipment space.
Transfers complete, I walked over to my jury rigged, non-standard Arsenal module. The Arsenal module was normally part of my Orbiter but, as a precaution, I tore out my Market console and slapped in an extra Arsenal module because I wasn't sure if my currently chosen Warframe would be suitable for everything I might encounter on my home planet. My Ivara was a good frame, but I wasn't comfortable with the idea of being limited to a single Warframe while on my mission or having to travel six hours, one way, back to my Orbiter to make a swap for something more suitable for a given threat.
Six hours seemed like a long time to cross interplanetary distances to me, but maybe it was because I was used to using the Tenno relay network to instantly cross interplanetary distances. I guessed that Earth Bet scientists and astronauts would find a six hour travel time from Mars and Earth to be amazing. Or course, I cheated just a tiny bit by traveling through Void Space. My lander was fast and it had good armor and shields, but normal space wasn't empty and running into a pee sized rock while traveling at the speed necessary to make the journey in six hours was not survivable in normal space.
Re-entry proved to be anti-climatic. None of the Earth's primitive, military grade radar systems detected us and even better, the Simurgh never twitched. Even with the cloak active, Ordis and I decided to play it safe by coming into Brockton Bay low and slow from the Atlantic. The route may have taken a tad longer, but we had some intel to gather and it gave Ordis the chance to hack into the North American Codex with less latency.
{"Operator, I have confirmed the location information for your biological paternal figure!"} Ordis proudly exclaimed as my navigation system's holographic map automatically zoomed into Brockton Bay and showed me the address of an apartment building that was closer to the docks than what I recalled as being safe, but again, that was the distant memories of my 13 year old self.
The most significant part was that the address did not match the address of my house and I found the fact rather distressing. "What happened to my house?"
{"Records indicate that it was sold on December 15th, 2009 to a Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Young. They have a male and female offspring, Micheal, currently age eight and Olivia, age ten."}
"I see…" I didn't know how to take the news. I never expected my dad to sell the house. It had been in our family for decades. On the other hand, it was nice that there was a family living there. Maybe they would have better luck than my family had.
"Drop me off at the end of that pier there," I said, pointing to the end of a run down cargo pier that was covered in darkness, "and then, find somewhere nearby to set down and hide because I might need a fast extraction."
{"Affirmative, I have located a partially sunken tanker that should meet our needs and keep me dry. I have little desire to submerge myself in the dirty water of the bay. It would take you forever to clean the mess off my paint job."}
"Good point." I shuddered as I considered the idea of spending hours EVA scrubbing down my lander's exterior. Of course, we had drones that could easily do the work, but that wasn't really the point. Ordis was picky and I didn't want to have to deal with him whining about having grime caked in his exhaust ports.
As we approached the end of the pier, I double checked the loadout for my Ivara Warframe. For my primary weapon I kept the Dread bow for its silence and lethality, but for dealing with swarms, I chose the always handy riven modified Kohmak automatic hand shotgun as my sidearm and last, but not least, for a less than lethal option, I picked my trusty Shaku nunchaku.
{"Excellent armaments, Operator. Please return -covered in blood- safe and sound."} Ordis encouraging words brought a smile to my face. It was just like old times and I'm sure he glitched on purpose. I hoped.
As soon as my Warframe's feet touched the weathered and warped decking, I took a few seconds to find my center and focused on my Zenurik battle meditation.
"I am one with the Void and the Void is me." I whispered as I breathed in, my connection to the Void become clearer and I felt invigorated as void energy flowed through me and my Warframe.
I debated dropping an Energy pack, but I felt exposed on the end of the dock and decided my Energy Siphon would have me to full power before I really needed to go into active full stealth mode. Plus, my Shade Sentinel could help cover for me and I just wanted to run. The rooftops were calling my name and if anyone spotted me, I'd just be another parahuman and a blur of motion as I flew overhead.
It felt good to be back in Brockton Bay. The view from the roof of Anders Pharmaceuticals was amazing! Even at 1AM, I watched as people, real, live people drove to and from their homes. Flashes of blue and red emergency lights appeared, raced from one street to the next. I debated investigated because that is what a hero would do, but decided against it, for now. Pedestrians walked down the sidewalks. I guess calling them pedestrians at 1AM was a bit of a misnomer, but still, humans not wearing pressure suits or combat armor were out and about. The city below me was alive like nothing I had seen during my time in the Origin System.
After a small pause to take it all in, I decided that I had stalled long enough. It was time to find my dad. I bullet jumped most of the gap to the next building in my path and aim glided the rest of the way down to its roof top. Without pausing, I rolled with my landing and jumped to the next building, and the next until I arrived on the roof of my father's apartment building.
I was pretty sure that I had not been detected, but just in case, I activated my cloak and checked the vicinity using a Codex Scanner. Below me, humans and their children slept snugly in their beds. Well, most did. I had to quickly bypass one section due to a male and female enjoying each other's company.
Nothing looked abnormal to me, but I decided to verify with Ordis. "Any chatter on the local communication channels about me?"
{"Nothing Operator. You're in the clear."} Ordis instantly responded.
"Good," I took a deep breath to help calm the butterflies in my stomach, "heading in, wish me luck."
{"Operator, were you visualizing a bloody battle? -Me too!"}
I could only shake my head at his idea of encouragement. Even though my Warframe was stealthed, I ducked into a dark shadow and using Operator mode, I exited my Warframe. After confirming that my Warframe kept its stealth field active, I made my way into the apartment complex via the rooftop access door. I opened my Zariman hood to reveal my face because I figured that knocking on my Dad's door looking like a human might be better than looking like an alien space girl or Earth Bet cape.
The stairwell was empty and after exiting on the eighth floor, I only had to void cloak once to avoid being seen by a drunk man returning from a party or bar. I tried not to giggle when the man's wife or girlfriend yelled at him when he finally managed open his apartment door after fumbling with his keys for a almost a minute.
With a deep breath, I de-cloaked and knocked on the door to my dad's apartment. No sounds from within and I waited for a full thirty seconds before trying again. "Hmm, it appears that my dad might not be home."
I tried the door and of course, it was locked. After placing my ear against the door and not hearing anything from within, not even his snoring, I decided to return to the roof and go with plan B. Merging with my Warframe, I checked my energy reserves. Still at 80%, even with Prowl still active. Okay, it was time to break in and either wake my dad up or find out what I could about his current whereabouts.
Using the fire escape, I made my way down the side of the building and to the window that would hopefully be unlocked and open into my father's apartment. It seemed more likely that my dad would leave a window on the 8th story of an apartment building unlocked than the front door. The fire escape window was locked, but the bathroom window located an easy three meter jump away was open a crack. I guessed that my dad assumed no one would be stupid enough to try entering via a window with a sheer eight story fall beneath it.
It was child's play for me to hop over and enter via the window. A single toothbrush next to the sink, my dad's favorite aftershave and a razor were the only clues to confirm that I had the correct apartment. Using a scanner, I felt depressed to discover that the apartment was empty of lifeforms. Emboldened, I dropped stealth to allow my energy to regenerate as I searched the apartment. The unpaid bills stacked neatly on the kitchen counter confirmed that that apartment belonged to my dad, but it was past 1AM and I knew he sometimes worked late at the docks, but even so; where in the hell was he?
"Ordis, my dad isn't home. Can you check the hospitals and police systems to see if he's been hurt?" I anxiously asked.
{"Operator, I have been actively monitoring all emergency services and Daniel Hebert has not been mentioned in any of them."}
"Okay, thanks. I guess I'll just see what I can find here…" I said as I glanced around his modest, two bedroom apartment. I spotted our old couch and his favorite recliner facing a battered TV and book shelf. I gravitated to the bookshelf and nearly broke down after spotting the last family picture we took before my mom died. I scanned the picture for later reproduction and ran my fingertip along the spines of a few of Mom's favorite books. God, how I missed her and the time she spent reading these books to me before bedtime. I mentally added another mission objective to get copies of these books so I could read them and share them with my brothers and sisters when I returned home.
Other than a few other sentimental knick-knacks on the bookshelf, nothing else jumped out at me. I moved on to the nearest bedroom and was shocked to discover that, aside from it not being in my house, the bedroom was clearly mine. My bed with its down comforter was against the wall with my dresser and vanity on the other wall. My favorite Alexandria poster was tacked onto the wall above my bed. The only thing out of place was a small stack of unopened boxes between my bed and dresser.
It was like my dad never gave up and expected me to return to him at any time. I exited my Warframe, laid down on my bed and cried. He even put Fluffy, my favorite teddy bear on my pillow. I felt the tears flowing freely down my face and let it all out. I must have cried for a good ten to twenty minutes. After I regained my composure, returned to searching the apartment for clues. My body left behind an impression on the comforter and pillow, but other than that, I left no traces behind. I debated trying to erase even those clues of my presence, but decided to leave it alone. I wanted to give my dad a sign that I had returned.
Leaving my Warframe in my room, I checked the second room in the apartment. As the master bedroom, it was slightly larger and I felt mildly disappointed to find my dad's bed unmade. Mom always made a point to make the bed before she left for work and I know Dad didn't always do it after she passed, but the state of their, no, his bed was another painful reminder of what we had both lost.
I hit the jackpot when I spotted the battered desk and run down computer in his room. What little security existed was laughable for me. I found his email and chat history. Apparently, other than badgering the mayor about the ferry and boat graveyard, up until a few months ago, my dad had been actively trying to find me. He had a lot of emails in a Taylor subfolder from a few different private detectives. They all basically said the same thing, a few promising leads found with an attached and blurry photo that kind of looked like me, followed by a "send more money" and "lead panned out, sorry."
Now I felt guilty because I'm sure it wasn't cheap and it was probably why my dad sold the house.
A bigger surprise was the discovery of some, almost love letter emails between my dad and a woman named, Becky. I learned a lot about this Becky woman and after getting over my initial anger at both my dad for feeling something for a woman who wasn't my mother and the woman for clearly having feelings for my dad, I decided to focus on the positives. My dad seemed happier in the more recent exchanges and that was a good thing because some of his earlier emails were down right depressing to read. I was surprised he didn't commit suicide and it looked like I might have to thank this Becky woman for bringing him back to life.
"Ordis, can you track down the physical address of a Becky Sizemore?"
{"None found, but was able to find the address for a Rebecca Sizemore that is registered to the email address listed on your progenitor's -peice of crap- information device."}
I frowned at Ordis' language, but decided to ignore it for now. I opened my map of Brockton Bay with current location highlighted and showing my position in relation to my next objective, Emma's house. "Show me, please."
A mission objective icon appeared, a few miles north east of Emma's house. "Hmm, looks like I could check on Emma on my way to my dad's girlfriend's house…" Yeah, that was hard for me to think and even harder to say. My dad had a girlfriend. I know I shouldn't be surprised, but I was.
Before I left, I made my dad's bed exactly like Mom would've. It might freak him out if I don't find him before he returned to his apartment, but it made me feel better.
Activating my cloak, I exited his apartment --maybe my apartment too?-- and climbed back up to the roof. From there, I dropped my cloak so I could get full movement speed and started on running, jumping and flying my way toward my best friend house. As I got to her neighborhood, I was able to drop my map overlay. I had been here so many times in the past and I felt like I could find her house with my eyes closed.
Unlike finding my father's apartment, I felt giddy with excitement because Emma and I used to always dream and pretend to be super heroes. Hell, she gave me Armsmaster branded panties as a present for my twelfth birthday. We had so much fun together and Emma was the only reason I didn't fall apart when my mom died. Elsa, from camp was a possible friend, but Emma was my first and only best, best friend. I know that I wasn't an Earth Bet parahuman, but I couldn't wait to see the surprised look her face when she saw my Warframe!
~**~
Edit: Adjusted date by one day. From Dec 22nd to Dec 23rd due to Xmas plans/plot.
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- Location
- MN
Hopefully, the just posted ch 1 will address that issue.
I hope, because time space continuum shenanigans was the only way I could see Taylor being trained as a Tenno.
JamesB
You needed worthy opponents.
- Location
- Kansas
I must have posted that initial reply right before Chapter 1 came in. That chapter takes care of the time concern I had.
With Taylor having gone missing, it's possible that nothing ever happened to Emma at the ABB's hand. It's also possible that it happened just like before. We'll have to wait and see!
With Taylor having gone missing, it's possible that nothing ever happened to Emma at the ABB's hand. It's also possible that it happened just like before. We'll have to wait and see!
AXCN
Live to Read - (Shippers of many Ships)
Indeed. We'll either see a totally sane normal girl Emma (Hahaha- we'll probably end up regretting that laugh) or an even more off the kilter Emma who has sunken deeper into the Predator-Prey mindset of Sophia to cover up her fears of ending up like Taylor and many other victims.
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EvilCakes
The most sinister of baked goods.
Plot twist: Emma sold Taylor to the Grineer.
- Location
- Viet Nam
I spit on your going to hell weapon... a twin dagger as a main melee weapon.
A Skana would have been a better pick than that piece of trash.
Your Primary and Secondary on the other hand is an excellence choice.
Now that i have finished ranting.
WATCH SO FUCKING HARD.
Nothing jumping out to me as too far fetch, the Void is not a really talk about in the Warframe lore so it's open to interpretation.
And last but not least.. Sad that Space Mom is not there for Taylor. XD
- Location
- Lake superior, Minoc
Void-chan is your friend now Taylor. And she'll be your friend, Forever.
- Location
- MN
Yep, I know that with rare exceptions and a specific mod, daggers kinda stink, but they do look pretty and they should be effective against the Grineer. If it makes you feel better, I'm sure that Becca has upgraded to a Galatine Prime or an Attarax.
Thanks and yes, I have the fake spacemom giving me missions now and I'm kinda sad about that.
- Location
- California
- Pronouns
- She/They
This looks so good. I have been waiting for a good crossover that actually introduces a character into the Warframe side of things. The closest we got was with Wail of the Banshee, another of my favorite fics. I can't wait to see where this goes!
If you want my advice: Don't bother. Not every story has to deal with that. If you want a street-level story about Taylor reconnecting with her family/friends, then do that. If you don't want to leave the Scion plot thread dangling, then maybe Jack Slash decided to talk Scion to death (and ironically saved everyone). Or somebody triggers with the right power. Or Contessa figured out a way past her restriction. Or Scion ate Void and died. Handwaving doesn't have to be bad.
The greatest issue I have with your story so far is exposition. Quite frankly there are way too many wiki-links. Stopping to read them breaks both the flow of the story and the immersion into it. Skipping them makes the story - for someone like me who doesn't play Warframe - somewhat confusing to read as I have no real point of reference for many things. "What the hell is a Mirage Warframe and why should I care" kind of. One way around it would be a Prologue part 2 where you have Taylor being introduced to everything and handle the exposition through the people teaching her, or, I don't know, something else. Or you could you throw a sentence or two after every relevant paragraph to explain whatever was introduced in a quick and dirty way.
Anyway, yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, my opinion, man.
Anyway, yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, my opinion, man.
Alpha Zerg
The Last Primal Zerg
- Location
- Zerus
The way I see it, when you write something like this there's a certain level of familiarity with the setting that the author has to assume. Like Worm fanfictions - few authors go out of their way to describe characters tht have already been described in the original work, unless they have changed. In this, a degree of familiarity wih Warframe has to be assumed to avoid explaining things every few sentences. I'd recommend taking a read through the wiki if the setting interests you, it's a pretty cool world.
@Sleethr, an option for the Endbringers and Scion is Ordis finishing the Solar Rail and Taylor bringing in her entire clan. A few Limboes, a few Nyxes, a few Trinities, and a few Garas and the Endbringers are out of commission. Limboes to banish, Nyxes to confuse and/or mind control (permanent Endbringer minions should work), Trinities for energy and healing (always bring a Trinity), and Garas because Eidolons are basically Endbringers and a single Gara wrecked some Eidolons, so they can act as interference. Depending on the size of the clan - if it's a Ghost clan like mine, I could call on two teams of guys who can handle any mission. If it's a larger clan, then you can call on many more bodies to throw at the problem.
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- Location
- MN
Sadly, there are two competing ( Maybe more ) ideas behind that problem.
I've seen people complain about not knowing what a game specific or any knowledge based item was and how that made them feel even more confused. I tried to bridge the gap by adding some item description, like when I mentioned some of the weapons and the link, if the reader wanted to learn more.
For example, instead of just writing, "I selected to use my Kohmak as my sidearm", I added some description in attempt to let he reader understand just what in the heck a "Kohmak" was without needing to view the link.
I kind of adopted the approach I would want to see for an unfamiliar setting by adding the links so that I could view the item mentioned. I love to see the pretty pictures.
There should be fewer links as the story progresses, but no promises and I'll attempt to provide more inline description for the items vs. just doing a bunch of foreign names with wiki links.
Well, that's my intent anyway and I am aware of the problem.
I'll do my best.
Thanks for your feedback.
Never played warframe but I read alot of worm stories for the past year or so. So I would kindly ask that for you to lessen the wiki links and instead describe it or describe it along with the links. Trying to place wiki links on a story breaks the flow that will ultimately end up with your story forgotten by the reader because of wiki walks.
Alpha Zerg
The Last Primal Zerg
- Location
- Zerus
Yeah, no. Unless this story goes in a direction that I don't like, I'm not forgetting about this story at all. Both sides of the crossover are equally important in this case, so at least appreciate the effort that's being done to give you some familiarity. I actually know Warframe far better than I know Worm, so to have to read through paragraphs of useless description of things that I've used and mastered months or years ago would bore me to death.
Also, I made a small edit to my above post that basically says the same thing.
- Location
- Belgium
I actually liked the wiki links, as someone who is utter crap at games and thus most often have no knowledge whatsoever on popular franchises, the links gave me a much appreciated overview of the different Warframes' looks and a quick summary of their abilities. I could have done without checking what each weapon looks like, but honestly the possibility to merely click on a link instead of going into a Google hunt was refreshing for me.
Thank you author for your efforts, as I'm sure including those links was neither quick nor simple since you had to both edit your story and select the correct wiki pages.
I am really interested by this story, no matter if we stay street-level, go through epic Endbringers fights or have the Tenno Family come help eradicate some spacewhale widower. I'm so watching this.
Thank you author for your efforts, as I'm sure including those links was neither quick nor simple since you had to both edit your story and select the correct wiki pages.
I am really interested by this story, no matter if we stay street-level, go through epic Endbringers fights or have the Tenno Family come help eradicate some spacewhale widower. I'm so watching this.
*Shrugs* Wiki walks happens to me more than I can count and sometimes after like 4 hours of wiki walks did I return to the story and promptly lost interest in it.
So, yes. It is an issue that happened to me. Not to mention I want the author's writing style to grow by being able to break the limitations of his descriptions.
Alpha Zerg
The Last Primal Zerg
- Location
- Zerus
I can also mention an option that has a pretty much guaranteed chance of succeeding: tracing a path back to Scion's body through the Void, then having Best!SpaceMom put out a Tactical Alert and having ALL the Tenno wreck Scion.
But that's all just suggestions for the far future.
But that's all just suggestions for the far future.
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So far love the story, just had one small issue.
While Talor's circumstances are different from most Tenno I highly doubt that she would have learned to pray to or by the Orokin for anything, curse them sure but not prayer. The Void, Lotus, or the Balance would make far more sense to me.
Maybe it's more like "Get thee behind me, Satan"?
Either that, or maybe the Tenno of her Clan have an idealized image of them, considering nasty ones like the Twin Queens to be aberrations?
- Location
- MN
I was looking for some saying to replace my habitual, yet 100% agnostic "Thank God!"
"Thank Lotus!" makes more sense and yeah, I guess Orokin would be more of a curse.