Saga of the Strider

Blood_Strider - Lekalis 08-Aug-18 08:29 PM

[OPEN RP] THE STRIDER'S SAGA -1 : 1 DUST AND RUST "The Saga starts as it begins... HE is surrounded by blood..." "... That's... Not foreboding in the slightest; Alright, go on. We're recording." [LOCATION : RA 19h 24m 0s | Dec +59° 0′ 0″ : CERES : 70°W, 88°N] [DATE : UNKNOWN, PRE-REMNANT DISSOLVEMENT] [EST. TIME : 0908/DUSK : 9HR CYCLE] [FORECAST : ACID RAIN : PERSISTENT] [SITE : STEEL MERIDIAN LISTENING-POST "RED ROOVES"] The rain hissed and burned into the metal huts of the Meridian Outpost "Red Rooves", the rusted alloys were layered one atop the other like an endless sandwich. Even now, as many settled for slumber, the engineers held their breath as they welded new patches onto the rooves the Outpost was named after. Tarps served to catch whatever burned through, and to save the odd Defector from taking a sudden and nasty burn to the cranium. These heavy tarps were hung beneath and around the huts, sheltered in the shadow of a decrepit Corpus ship that had been shot down by the Grineer during one of the many attempted invasions. Its large, blocky frame had long since been corroded to an unrecognizable, porous heap of scrap metal. Lights from the small collection of ten odd huts and a watch tower illuminated the broadside of the vessel, showing the last vestiges of the Corpus design and make in the odd markings of Luxor Nanocomposites, its circle enveloped in a triangle, dimly illuminated, gives the small Outpost a crude imitation of the distant Sol, whose light barely cuts through the choking smog gouted out from the nearby Grineer factories. Besides the hiss of rain, the roar of welders... The Outpost is silent, basking in its grim solitude as a listening post for the Steel Meridian. There's little choice in the matter; the smallest blip on the Grineer conquered world would be all they needed to obliterate the small settlement. [1/6] (edited)

[2/6] And yet, on this night, at the turn of day... A low rasped drone echoes through the quiet halls. Ballistas perk up from their watch, the restless soldiers finding respite in the whisper of a tune that snaked out through the claustrophobic confines of Red Rooves. Worry, at first, was rampant as many rushed to the windows or stomped about the confines; whispering harshly to those around them to find the source of the discrepancy. It didn't take long; nestled in the pit where the Corpus ship had met the rusted metal scrap of Ceres, was a small tent, pitched and pocked from the Acid Rain. A lamp illuminated the faces of Butchers and Lancers, a Ballista or two; all huddled beneath the tent for safety, as they listened with glimmering eyes, like so many children. A Sunny orange light was reflected in their eyes, as The Strider. Whose Loki Prime drew a jury-rigged musical bow across a queer design; like a lyre, though its neck was drawn long and its tune was grave. Yet there was a chipper hymn that couldn't be shaken from its Lyre roots. The creation was hardly worthy of being in the arms of a Warframe, though the Strider's Loki Prime had long since forgotten the gilded grace of its origins, as its prosthetic's bare tendons tensed and relaxed as it drew and pushed the bow across the long-lyre's chords of copper wire. By the time the General of Red Rooves found The Strider, the snaking, warbling tune was coming to a close. The Hiss of Acid Rain coming back to the fore, though Welders and Lancers alike peered out from the huts to watch the General stomp on towards The Strider, who quietly set aside the lyre and bow. His audience began to clap quietly and laugh amongst themselves, before the General arrived and all scrambled to move out of her way.

[3/6] "What are you doing." She demanded in a practiced, rasped whisper as her face pulled into a scowl; her eyes hidden behind half of a faceplate while a hood made of the rust-red tarps covered her crown and shoulders. She was a Gunner once, before her Defection. It was a blessed day, but she never shook the doctrines instilled in her for a second. "Red", they called her, for her Hood. It stuck like rust. The Strider looked about to the fast scattering crowd, he splayed his arms out before his helm looked up to Red with a cocked helm, "Entertaining my dear comrades, Comrade." Red's lips pulled back to sneer, revealing an array of metal teeth as she cast her visor's eyes up to the sky in paranoia, before they flicked back down to face The Stride with vehemence. "You are going to get us killed, Half-horn." She spat and pulled her cloak closer about her person, shielding herself from the worst of the acid rain. "Killing is what I do best, so I've been told." The Strider mused cheekily as he rose, his the bulbous Harkonar kneeplates protested with a hiss and click as they adjusted to the weight. Pistons adjusted and flexed as he made to stand at his full height which... was still two heads shorter than Red. "There has been nothing to kill; so I've been trying to find something else I am best at." There was a sudden crack of lightning that sent a sickly green light out over the Outpost, illuminating the grizzly smile of The Strider's scarred helm. "Find something quieter...", Red turned and made to walk away, "... Louder?" The Strider called out, loudly, as he pinched at the broken struts of his helm's broken horn. Red stopped, but didn't turn. Steam rose out from her hooded veil, it was clear no Acid Rain was burning her there, but something boiled inside her gut for true. She pinched at a red braid on her wrist and sighed, "Quieter, Half-horn. You heard me... We can arrange you for patrol if you want." (edited)

[4/6] The Strider watched her curiously, his helm tilting to the other shoulder, "No, thank you..." His cheeky tone faded as he nodded and looked to the tent he'd staged in; he had no need for metal guards or tarps even, his Frame's shields easily shrugged off the corrosive rain. So, it was a humble affair; a shut chest and a lamp, with a lyre he'd made the week before. Something spoke to him that day, a flicker of a past he'd caught a glimpse of in the most beautiful of sights and delights... Laughter, a sunrise, a sunset. The planets aligned before him... "... I'm going to attack Rook's Keep." Lekalis called out, but Red was too far away; the rain drowned out his vox' volume. He flexed his hands, his prosthetic twitched and refused to obey; he swore at it and gave it a small punch in the elbow, reseting the synapses which he tested and found working again. The Outpost had been quiet enough, ever since he'd arrived, he'd been able to pick off any patrols that swooped too close, diverting their attentions elsewhere by blinking half a kilometer with the barest of energy supplies t'ill he was far enough away that the Grineer would redivert patrols to accomodate the combat occurance. Since then, more and more have flocked to Red Rooves... It was bustling, and patrol rosters were full to the brim. The Defectors could finally rest... though many didn't know what to do with this rest. The Strider was no Grineer. He was Tenno, Orokin, a Warframe... But he felt the same useless stagnation as many in the Outpost. It was why he sent out the call for help. A LFG for an extermination; he offered little more than gratitude, a tune, and some tea... He was tempted to mention the Steel Meridian but if anyone caught that message, suspicions might arise amidst enemy ranks.

[5/6] His Sunny Eye looked down over the Listening Post now, standing above it all at the edge of the crater the Corpus ship had made... There was room for the Post to grow, he could see it now; a city... An odeon in the shadow of the Corpus ship, with apartments and parks all rooved beneath a shield generator, or some more exotic materia... Maybe Rubedo. It could be so much more, if they could but oust themselves from the thumb of Vulgrim Rook... A Grineer Leftenant overseeing an ore processing facility dubbed 'Rook's Keep'. Ever since he'd been assigned, patrols had lashed out viciously from Watchtowers that speared the smoggy heavens of Ceres, where Dargyn patrols and countless Lancers marched. Rook's own design, the Tower-Tank, occasionally rolled out on its huge treads and multi-layered turret system to annihilate any insurgencies. Rook had been designated as a simple Overseer to improve productivity, but his desire to appease the Queens has had him seize more and more territory. What had once been a scattering of Mines has turned into a steadily growing super-fortress; Rook had more metal than meat, he was forced into a slow but unmovable crawl... And what Grineer he had were bolted with alloy extras and advanced armor composites that tried desperately to copy Sargus Ruk's own designs. Everyday, it seemed, Vulgrim drew closer and closer to that end. The Strider knew he had been a boon for the Red Rooves when he arrived, broken and half melted... They fixed him, and he fixed their problem. But Vulgrim's towers drew closer and closer every odd month on Ceres; there was nothing Lekalis could do against that. Not without help.

[6/6] The bronzed metal of Lekalis good hand grazed over the rust-brown surface of his Grinlok, sheathed in his sash. Over the Meridian engraving below its magazine. He owed these people his Life and more... They were the purpose, a reason to fight against the system of bloodshed. A system he'd spied in but a single, disgusting glimpse before he fell from the sky. Now, as he strode out and away from Red Rooves to a decrepit and abandoned Grineer mining facility, whose veins have run dry, he wondered who else might pierce the plagued skies of Ceres and join him on the toxic ground... ... He waited, on a large rectangular landing platform for any who might heed his request, to take down one of Rook's Towers. Not for Credits or renown or Mastery of battle... But because it was the right thing to do. To push back the Grineer; not for the Corpus, but because it was Right. Because it was Right... He told himself, as he rest his knees on the platform, and bowed his head in meditation; listening for someone to heed his call...

[OPEN RP @Ross ]

Ross 08-Aug-18 09:26 PM

[1/2] Far above the harsh atmosphere of Ceres, an orbiter circled. It was cloaked to avoid detection, but as soon as its occupant confirmed the source of the signal (and responded with a simple "I want in, don't leave without me."), a battered white and orange mantis emerged and started its descent towards the sickly yellow-green clouds below. The already weather-worn paint took a beating as it descended, narrowly avoiding grineer detection with practiced ease. As it approached the landing platform, the graffiti on the outside of the craft came into view. All of it was in Grineer -- some too scuffed to read -- and the mark of Steel Meridian was painted broadly across one side. It dropped quickly towards the ground, pulling up at the last minute to level out and let its occupant drop to the landing pad. It was a Frost Prime, though the prime aspect was hardly noticeable anymore. Similar to his landing craft, the frost was primarily white with orange detailing, and a Steel Meridian sigil was displayed proudly on his chest. He was battered as well, though hardly as much as Lekalis, his aurora helmet sporting multiple chips missing from its protrusions, and his arms and legs scraped of paint from too many reckless battles. Straps transformed a ruined grineer helmet and mask into a makeshift armor piece on his left shoulder, the eye-lights flickering faintly. (edited)

Ross 08-Aug-18 09:36 PM

[2/2] The white and orange frost looked around briefly, studying the outpost. Satisfied with his cursory glance-over of the place, he strutted towards the scarred Loki. "Hey there!" He said, barely loud enough to be heard over the rain. He, too, was used to speaking quietly in outposts, though it seemed his definition of quiet may be a bit looser than others'. Once he was within range, he initiated one of the more well-known Steel Meridian handshakes. Up close, the scrapes across his frame were more obvious, and sand and dried blood caked every crevice and deep scrape. "Nice to see other Tenno getting involved in outpost business. My name's Leveret. I'm usually stationed on Mars but, honestly, a challenge like that was just too good to pass up."

Blood_Strider - Lekalis 08-Aug-18 10:01 PM

/Lekalis/ His helm perked up rather quickly; the response was quick... Or... had he simply lost himself in his ruminations. Either way, the jolly Frost was enough to liven up Lekalis' mood. His winter and dawnlight colors gave some levity to the otherwise green and miserable Ceres. "Ah! Hello there." Lekalis replied in greeting, his good hand raising halfwise to wave as he used the other prosthetic to help push himself to standing. The Meridian's regalia brought warmth to the Strider's heart, and he gladly stepped forward to match and finish the Handshake. "Outpost business... You don't say?" Lekalis chuckled happily, a sound that broke against the rain like a cut of spring in fall. "It's good to have you Leveret--" Lekalis touched a hand to his own Harkonar Breastplate, and bowed with a flourish. "-- I am The Strider, ward of the local Listening Post, Red Rooves." He introduced himself before he straightened up and fixed the Meridian sigil pinned to his breast. "It's better still to find you as a Defiant Steel Meridian... I'll spare you the details t'ill more show up, but you're fighting for a good cause." He assured Leveret, reaching out to pat the Frost on the shoulder with his good hand; admiring the prospect of having a solid defensive Frame on his team... Already he felt ripe to take on Rook's Keep itself. "The Grineer Overseer, Vulgrim Rook, is getting closer to a Steel Meridian post. My post. Red Rooves." He explained, his tone drew dire and his Sunny eye seemed to look past Leveret, he pointed out to a jagged, bulbous spire. Like the ribs of a great beast, it rose up and into the sky where orange lights flitted in and out constantly. Dargyn skiffs, Bolkor gunships, and Ogma bombers growled in the distance. "I've been trying to dissuade construction, but every day a new Spire comes up... Every day, Vulgrim Rook claims more scrap... Which feeds his towers. If we don't stop him; Vay Hek, Captain Vor, Lech Kril... they'll bow to Vulgrim and his resources."

Lekalis explained the circumstances in a crash course, before he took a step back and nodded, "... Sorry it's not as Sunny as Mars." He looked about, hoping to dissuade some of the grim of the ordeal; "We've rust... a bit coarser than sand, tends to get everywhere too..." He idly brushed away some flakes off his forearm...

Almighty_Jado - Kapak 08-Aug-18 10:29 PM

Nox Defector: There was the heavy thumping of Grineer boots as a large hulking individual made his way through the downpour towards the two. It became pretty clear that this Grineer was as dumb as he was big. "UUS REPORTA," The Nox saluted to Lekalis. He was a standard looking Chemstrike trooper, the only striking differences were his armour's sloppy white paint job and a red cloth tied over his entire left arm. Meridians Sigils were haphazardly stamped all over the smoothest parts of the toxic Grineer's armour as if each one gave him greater independence from the Grineer empire. "GUV AHGRE DO MUSIC MAN? HU LISTEN EARLIER." Still maintaining his salute, he turned to briefly acknowledge the other Tenno before returning his scarred and ugly face to Lekalis. "GAR ATTAF ROOK KEEP?" The Nox questioned before gurgling violently as if his own lungs were made of slime.

Ross 09-Aug-18 12:19 AM

Leveret "The Strider, eh? Maybe some day I'll earn a cool title too." He let out a chuckle of his own. He'd forgotten how nice it was to work with other Tenno. He listened as the Loki explained the situation, nodding in understanding as he finished. "Well, it's a dreary place compared to Mars, I'll give you that much. I don't mind braving a bit of fowl weather for the sake of putting some Grineer in their place, though." Leveret turned to face the Nox as he approached, immediately taking in all noteworthy details about this particular defector. Despite knowing the Grineer language and speaking it fluently, it still took Leveret a moment to puzzle out what the Nox had said. "Hmm...yes, soon." he responded, keeping his words simple for the sake of the Nox's understanding. "Garr name?"

Daakjenaar 09-Aug-18 04:16 AM

KAMOS From the sky descended a dark grey Liset with some wear and tear, but no major damage or distinguishing features. It descened extremely quickly, appearing to be flown rather recklessly and carelessly. Odd for a Tenno ship. At the absolute last second, as it approached the ground near the outpost, the liset pulled up from a nosedive, and slowed to a stop, hovering a few meters over the ground before gently landing on the ground. From inside the liset, after a few seconds of quiet, emerged a Rhino (Pictured below since I'm lazy). He appeared to be rather nonchalant, despite the death-defying stunt his liset had done just moments before. He carried his holstered sobek and gram on his back, partially covered by the torn syandana he wore. He ignored the rain, letting it hit his shields, as he surveyed the outpost in front of him. Despite his heavy armarment and sheer size, he seemed to be at ease right now. Odd. "I heard there were Grineer to shoot, and I came as fast as I could!" He shouted, assuming one of the people nearby would notice him. "Just point me in the general direction, and your problem'll be solved!" That's when he noticed the other two Tenno, and the Tenno ship he landed beside. "Suppose I'm not the only one here, then. Good!" He shouted again, this time at the other Tenno. His tone sounded oddly cheerful, despite the depressing surroundings and the fact that he was close to a potential warzone. Strange.

Blood_Strider - Lekalis 10-Aug-18 12:25 AM

/Lekalis/ The heavy thuds of a Nox snapped Lekalis' attentions to the curiously painted and garbed Nox; The Strider's hand reflexively went to rest on the Marelok sheathed behind him, on his lower waist. His fingers curled about the grip, but relaxed as he spied the Meridian sigils and fetishes with some glee. "Good, good... Wonderous, drinks all around!" He declared with a chuckle as he let his hand slip free; nudging Leveret with the long wing lug of his good arm. "You got this one?" The Strider assumed yes, as he gave the Nox a two finger salute, "Ah, ah-- Ya, We attaf Rook's Keep." he explained with a chuckle and sigh as he strode to be shoulder to shoulder with the Nox; anytime he got so close, he was usually caught off guard. The Nox' toxic odour was pungent, even through the rain of Ceres. "Soon. For now : Plan." Lekalis brought his two hands together in a chopping motion, before he looked over to Leveret again. [1/2] (edited)

[2/2] The Strider jerked his helm to the ramp leading down and into the bulbous ruins of the Mining Outpost, crates scattered about and fences broken, it looked right to crumble in the next breeze. Still, "Get inside, set up some seats... If a patrol comes by, we can't be seen until we're ready." He explained before he cast his eyes up to another landing craft. The Strider counted himself lucky to have gotten one Tenno aboard, but two was a godsend. The Operation was guranteed a success, he knew; if not immediately, then in due time. He raised an arm up to shield himself from the diving Liset. Lekalis was no liar; he was half tempted to dive out of the way a moment before the Liset bucked upwards and landed. He breathed a rather obvious sigh of relief, his gill like vents opening and shutting with the faintest of clicks in the rain. Lekalis arm rose to full mast and waved at the approaching Rhino. A bit of a daunting Warframe for the Operation he had planned, but Lekalis knew not to look an iron, horned, gift-horse in the mouth. "Awey, more Grineer than I know what to do with." Lekalis jabbed a thumb at the painted Nox and sighed, enjoying the rather uplifting morale of the comrades he so recently found. The din and dire of Red Rooves was like a plague, it seemed. Infected everyone there. The Strider looked up to the sky, greedily, before looking down to the Rhino; he reached out and placed a hand on the larger Frame's shoulder, before crossing his prosthetic over his chest. "Good to have you with us. Follow the Frost, head inside... I'll brief you on the Operation in a moment." He patted The Rhino's shoulder one last time before taking a step back, letting his hands slip into his sash haphazardly before looking up to the smogged heavens once more. "You got a name, Rhino?"

Almighty_Jado - Kapak 10-Aug-18 05:23 PM

Vok Vok: “MY NAME VOK VOK, TENO,” The Nox responded to Leveret. He clicked his prosthetic heels together after Lekalis spoke. “OGHI SIR!” The Nox saluted before turning and marching lopsidedly down the ramp, “GWUWHUZI FKR GUV, TENO SIR!” The Nox disappeared inside, presumably to set up the seats for the others.

Ross 10-Aug-18 06:15 PM

Leveret Giving Lekalis a light pat on the shoulder to get his attention, Leveret nodded to both Tenno. "I'll go help set up. I'll see you inside." he said, turning to follow the Nox. Leveret found that navigating the waterlogged ground of Ceres was a different experience to Martian sand. The ground was slick, forcing him to step carefully. He managed to find his way inside without slipping, and proceeded to help the Nox set up chairs. Once inside, he glanced around, noting the tarps and rain-eaten metal. He went about helping the Nox set up chairs, or at least whatever could be sat on, arranging what he could find in a crude circle. Once finished, he plopped into one of the seats, resting his elbows on his legs and settling in to wait for the briefing.

Daakjenaar 10-Aug-18 07:39 PM

KAMOS "Aye, I do. It's Kamos." Kamos adjusted his syandana a bit, to protect his weapons from the rain. He ignored the rain hitting himself, though. Worst-case scenario, he'd just have to fix the paint slightly. He looked around the camp, trying to get an idea of what he was working with here. He started walking to where the seats were being set up, moving rather quickly. Every footstep caused a splash, just from his sheer size. He noticed the poor conditions of this outpost, and was a bit unsure of this whole thing. Even with Tenno on their side, did this place stand a chance against the Grineer?

Blood_Strider - Lekalis 13-Aug-18 06:00 PM

/Lekalis/ He hummed and nodded, his helm glancing to Kamos for a moment and acknowledging his departure to follow Leveret. Two Tenno and a Nox... As he looked up to the looming, sickly storms above, he counted himself lucky to have anyone at all. The Strider looked to his prosthetic hand and sighed, his good came over and rubbed the wrist and artificial tendons with due contemplation... Even with the constant reminder of his fall and the beginning of Rook's reclamation, he still struggled to grab at the memories before and after his screaming impact. But this... He knew, as he looked up to the distant tower, what would be his first conquest... This fight, he would never forget. Lekalis turned and followed after Kamos. He could've asked for ten good Tenno and he'd have the planet scrubbed clean in a fortnight. But with three... "... I'm glad to have you three." he announced, arriving to the assembled chairs in the derelict mining facility. Rain still slicked the floor, through uncountable small leaks in the rusted rooves, and through a collapse in the structure itself some ten yards away, where the rust and scrap rose like a ceaseless, inching tide. Tarps had been drawn over the largest of the exposed structure, holding the corrosive rain at bay, for now. But the tarp looked faded in place, where beams of light filtered through and illuminated the briefing circle of the Strider's First retinue. "Leftenant Vulgrim Rook is our central quarry..." Lekalis explained, as he idly began to walk about the circle of assembled squaddies. His helm looked about for some sort of projector to ease his explanation. "... But getting to him is going to take work; he's cautious, a bloody metal turtle with armor forged from every corpse that fell here, on Ceres." [1/2]

[2/2] Lekalis paused in a gap of the circle, his prosthetic idly rubbed a corrosive droplet between its fingertips, his helm bowed to watch the idle fidgeting. "The Steel Meridian won't sanction an assault, least, not under my name... yet. Because his Towers... Those disgusting sticks pricking the sky, are impregnable. Nevermind Vulgrim's own Fortress." "Tch, they're all just flaccid fools." He declared boldly with a nod, as he pulled his prosthetic free of his sash and flicked the rain off his finger tips looking to Leveret's ragged Frost's broken crown, then the noxious... Nox, Vok-vok. And of course, the curious Kamos in his greys and blacks; The Strider worried he might lose the Tenno amidst the scrap if he looked away too long. All the same, he motioned to them all with a light flourish of his hand, "A good Cell of Tenno--" He scoffed, shrugging, "--I'd impregnate the bitch." he nodded again, and looked off to where the Tower was, even if it was through a wall. There was a vehemence in his sunny gaze, as if he could burn a hole through the rusted ferrum and torch the thing from where he stood. Lekalis shook his head like a hound in heat before he looked to the assembled comrades again, "Three hard fools will do though, eh?" He kicked a nearby chair, whether or not it had a person didn't bother the Strider as he moved to the center of the assembled chairs. "What's it you all do?" He looked to each expectantly, moreso the two Tenno than the Nox, he rather figured what that Grineer could do. "--A-and spare me the japes; Frosts freeze, Rhinos ram." The Strider had played games like that before, and he slapped his hands together punctually, "Combat experience, personal prowess- Don't be shy, this is tactics... I'll see through any false boasts." "Once I've an idea of your skills, the rest should fall into place... Void knows I've thought all there was to think on those damn towers."

https://orig00.deviantart.net/c9a3/f/2018/225/e/a/miningoutpostreference_by_bloodtrailkiller-dck2bfm.png

[Disco was being a pain, but yeah! A bit more of a mood-shot. I'll try to do an interior sometime]

[Might do a birdseye at some point]

Ross 13-Aug-18 06:26 PM

Leveret The battered frost looked around, electing to go first. After a moment's pause to piece together what to say, he spoke. "Firstly, for the newcomers, my name is Leveret." He gave Kamos and Vok Vok each a nod. "My job tends to be getting in the way of things. Stopping bullets, blocking the wayward machete, that sort of thing. If not with my shield, then with my body." Another pause. A few grains of Martien sand, clumped together with oil and old grineer blood, disappeared into the rain-slick expanse of the floor as he rubbed clean a small dent in his forearm. "I'm used to working with defectors and operatives, so having Tenno on the team will be a treat. I speak Grineer and I have a decent understanding of their machinery. I generally prefer the most direct route into things, but I'm good at improvising under pressure." When he finally finished, he sat back confidently, satisfied with the pitch he'd come up with. Leveret had never needed to talk about himself like this. With nothing else to say, he looked curiously to the rest of the group, wondering who would speak next.

Almighty_Jado - Kapak 13-Aug-18 08:22 PM

Vok Vok: “I... am... Vok Vok,” The Nox enunciated carefully in English, albeit with a heavy Grineer accent. “I... can... SHOOT! PANG! PANG!” The Nox gave a painful grimace in an attempt to smile enthusiastically before bursting into a phlegm filled coughing fit. He saluted Lekalis once more, then the two other Tenno before sitting back down in his seat.

Daakjenaar 13-Aug-18 08:43 PM

KAMOS Kamos took several seconds to think and clear his throat, before he started talking. "Frontal assault. Breaking enemy resistance before they have time to respond. Striking quickly and destroying all obstacles. Make a lot of noise, break a lot of things, blow stuff up, leave a lot of dead bodies." Subtlety was clearly not Kamos' strong suit, which was already clear from his choice in equipment. "I make distractions for my partner. But they're busy, and not on this mission with me..." Kamos spoke in short sentences, talking rather loudly. Something about the way he talked made it sound as though his vocabulary was rather limited.

Blood_Strider - Lekalis 14-Aug-18 02:01 PM

/Lekalis/ He listened to each respectively and nodded, motioning to Kamos, "Right, right-- This is Kamos. Kamos... I suppose they did... Introductions. Hm." Lekalis prattled out lightly as he fidgeted with the pin at his breast, the Sunny eye's light narrowing for a moment, before it widened and his helm looked about to his comrades in arms for this season. "A Frontal assault... Would be, practically speaking, suicide; Turret tanks are frightening... Tall constructs, with layer upon layer of turrets, overlapping killzones..." He trailed off, his hand flourishing with every descriptor as he began striding in small circles between each of his comrades. [1/2]

[2/2] "Besides that, they'll be deployed with Lancers, Bombards and Shield troops decked out in enough armor to make good Kamos blush..." Lekalis scoffed and motioned to the Rhino, and paused, his hand raising in surrender, "...No offense." "We'll be fighting fire with bloody fire." Lekalis stated flatly, grimly, though his hand continued to pinch at the air, before he lightly clasped his wrist and rubbed the joint ponderously. "But I don't plan to sit idly by, here..." "...For myself..." Lekalis hand flexed its digits in and out of a fist, the Prosthetic clicking lightly amidst the dull drum of rain. A flicker of void-radiation danced about his fingers, twinkling like dawn's first light. "... I've dealt with Grineer for as long as I can remember. Corpus too; comms interference, espionage, sabotage, and the odd assassination or two." Lekalis scooted over to find a seat, sitting halfwise close to Kamos, "I can work the frontlines still; active disarmament of the enemy... force them into melee, at least the small guns. The Turret Tank, Dargyns, Ogmas... Bolkors?" Lekalis scoffed and swiped a hand over his sash, grazing over the Grinlok there. "I don't doubt our capacity to break through that damned front line. Even two Tenno can eventually chew through a Rook Tower... But there will be reinforcements, from the air first, from other Towers..." Again Lekalis hummed as he trailed off, his head quirking to one side as his vox clicked in conteplation. "... And then, I'm not sure." "I'm open for suggestions, you hard fools, so come now--" Lekalis batted his hand up at them as he reclined and set his hands on either of his knees, sighing, "-- You've any ideas? Questions..? I can give you the gist of a Tower's makeup if you want, but each is unique from the other."

Almighty_Jado - Kapak 14-Aug-18 02:51 PM

Vok Vok: "ME NKT THINK KF GWUWHUZI. ME NKT SMART, HA HA HA! UUS TRI TRE FEER KN DO BATTLEFIELD. HHHHHAAAAACKKKKHHHHHH" Vok Vok saluted yet again as he stood up and spoke before clearing his mucus-charged throat and sitting back down. (edited)

Ross 14-Aug-18 03:18 PM

Leveret Again turning to look at Vok Vok in confusion, Leveret needed a moment to figure out what he had said. "...uh. Yeah, I agree, Lekalis, a direct assault is a bad idea. We need to find a weak point and exploit it. Something more stealthy might have a chance, but not with our current team." He glanced outside as a distant flash of lightning found its way to a lightning rod. "One thing I know for sure, is we need to cut them off from the grineer lifeline. Make it so they can't call for help, can't operate alarms, can't do nothing. They probably have a pretty solid lockdown system. Maybe we can set it off, kill the alarms, and pick them off room by room?" Leveret suggested, making vague hand motions to better explain what he was talking about.

Daakjenaar 15-Aug-18 11:40 AM

KAMOS "Or we could split up. One group makes a lot of noise and blows some stuff up, and the other group can take out their comms and other vital systems. We should still find a way in first. I don't know how long I can survive a heavy turret." That might be the first even remotely intelligent thing Kamos has said so far. He looked over at Lekalis and Leveret when he mentioned the sneakier team. "So, we find a way inside, and we can wreak havoc while someone cripples critical systems." Sure, it wasn't a subtle plan, but it was a plan. Kamos leaned forward in his seat a bit, looking around at the other three sitting here. (edited)

Blood_Strider - Lekalis 24-Aug-18 08:18 PM

@Daakjenaar @Ross @Almighty_Jado - Kapak /Lekalis/ The Strider stared at Vok-vok... Just who had he consigned for his Op? The Thought plagued him even as Kamos spoke his last, and it was only in a brief silence that Lekalis perked up and recognized it. "O-oh, aye... fair points... all." Lekalis remarked as he slowly walked over to Vok-vok and patted his bulbous glass helm. "Don't hurt yourself, chum." He whispered softly as he looked to each of his comrades again. He hummed as he weighed their inputs, "Good tactics, all... But, as Leveret pointed out; our current cell isn't exactly cut for infiltration..." He made a bit of a pompous scoff as he settled a hand on his Harkonar chestpiece, "... Besides, yours truly." He chuckled and sighed again, shaking his head. "It's best to play to our strengths, it is known." He began, nodding as he let his hand pinch at the wedge of his helm, "... Sneaking in is difficult, if not impossible; the vents are secured by mult-stage blast-doors and high turbulence fans are constantly pushing against you." Lekalis shook his head again, "I've tried." Though, his pacing slowed as his hand slipped from his helm to his hip, his gaze looked out across the rusted fields shown through the blown out portion of the mining facility. "They do have a rather cock-sure lockdown system. The Alarm goes off, and the whole tower is shut off for a set amount of time... Or until Vulgrim comes down himself and uses a key." Lekalis looked to Kamos, the damned brute he was and Vok-vok. Carefully, the Nox looked like to spill acid with every exhalation. "The smaller entrances for patrols boast several lock-sequences needing a randomized code per door, which is voxed to the respective members as they strut through." Lekalis explained, "But the larger door... Particularly for the Tower Tanks sent out; those are larger, harder, more heavily defended but they open and close slower. Leads straight to the heart of the tower." [1/2]

[2/2] Lekalis' flexed his free hand in thought, "You lot are strong enough... I'm sure. I've seen Rhinos and Frosts hold against Orokin Sentries for hours on end... " Lekalis looked to Kamos, eyeing him with confident scrutiny. Despite his own doubts, which Lekalis admired, especially for a Rhino, The Strider was oozing confidence almost as much as his gill-like vents spilled steam. "... If we can get inside, those bays should lead to the core of the Tower. And, at the end of the day, these towers are fortified mining stations; their cores are completely hollow, boring straight and deep into the deposits below." Nodding more assuredly, one could almost see the gears turning behind his Sunny Eye. "The Tower's strongest point might well be its weakest." His gaze settled on Leveret with a nod. "If we can time our attack when a Tower-Tank is returning to base, we might be able to burst through... I could even switch-teleport you lot in once the battle starts." Lekalis was excited, his tone bristling more like a child about to catapault his dinner over the table than a Warframe planning a siege. He cleared his throat, flourishing his hand and posturing a bit more respectfully before his comrades, motioning to each with his bronze tipped fingers. "That is, of course, if you lot are willing. It's a bit of a dizzy trip I'll admit. I'm no Nova, but we could easily blink through to the center of the base... Then they'll trigger the alarms, lock themselves in with us and... If all goes to plan, we'll gut the innards of the place like an Ostron guts an Eel, eh?" With some vim and vigor, he gave Leveret's halo a jubilantly light smack as he looked to each for their critique... or Approval.

Ross 24-Aug-18 11:29 PM

Leveret "I'm liking the sound of this plan!" Leveret said, finding the excitement contagious. "With the Tower locked down, they can't escape or bring in reinforcements. All we have to do is get you in," he motioned to Lekalis, "Then you pull us in before the door closes and we make it the worst day they've ever had. Only question is, what do we do when we're done? Assuming we kill every single Grineer inside, there won't be anyone left to open the doors and let us out." He folded his scraped arms across his chest and nodded slowly, obviously having no issue with the pat-smack from Lekalis. "That is...unless we can just take Vulgrim's key and use that. SO!" he clapped his hands together, satisfied with the plan so far, "We just have to scout out a tank and we can just go for it. Not to mention I can freeze them to basically negate the armor issue. Get them nice and frosty and we can crack them open like Karkina. Or push them off someplace high up, your choice." he added smugly.

Almighty_Jado - Kapak 25-Aug-18 05:53 AM

Vok Vok: “HAHAHA! YES! CRACK OPEN!!” Vok Vok clapped his gauntlets together with joy before becoming silent again. It didn’t look like the Nox had many ideas of his own- it didn’t look like he was even capable of having his own ideas.

Daakjenaar 26-Aug-18 12:04 AM

KAMOS "As long as I can do what I'm good at here, I'm on board with this plan." Kamos didn't come all of the way out here to kill things, just to spend the entire time sneaking. He had a shotgun and a greatsword, so he intended to use them at some point. "Freeze them, and I crush them. Sounds fun." He shrugged, and leaned back in his seat a little bit. Man, Ceres sucked. Acid rain, Grineer, and everything looked depressing. Okay, maybe the second one wasn't so bad, but the acid rain was always kind of a downer.

Blood_Strider - Lekalis 27-Aug-18 12:55 AM

/Lekalis/ With a cackle that put his staticky vox on the fritz, he nodded, almost kicking off from Leveret as he splayed his arms wide in spite of the gloom. His sunny pockmarked lights on his Frame all danced in kind to his jubilancy. "Wonderous! Then it's a date; with one metally-treaded boy and some Hard-Fools, eh?" His vox clicked and he sighed, quirking his helm to one side as he recollected himself and his dignity. His hands clapped together, all too excited to finally do something after much stagnation. "It is rather good of you all to have arrived on short notice as--" Lekalis paused, double-checking the time, he held out his hand and let his HUD imagine a display before him. He spied his clock and nodded, dragging it down to the visual display for all to see; he flipped it about for them to read, if they even bothered. There was a bold, blinking

[ 0088 ]

displayed in the signature and vicious dusk-dawn orange of the Strider. "--A Tower Patrol is clocked to turn in at the tower in an hour... " Lekalis' fingers pulled into a fist that he planted on his hip before looking out to the door, "... I reckon we're all that'll be partaking in this dear raid." Lekalis mused as he looked to Vok-vok before motioning for the others to the door. "One hour, one tank, one Tower, and Four klicks. You lot best get moving, I'll make sure sweet Vokki-boy doesn't get left behind..." The Strider straightened up, "Wait for me on the perimeter, 300 meters away from the Tower; party up and I'll put a ping on your map. Be sure your Cephalon keeps you in the party. Stay low and away from open fields; the storms on Ceres have radioactive lightning. I don't want any disconnects." His tone sobered up from its cheery tune to something more akin to the ceaseless ocean tide, than a honeyed river of wine. [1/2] (edited)

[2/2] "Vok-Vok!" He announced, his sunny eye turning to face the Nox, "Do you vomit?!" he paused, glancing about as he tried to think of a word for the poorly comrade, "Err... Upchuck : SPERA KU. STRENGTH. TO. FLOOR." Lekalis motioned from his own gut to his mouth in a pantomime to vomitting.

Almighty_Jado - Kapak 27-Aug-18 01:19 PM

Vok Vok: “HAHAHAHAHA! I.... NOT.... CAN! HAHAHA!” The Nox’s rough, gurgly voice reverberated in his throat, as he gestured to his torso. “MACHINE.... BODY.” He wiggles around and gave an ugly but enthusiastic smile from behind his glass domed head. He then promptly stood up, saluted Lekalis yet again, and then marched out towards the perimeter like he’d been ordered to. (edited)

Ross 27-Aug-18 01:53 PM

Leveret Satisfied with the plan they had formulated, Leveret rose and rolled his shoulders. “This is a good plan! I’m looking forward to working with you three. Let’s all link comms and get moving.” He turned and clapped Lekalis on the back. “I’ll see you out there. Don’t take too long!” With that, he marched into the rain, the acidic downpour sizzling on his shields. “Vilkas, map me a path.” He radioed to his Cephalon. “That’s what I’m here for, operator. Just don’t pick up any strays!” “Shut up. You know you can’t stop me.” “I can stop your hot water and life support though.” “You wouldn’t.” “I wouldn’t.” Leveret turned and waited for the rest of the group to follow, moving slowly backwards step by step.

Daakjenaar 28-Aug-18 01:33 PM

KAMOS Kamos stood up, and followed Leveret. He unholstered his Sobek, just in case something bad were to happen. One couldn't be too sure, after all. "We should get moving. The sooner we deal with this, the better." Kamos certainly seemed ready for combat, and actually seemed to be awfully eager about it.

Blood_Strider - Lekalis 31-Aug-18 08:02 AM

/Lekalis/ "HAHA!!!" Lekalis immitated, before he cleared his vox with a clicking rasp as he watched Leveret and Kamos depart; "... Right, come on then chummer. Let's fly." He mused with a light joviallity as he patted the Nox on the shoulder gingerly, as if afraid he might explode, before he made to leave to the landing pad of the abandoned outpost and begin the process of dropping a decoy, switching with it, and then Vok-Vok, and so on and so forth. There was a graceful, though occasionally hitched, efficiency to the process that had the duo blinking across the rusted desert of Ceres... \ [1/4]

EST. TIME : 0108/DUSK WEATHER : HEAVY RAIN DUST AND RUST-1:1.5 "... They were few, but glorious who matched his stride. And they wrought the Apocalypse behind them..."|| /The Rally Point/ The point which Lekalis had placed before them had been so daringly close to the Tower he'd described, the Dargyn's that growled overhead shook the scraps of metal that surrounded them. Rust flaked down and over the crew when the vessels flew past, mingling with the corrosive rain, it would begin to cake like mud, even over the Warframe's shields as they waited. It seemed as though the rust of Ceres dug deep, and relentlessly. As they'd travelled, a fogginess began to arise; interference with the transference frequencies from the simply terrible weather plaguing this region. Yet, there was an unshakable persistence in the way the rain fell; in the odd hour the Tenno had entered atmos, the sizzle and burn could almost be felt on their distant Operator. How it ran down their shoulders, over their arms, like long snaking fingers tracing the rivers of veins and arteries that wove through the flesh. The Strider and Vok-Vok hadn't been far behind, yet in the few minutes where Leveret and Kamos had stagnated, it felt like thricefold had passed. Regardless, whatever dreary melancholy brewed in those brief, quiet moments, vanished like dust in a breeze. =[2/4]=

The Alcove Lekalis had picked out was beneath a piece of a Corpus ship railgun, molded with a fresh wreck of a Firebolg, it seemed. There were a few metal struts supporting the two in a tipi design, and a few tarps helped shield the group from the worst of the rain, though the Cell of three Warframes and a Nox were rather close pressed together in a circular uneven floor of 5 meters diameter. There was a half-destroyed block of an alloy-container beside a stool made from some piping and tarp, where an overturned cup rested atop the container, and broken lyre-like instrument leaned against the stool. [3/4]

The Tower could be seen before them, through the tarps holes and small gaps; it was larger than one might have expected, even with the most generous estimates. The bulbous and olive-brown stained Grineer alloys had been constantly built once and thrice over eachother, and still more layers were being welded on by Dregs whose torches fizzled occasionally as the rain fell harder still. Surprisingly, in the odd half-kilometer radius around the Tower, there were rather sparse patrols. Grineer Lancers walked side by side in groups of three, with one wearing a heavy shield that covered his entire right-facing head-to-toe. Orange lights glimmered along the edges where shield projectors seemed to have been jury-rigged into the sides. There were roughly nine patrols of three, counting to [27 total Lancers ] covering a large, killzone on this flank of the Tower. [Spotlights] drenched the platforms with an almost blinding light, as hot orange scanners constantly overlapped one another. It was clear, the only way one had a hope of sneaking in was with invisibility. Or with a very big gun. While the Tower itself was bristling with more and more turrets whose barrels swivelled about like hair in a wind, the base seemed rather bereft of any of those dedicated defenses. Instead, favoring layer upon layer of fortifications. Granted, there were still [six Akkalak Turrets] actively scanning this facing of the Tower alone. There were no doubt more all around. The [smaller patrol-doors] Lekalis had mentioned weren't apparent at first, until one of the patrols swapped out with a fresh trio. The doors were flush with the Tower's design, and seemed to vanish if one looked away too long. But, [the large blast-doors] for the Tower Tank were all too aparent. All six of the Akkalak Turrets were situated around the blast doors whose density could almost be felt, even from 500 meters away. [4/4] (edited)

There were [six Dargyns] that consistently flew overhead, with narry a three-second gap between their passes. Bolkors and other vessels seemed to be out for now, or were turning in much higher in the hangar bays of the Tower. \ /Lekalis/ The Strider sighed, his gill-like vents along his ribs opened and closed, out of sync and venting steam rapidly. Though he didn't seem to be exhausted, if anything, as he patted Vok-Vok's shoulder, leading him into the little alcove, he moved as if his prosthetics weren't even there. "Ah, glad to see you lot made it. Shame I couldn't give you the grand tour but--" Lekalis held out his hand and displayed the time, his vox clicked sadly as he quirked his head to one side, moving past either of his comrades the tarp which hid them from immediate view of the Tower in the distance; he gingerly looked past it, peeling it a sliver open with the back of his hand, "--I'd rather we not miss our date with a tank." he jested quietly with a satisfied hum as he looked to each of his brothers in arms. "Seems we still have some time left... That's good--" Lekalis paused as he waited for one of the Dargyns, flying especially low and loud, to pass before continuing; his feet taking him to the stool where he sat and looked rather at home. "-- It's good. Any... Last minute questions or battle-tactics are welcome... but I wouldn't mind knowing who I'll be dancing with tonight a bit better, neh?" His fingers set the teacup right, balanced on the eskewed table carefully, before he plucked up the broken lyre and saw to tinkering with it. "I've some... Questions, of a personal kind, if you don't mind." His attentions rather consistently flicked from the lyre to his comrades in a hopelessly respectful means.

Almighty_Jado - Kapak 01-Sep-18 10:25 AM

Vok Vok: The Nox stood at attention behind Lekalis, swaying slightly, as he was definitely still dizzy and recovering from the Switch Teleportation that had carried him there.

Ross 01-Sep-18 10:35 AM

Leveret Seemingly used to cramped, cobbled-together spaces, Leveret found a relatively dry spot on the ground and sat down cross legged. “I’ll be glad to share, as long as we get to hear a bit about you, too! Steel Meridian always seems to attract the most unique people in the system.”

Daakjenaar 01-Sep-18 04:54 PM

KAMOS "As long as we aren't gonna sit here and tell each other stories all day, I'll answer some questions." Kamos seemed to want to begin the attack as soon as possible. He appeared to be unused to cramped spaces, and struggled to stay put.

Blood_Strider - Lekalis 03-Sep-18 04:52 AM

/Lekalis/ He nodded happily, though his glimmering orange eye seemed to persistently hold its gaze on the Nox standing dutifuly beside him. "Mmm, good good! I will try not to bore you too much Kamos..." Lekalis promised with a little chuckle as he carefuly began to pull the strings of the lyre back about the posts at the head of the instrument. "... Leveret, then!" He acted like he'd a mind to think on something, but it was rather clear he'd long since decided who he'd investigate first. "What is... your favorite color, hmm?" He asked innocently, almost distantly, as his vox clicked in satisfaction, as the Lyre seemed to be coming to shape.

Ross 03-Sep-18 11:47 AM

Leveret “Oh. Uh. I’ll be honest, that wasn’t the kind of question I was expecting. Uhhh....my instinct is to say orange, of course. I like other colors too, though. Yellow, red, some browns.” He sounded thoughtful, like he’d never really considered this before. “Hmm. Yeah, I’d say probably still orange is my favorite.”

Almighty_Jado - Kapak 04-Sep-18 10:46 AM

Vok Vok: "TUH FAVOURITE COLOUR OS NOX! HAHAHAHA!" Vok Vok wobbled on his mechanical leg with glee for a moment, waving his red-ribboned arms around for a moment before saluting Lekalis once and reassuming his stoic pose.

Blood_Strider - Lekalis 04-Sep-18 11:37 AM

/Lekalis/ "Mmmm, fair; but, I figured we 'ought to start things basic before..." He paused and his vox clicked, he glanced out from behind the tarp before tending to the lyre again. It looks to be fully functioning, though he persisted in his fidgeting. "... Well, before we got to who's parent's death was more traumatizing, who lost more friends... You know, the whole... 'My Tragic backstory was worse than yours' thing." He mused a bit cynically, though his tone was ever light and jubilant as though he were singing to the tune of the yet-to-be-played lyre. "Orange though... That is a good color; I remember reading stories stuck on paper, itself lost in the sea of data of our System, about the strong but oppressive red. And the glorious but sickly and greedy gold." Lekalis paused, looking up to Leveret, then to Vok-Vok with some quirked amusement. "Orange is a noble, humbled balance... Strong, passionate... Kind, caring; Orange fits you well. " Lekalis seemed happy with his small spat of philosophy, relishing it in a brief pause as a Dargyn grumbled quietly overhead. Relatively, quietly. "Ah, you then; ask me a question." He insisted happily, though he failed to direct the 'you' to anyone in particular as his head bowed once again to the Lyre. He made a few bold, scratchy twangs on the metal chords; it sounded more like rusted metal plinking against rusted metal than any tuned instrument.

Daakjenaar 05-Sep-18 11:54 PM

KAMOS "Yeah, I've got a question." Kamos saw an oppritunity to figure something out that was kinda bugging him. "Why do you have all of those extra parts on your Frame? What are the things around the ribs even for?" Kamos certainly didn't see a use for them, besides looking mildly unsettling. He looked up at the sky again for a moment, looking for anything flying over the group.

Ross 06-Sep-18 12:35 AM

Leveret The white frost hummed thoughtfully at Kamos' question. He'd been curious about it as well, he admitted to himself, though his time spent with the defectors allowed him to take vague guesses at the functions of most of the modifications. He leaned forwards ever-so-slightly, eager for Lekalis' answer.

Blood_Strider - Lekalis 06-Sep-18 08:18 AM

/Lekalis/ For once, the air of levity that seemed to perfume Lekalis' person faded, if but for a moment in lieu of a rather sudden and short stop of morose introspection. Of course, as quick as it appeared; his hand's stopped fidgeting, his sunny eye seemed fixiated on the rivulets of corrosive rainwater that drip-drip-dripped in their own persistent way... It all came back as those described gill-like vents clicked open and closed. "Ah, those..." He mused with a cheeky ruminating tone, as he let the lyre rest in his lap, and his prosthetic came up to twist at the cylinder jutting out of his glowing neuroptic sensor. "... The Outpost I ward; Red Rooves, took me in when these lovely rusty hills were desert dunes and ostentatious oasis...es... Oasii?" The Strider flaffed a hand dismissively at his failed vocabulary. "They took me in when my Liset was shot down by Rook's own fortress... I... Do not know how he was able to get a lock, or track it at all. It could have just been bad luck on my end; all the same, err... to save you a long and definitely tragic backstory, they fixed me up and these parts remind me of them." Though, Lekalis seemed to stare distantly for a moment, "That's... that wasn't really your question was it..?" He chuckled awkwardly and shrugged, looking down to the various whirring and turning parts of his prosthetics. In truth, he'd almost forgotten what they all did. [1/3]

[3/3] Next, he tapped the optic cybernetic, "This is one does... sort of the same. It's actually... rather important." The grievance came back, for a moment of course, as his tone became a bit somber. "Seeing is important, of course, but its more important purpose is to keep my brains focused." Lekalis nodded, looking to Kamos instead of the floor, "The bulk of it is a transistor of sorts, the dials here--" Lekalis tapped on the two cylinders respectively, "Amplify, and rectify whatever currents are flowing through this Warframe." he explained, his gaze dropped again and he shifted in his seat a bit uncomfortably. "Without it, everything's a bit... hazy." He continued, shaking his head, "It's like... A scope of a rifle--" he paused, and chuckled lightly raising his hands up to look at Kamos for an example, "-- I'm... Not sure if you leave that to your Cephalon; but you have to focus the scope so your eyes can see through it clearly, otherwise, everything is out of focus." Lekalis looked out through the tarp, to the killing field below. "They help me keep focus. Without it, everything is just... Morning fog, over a deep red sea." His words had become clear, as he'd spoke on, and now it was rather apparent. Even above the hiss of the corrosive rain, his words sang clearly through, like a fish through a stream. \ An Ogma with two Dargyn's roared over the small lean-to hideout, shaking more rust off the metal. A small landslide of steel in the distant screeched out in protest to the disturbance, as the ground began to rumble. A loud, distant combustive belch echoed out through the field, it sounded like a volcano with a stuffed-nose. It was followed by an equally loud and gutteral horn that sent shivers through the steel yet again. There was a brief pause, before a similar sounding horn blared out from the Tower; the horn was higher up, of course, and its thunderous declaration didn't shake the steel surrounding them.

=[PAUSE RP]=

[|WARNING !! TRANSFERENCE LINK DISTURBED !!|] [|CONSULT crashlog001.txt FOR DEBUG|] [|ATTEMPTING RESYNCHRONIZATION|] [|. . .|] [|. . .|]

Blood_Strider - Lekalis 11-Sep-18 06:32 AM

[|"... though they reap your sons and daughters, your mothers, your fathers; your dearest beloved. They too, shall reap a bloody harvest for the strife we've suffered."|] [|. . .|] [|Resynchronization complete|]

LOCATION : PERRIN OUTPOST ALFA-INDIGO-TANGO-EIGHT, CERES EST. TIME : 0088\DAWN WEATHER : RADIATION STORM HARVEST 01:01 "Come on, you always bet on the Tenno. Of course they win--" "Not always!" "-- Yeah, alright, fine; sometimes the Disciples, Seekers and the like don't win. But if they have a Rhino..." "... These guys don't have a Rhino." "Right, but they have a Mesa and... Well..." "Uhuh..?" "... Alright, fine, kuyp oik jikep. Five plat against the Tenno." "Ten?" "Five, damn you. Now shut-up or I'll shove Beecloud down your guzzler." The two agents shared a chuckle, the Five-better lightly patted his comrade on the shoulder before he reclined on the stiff couch they'd scrapped together from some alloy and spare suits. "Ahhh, one of these days I'll getcha.", he chuckled, knowing that he was probably going to lose this bet, again. Yamik was always a lucky boy... With terrible strokes of bad. Thinking on it always put Morbo in a glum mood, and Yamik always saw. "One of these days..." Yamik agreed with a small smile, his deep brown eyes looked at Morbo with such amateur attempts at consolation they might as well be green. Still, it was endearing and Morbo offered a small, bowed smile as the Index began; the distant screen and small speakers crackling to life. There was a clink-clink-clink of prosthetic legs tapping across the metal floor of the small outpost, "You boys betting again?", the owner asked in a mother-henning tone. She clucked her tongue as Morbo and Yamik shrank in their seats. "Figures. Anything to report?" "Rain, as usual." Morbo gruffed, shaking his head as he pulled out a data pad to doublecheck, scrolling through the sea of data, his eyes skimmed over them like a seabird for a fish. "Mmh, and a storm, two hours-- Ahhhh scrap it all." he swore and lightly kicked the empty munitions crate that made for a coffee table infront of him. [1/5]

[2/5] "Mhmm, that's right. Get up and start locking down the electronics..." the Woman looked over her shoulder from the armory closet she was tending to, looking to Morbo who was muttering to Yamik as he stood up and worked some sores from his bones. "... Hey-hey, take it easy long-loans. Just button up the consoles inside... Be sure to shut the screen off in an hour. I'll take care of the exo-comms." He looked to her with due surprise, and nodded. His show of age vanished as he made to hastily bustle about the single room that made the first floor of the outpost; screens were shut down and sealed up, exposed wires were hastily shoved back into their places and sealed up too. The single slitted window was shut too. Yamik awkwardly watched Morbo bustle about as the Prosthetic Woman suited up in a simple means to protect her from the harsh atmos in this sector of Ceres. "Anne?" Yamik spoke up quietly from his seat on the couch, standing up now. He wanted to do something to help. "Yes?" Anne didn't catch, she was too busy making sure the seal on her suit was complete. Going so far as to double-check even her prosthetics had a good seal. The corrosion in the air was enough to melt steel beams, she swore... and, while she was confident in her prosthetic's alloy and coatings, she didn't wanna take the risk. "Ah... I just... Maybe I should--" Yamik stammered about like a puppy as he continued to watch Morbo poke a console that didn't want to shut down for one reason or another. "-- Do you need help?" He managed in desperation as Anne approached the airlock. "Help?" The word didn't seem to be in Anne's vocabulary for a moment, as she looked to Yamik with a cocked brow, her stern and weathered features were pulled into a bemused expression through the hard glass visor of her helm. "Please..." She scoffed, though paused as Yamik made a small hurt laugh as he nodded in submission.

[3/5] Anne hummed and placed a hand on her hip, feeling the pommel of her holsterd Arca Scisco. "... Go check the armory, make sure all the cases are sealed. The works; I think you and Morbo went out for practice shooting, what? Two days ago?" She scrunched up her brows in both recollection and distaste. Yamik nodded eagerly, hopping over the couch and jogging over to the ladder that led to the one other floor of the Outpost, below the first. Nestled into the armory of the Crashed Corpus ship that they'd turned into a home. Satisfied that everyone was busy, Anne smiled and went on through the Airlock and its process; the rain outside actually seemed to be light, for once... and, when she stepped outside, she was surprised to find that there was no rain at all. For almost a year it had rained non-stop... It was eerily quiet now; her suit's rebreather seemed to hold its breath even, as the eerie yellow-green hue of the sun, filtered through the smog, glimmered over the odd bit of yet-to-be rusted alloy. For once, Anne paused in light of her duty. Her fingers flexed tensely as she once again ran a hand over the pommel of her pistol, confident it would save her if the need arose... Worse case scenario, she did have a Sheev, but she'd rather not rely on that can-opener. She took a resolving breath, and sighed, shaking her head. The calm before the storm, she supposed, as she turned and started up the ladder that led to the array of communications dishes and interjectors; they indulged in snipping into Grineer communications on occasion for the juicy tidbit or two, a good convoy to raid was always fun, but capitalizing on prices bumped their wealth much more. Of course, that much was a personal pursuit; hence her investment in making sure the expensive relays and the works were sealed up and protected from Ceres' brutal atmosphere. It was all rather extra, as their actual operations left much of their day open to pissing about... or betting on The Index.

[4/5] Anne sighed as she stowed away their own bulky relays into respective shells, folding up antennas and covering the dishes. Some had started to rust, which was inevitable but frustrating. The last was a small array of sensors... for reading Void energy fluxuations and radiation levels. Someone in the Meridian was convinced they were connected, somehow. Convinced enough that they grovelled to Perrin Sequence. Convinced enough to fund this entire expedition... They kept themselves anonymous though. Whoever they were. Combined with the lack of rain, and the reminder of their mysterious Investor... She couldn't help but feel a small shiver run up her spine. The Calm Before the Storm. She swallowed hard and made sure the instruments were tucked away; enough so that they'd still get a read without damaging any of the intricate parts within. It was busy work but it kept her mind off the growing antsiness in her stomach. "Anne!", Morbo's voice rasped over the comms, static already starting to bleed into the vox, a bad sign. "Anne! The storm-- You need to get inside!" his voice was frantic, as she heard the whistle of electronics going mad in warning in her suit. She turned so hard that she almost lost her balance, as her visor looked to the distant, jagged horizon of broken metal; the sickly glow of the sky flickered with light... A sunny orange glow snapped through the air, as the sky seemed to roll and rumble like waves in a sea. Its brackish hue was unfathomably dark, even as lightning arced through the sky, sending spikes of radiation scything through the air. The sensors were wailing in her ears but they were distant, as if she were submerged in a wet cryo pod. It pounded in her head, and she heard the familiar growl of Morbo's voice over the comms but she couldn't make out the words anymore, her eyes were entranced by the closing, raging day.

[5/5] She tasted blood in her mouth, wetness leaked from her eyes, her ears and nose... Sweat beaded on her brow as her heart pounded to the rhythm of a war drum. Anne was frozen, clutching a jutting strut of metal atop the outpost as she couldn't stop staring at the horizon. At a horned figure, atop a many legged steed. It could have been thousands of kilometers away, on another planet, but the pale frame felt as if he were right infront of her. His radiance was blinding, a bloody star unto itself, as he stared down at her. A single, sunny gem set at the corner of a wedged helm, whose horns seemed to stretch and consume the horizon. The Pale Frame spoke without a mouth, without a tongue, in the sweetest melodies amidst the growing storm.

[REMEMBER. ME.]

It was a request, as much as it was a statement which burned in her mind as it rose a hand out and the little finger, which stretched far beyond the rest, pressed its nail against her helm. Red Ribbons fluttered away from its arm, as a shock of pain pierced Anne's mind... Piercing her mortal shell and touching something deep, something sacred... She gasped, and lost her grip upon the outpost. She fell, her eyes glazing over in a red haze, as she watched the Pale Figure watch her. Its crown wilted to one shoulder in idle curiosity, as one might watch a droplet of rain fall from the sky. Anne felt something pierce her belly, before she lost herself in a deep red sea of nothingness. =[RP TO BEGIN WITHIN 24 HRS]=

Blood_Strider - Lekalis 11-Sep-18 07:23 AM

"That's all we got..." "You serious? Void be damned... I couldn't make out a damn thing." "Should we..?" "What?" "You know, call the Tenno!" "..." "Eh..? It's a good idea. This is exact--" "Just do it Roskov; this is asset recovery, not one of your damn comic book stories." LOCATION : PERRIN OUTPOST AIT-8 INVESTIGATION SITE ALFA, CERES DATE : APPROX. 1 YEAR POST-REMNANT DISSOLVE EST. TIME : 0133\DAWN : 0900HR CYCLE WEATHER : DRY Rust flaked away like the bones of a great beast, in the drying air of Ceres. The slush that typically marred the desert of steel was already dry and lines were made in the ground where the last rivulets of water sank beneath dirt and oxidized metal. And, where deflective energy shields had been drawn and staked into the earth. Squat half-square designs that boasted a strong half-dome behind them, protecting those within from projectiles. The Triangle of Perrin Sequence was painted in white on the blued metal, though already the naturally corrosive air of Ceres was pocking it in pimples of brown and yellow. A few agents milled about, a solid compliment of twelve milled about in basic, unremarkable gear; checking their Penta grenade launchers and Dera rifles again and again. Some were counting out ammo from crates and others were double-tapping the odd shot-down Grineer patrol. The screams of Dargyn pilots occasionally rang out through the steel. All of this was done in the shadow of a slowly fading Corpus vessel, whose grand geometric design was muddled down to a rounded husk, with a squat square tumor poised at its peak. Outpost Ait-8, the subject of this investigation. [1/3]

[2/3] The reason the Investigation was placed at the base of the ship and not atop it, was partially due to the fact it was considered off limits and too dangerous for regular agents, but it was largely owed to the impaled Corpus woman that the primary investigator was jacked into. A blue, pulsing cord connected his helm to hers, and from his helm was an array of wires that ran across his arm and into a bulky two-fold tablet that rested in his lap as he sat in the rust-mud. Roskov had long since sent out a request and alert for Tenno in the system to help him investigate... It was his dream to see them in action, but here, now? They looked ridiculous; they were racing up and down the local area, shooting down random patrols and scanning him and his box, hovering beside him and making bizzare gestures. They were nothing like the mysterious warriors he'd heard about. But their power was undeniable; even now, he heard a Dargyn in the distance detonate, and he flinched at the scream and resulting rattle of gunfire. He didn't know what he was expecting, of course the Tenno weren't grand investigators, they were fighters... Only a few bothered to even go inside the Outpost for more than a few minutes before they hopped back with some datum or another for him to identify. Roskov had long since realized he was going to be sitting here for a long while, handing out credits from his pocket and seeing the Tenno go.

[3/3] It all seemed hopeless, as he looked up to the sky and absently accepted some block of circuitry from a Tenno. "Good, good. A wonderful find." he recited blandly as he tossed it beside his seat and went through a fast becoming habit of dishing out credits to the Warframe... He didn't even care to see what type it was. "I'll..." He sighed and looked to the Tenno with a nod and some renewed energy, "... I'll get back to you when I identify this piece." he nodded and smiled behind his transparent helm, before he went back to reading the computer screen. There was a distant crackle of thunder that caught the attention of a few of his fellow agents, but Roskov could only sigh and shake his head. It was no doubt another Dargyn hitting the ground. His Two-Fold tablet crackled and froze for a moment, he swore and shook his head again, stomping his foot and swearing in the Corpus tongue as he patted it gently in hopes of coaxing it back to function. == A Message would whisper out to those of the old guard. The @Remnant Veteran s. As well as @Leveret , and @Kamos Familiar orange text to some, but the words were simple.

[REMEMBER ME.] [I STRIDE.] [LOST.] [CERES.] [THE HARVEST. IS WEAK.] [I REMEMBER.] [SORROW. PAIN. FIRE.] [FAMILY.] [THE REMNANT.] [HELP.]

The sender's ID is jarbled, but given time, could be identified. The message seems to have suffered from severe interference but parcels of data could be clarified, if desired.

=[RP BEGIN]= =[Characters may begin at the Investigation site, meandering about. Or just arriving on scene, or on their way. It is open ended as to how characters will enter]= (edited)

Midnight-Runner - Ella 11-Sep-18 10:58 AM

/Ifrit/ It had been almost a year since he remembered her face, or at least that jealously silent frame she was so attached to. He gazed through his visor almost, distantly. He felt good when the Mholah-Re III caught word of the Strider from Astra, so much so that they practically dragged him out of bed as the alarms woke him. He clutched the Vectis Prime below him tightly, trying to stay out of the day dream, listening to a Dargyn explode; a pilot scream their rather awkward downfall, before plummeting to their end. A Tenno strode by him out of the AO, before he ran after and yelled down the silent killer to go back. He clutched the Vectis harder, hoping that something may turn up. He knew the Strider somewhat personally, albeit from the stories he heard from the Runner, and the tower fiasco. But this was the big break, when that line of text freaked the captains and the ship in general. He needed that Tenno to find Runner... even if it cost him an arm and a leg. After constantly turning towards the Corpus body numerous times, he appeared to stand up, stomp his foot. Could this be the big break? Or was it his pad going on the fritz again? His thought was cut off again as another crack of fire erupted in the sky, his head snapping to the Dargyn exploding with a screaming pilot. Going against better judgement, he slid down the ridge he was on, transferring the momentum into a short lived run. He quietly waved off a rather uncomfortably close Ivara that came his way. He walked casually across the wet waste of rust towards the agent beside the body, nodding towards another a ways away. “Is there anything, besides making myself an invisible wall to the Tenno, I can help with?” He asked rather cautiously, leaning into Roskov’s space in a hished voice. His Latron Wraith idled beneath the black cloak that covered his torso. His Hexis styled visor glinted curiously at the visor. (edited)

Ross 11-Sep-18 11:37 AM

Leveret The battered white frost had mixed emotions about the cryptic message he'd received. On one had, after he'd finally figured out who the sender was, he was ecstatic to hear from an old friend again. On the other hand, the last line of the message filled him with dread. "Help." It had been so long since the mission on Ceres, but he wasn't glad to be heading back. The call for aid had put him and his sarcastic Cephalon in a rather dire mood. Still, whether it be for the same thrilling mission plans as last time, or potentially saving his friend from something much, much worse, he couldn't leave a message like this unanswered. He wouldn't dare. Leveret inputted the coordinates and set a course. On my way, old friend.

TheFafaltudios - Vuko 11-Sep-18 12:16 PM

Vuko And here I thought he would be gone for good. But as they say, nice things never last. Vuko was leaning against a rock, no more than a hundred meters away from the site, watching the colourful Warframes run and jump around the place like a bunch of rabbits on steroids. He takes one last smoke from his home made cigarette, before flicking it away from himself, knowing that on this dump of a planet it won’t make much of a difference. Time to find out what really happened here. He thinks to himself as he pushes himself off the rock and slowly makes his way towards someone who looks to be in charge. As he approaches, Roskov would be able to see an individual wearing a grey cloak, that clearly is covering a set of armor underneath, that seems a bit too rough and jagged for it to be any sort of faction uniform. That type of clothing went out of fashion a long time ago. From his right sleeve stood out a gauntlet, ending in quite sharp tips, while the left hand was covered only with a glove that only had some metal padding. The other part that wasn’t covered by the cloak was his head. On it - a nasty void scar that goes all the way from his right eye, up and into his hairline, which was also quite a view. The hair was a deep, dark blue with glimmers of cyan, like the oceans of Uranus during a stormy night. Half of it was gathered into a short ponytail, and the other half loose underneath it. - “I would suggest going back home.” - Vuko answers instead of Roskov as he made his way towards the duo. - “Once these morons are done running around.” - He points with his thumb behind himself, and towards the other Tenno. - “There won’t be a stone unturned here. And we still will have no clue what this all is really about.” - “So. What did you manage to find out this far?” - He asks Roskov, as he nods with his head towards the body of the woman. (edited)

Daakjenaar 11-Sep-18 10:48 PM

KAMOS & ATELA "So, let me get this straight. This... Strider. He was a friend of yours?" The grey and green Ivara asked, while loading a Vulkar, and looking down at Ceres below. "How can you be sure it's him, and not some sort of trap? We shouldn't be walking into this blindly." "I don't know if 'friend' is correct. I'd say closer to 'aquaintance' or something." The slightly lighter-grey Rhino answered, the once-silver coloring faded a bit. "And I'm not completely sure if it's him. He contacted me, though. And it's worth checking out. Plus, if it is a trap, we've got more than enough firepower." Kamos picked up the sobek he had left on the floor, for whatever reason. "So why are we going through all of this trouble? For someone you don't even know that well?" Atela sounded sort of impatient. She began going through the process of getting the ship ready to land on the surface. "And don't forget what happened last time you forgot to verify a random message was legit?" "Okay, the incident on Sedna was only partially my fault. And if that pack of hyekkas didn't get stuck in that fan, the hostage would have been fine. I say it was nature's fault." He grumbled. Kamos went about gathering the rest of his weapons, scattered around the Orbiter. "Hey, we could always go to Mars again. You, doing cool archeological stuff, while I sit up in the ship, waiting for something to go wrong. That was a lot of fun." Kamos attempted at sarcasm, but wasn't anywhere near subtle enough for it. "Fine, but this is the last time I'm letting you keep an eye on comms." Atela set a course for the coordinates on the surface, and the grey liset began to de-orbit, heading down to the surface. (edited)

Blood_Strider - Lekalis 08-Apr-19 03:31 PM

The message sent to @Leveret pulsed in the back of his mind with an uncomfortable clarity, as if the words had been scalded to the back of his eyelids like when one stared at the sun for too long. As the Frost bound Tenno flew closer to the dwarf planet, its oil and rust hue would look dry, even so afar from the world... but for a singular blotch of thunderous clouds which haunted its atmos as ink might roam a pool of water. @Kamos would see this too, as their Liset began to break the celestial air of Ceres. The Storm was not far from where the message sent them. Ceres had always been wreathed in rain storms born from the smog belched out from factories, but it was rare that the world seemed so uniformly dry... Kamos and Atela's vessel would find the Investigation site with ease, where they might find the scattering of Tenno and the Asset-Recovery team sent by the Perrin Sequence; most of which were beginning to consolidate at the barriers set about the base of the crashed Corpus vessel. Roskov's attention was grabbed by a particularly Non-Tenno Hexis affiliate; the sniper-agent had been sent for various reasons, Roskov was certain that he wasn't privy to the real reasons behind it, but alas... he was a good guard, and certainly helped encourage the Tenno to focus on the Investigation. Though they still found ways to distract themselves... [1/4]

[2/4] "Mmm? Well... Maybe." Roskov shifted in his seat, looking up at Ifrit then back down to his glitching tablet, "Past tkij... ehh, these Tenno; they do nothing." despite his irritation, he seemed more to lament this fact as he flaffed his hand up at the various and brightly colored Warframes running about. Though a few seemed to have paused and looked off towards the direction of the lightning strike. "The entire Outpost up there is swamped with radiation. Is dangerous, especially with you eh... meatbag. Heh." Roskov smirked and patted Ifrit's leg with the pack of his hand before he pulled it back with a cough, his eyes widened as Vuko approached. Much as he would have liked to say the affects of seeing the Star-Children had lost its luster, there was ever an air of mystery and intrigue and... badass in their scars and swagger. Roskov fumbled with his data pad, desperately trying to get its screen to work and pull up data, something to offer, but he succeeded in only dropping the thing into the mud with a wet slap. "Oh-oh, not good, not good..." he muttered quickly and swiped up the pad, awkwardly wiping away the mud that had stuck to it as he looked up to @Vuko Drakkainen . (edited)

[3/4] "... Hm. Yes-- E-eh, No. I cannot go back home... This Investigation is important." Roskov beckoned Vuko to come closer, "And, eheh, not just because I will be booted if I fail... heh..." He laughed nervously, "... Anyways, yes yes, I found that th-the cause of this outpost was caused by a severe radiation storm -nothing new, really- but I think it was caused by a Warframe!" Roskov was ever more ecstatic about this nuanced detail than anything, "I can't check myself, but I've asked the Tenno here to check for Void signatures... And, of course, to recover data on our assets in this location. Most have come back with just data..." Roskov shifted in his seat again, clutching his tablet in both hands excitedly as he looked up to Vuko, even behind Roskov's visor it was clear his eyes were glimmering with kiddish excitement... and maybe tears. He was ecstatic that a Tenno bothered to talk to him at all. "... If you could go up into the outpost and--" Another lightning strike, closer, maybe little more than two or so kilometers out, snapped through the air with a virulent light. Radiation spiked and crackled throughout the Investigation site; Roskov's tablet shut off completely, along with the barriers and other electronics. The Perrin Sequence defensive team all patted their helms, trying to reengage their HUD's, before opting to open their visors when it was clear their equipment wasn't functioning. The Tenno and their Warframe's would only suffer a light flicker... Yet, in that moment of nothing, shadows did flicker: shuffling about, huddled beneath shacks and around black fires. Tarps cracked beneath an unseen rain and heavy wind. It was gone in the blink of an eye, but the phantom image remained, burned into their retinas.

[4/4] Roskov was quiet, and clutched his tablet tightly in his grip. The Defensive Team shouldered their rifles and muttered to eachother as the Tenno began to huddle together and the local comms became flooded with messages. Spam and theorycrafting.

Midnight-Runner - Ella 08-Apr-19 04:30 PM

| Ifrit | He sighed as the Corpus patted his leg, before the pad flopped into the mud with a thick slap, causing a singular chuckle to escape his vox, threaded lightly of annoyance. "Tenno are usually useless, if not only useful for slaughtering everything with hyper-efficiency to let you breathe another day." Then he heard it: Warframe.Cause. That was all he needed to truly stay in this forsaken environment. He was about press a finger to his helm as the charged bolt blinded his visor, causing him to jump a fraction. The radiation waving over affected his systems just the same as the Perrin's as he copied their pat-dance as his helm shut off, the lights on his helm showing such. His body almost seemed to disappear as the Cloaking system began to malfunction. "C'mon." His systems would revitalize a second later, tickering back to life, just in time to witness the shadows glitter about the vicinity, etching into his mind. "Annnn- ther-r--rrrrre www--ere the neigbors." He muttered outwards, his vox glitching out at the beginning of his sentence. He patted Roskov's shoulder reassuringly as he moved close by him in a light patrol, shouldering his Latron Wraith, his helm failing to carry out a scan order as it rebooted the lesser important modules of his armor. "Roskov, do you believe in ghosts...? Spirits...?" (edited)

Ross 08-Apr-19 07:09 PM

Leveret & Cephalon Oh, operator, look. It's storming right over your friend's coordinates. Lovely. "This is why I usually keep you muted," Leveret griped, adjusting the landing coordinates slightly and entering his Mantis, "You're not the one who's going to be standing under that cloud. How're those radiation levels looking?" Survivable. "That's what I like to hear. Now switch to text and send me in, yeah?" ... Leveret's battered Mantis broke the atmosphere of Ceres and plummeted towards the ground, pulling up just at the last second and landing with a slight thud and creak of landing gear that might not quite be compatible with the Mantis' design. As soon as Leveret exited his lander and glanced around, he noticed the multicolored gathering of Tenno. He approached, and, to his disappointment, immediately recognized the Perrin uniforms. His steps became harsher as he drew nearer, trying to gauge the situation. He was one of the last few to feel the effects of the radiation, but he was so used to system malfunctions that he hardly even noticed.

Daakjenaar 08-Apr-19 09:09 PM

KAMOS & ATELA Slowly decelerating as it got closer and closer to the rocky surface, the Liset carefully maneuvered into a smooth landing. Without the Rhino piloting, this was a bit less... death-defying. Regardless, the Tenno duo leaped down for the last couple hundred feet. The Ivara rather methodical and very vaguely graceful, and the Rhino... well, at least some of the crumbling rocks broke his fall as a resounding thud echoed out. Dusting himself off and getting what was almost certainly a glare from the Ivara, the two started to march up toward where everyone was gathered. "Did you really need to do that?" Atela asked in a hushed voice, sounding irritated. The two trudged forward, albeit with the Rhino being a bit louder with his footsteps. "Really, we're not here to attract attention. I say we just talk to these people, see what's going on, see if this is about your friend..." "Do you see any Grineer nearby?" Kamos grunted, continuing to stomp forward. The radiation was definitely messing with some systems, but... Not like he was using them, anyway. He had his shotgun, so he was fine. Right? "Besides, there are already others here. We're fine." "A bigger target to hit..." Atela, certainly always the cheerful one, mumbled. The two kept moving, heading off toward the rest of the Tenno and others gathered nearby.

TheFafaltudios - Vuko 10-Apr-19 05:49 PM

Vuko: Hearing Roskov was quite the relief for Vuko. ‘One less idiot to struggle with.’ As he put it in his mind. Despite the clumsiness of his informer, Vuko felt... compassion towards him. An unknowing smile escaped the clutches of his serious face, letting know that all is alright. “A warframe you say? Nice deductive work. I came to the same conclusion, albeit following a completely different track of clues.” He said with the smile fading from him as the ‘who’ responsible for this accident was mentioned. “I’ll have my cephalon send over the data once I’m done collecting. Stay safe.” Vuko exclaimed while placing a hand on the Perrin’s shoulder in a sign of care. “There are dangerous individuals afoot.” He left Roskov with those words, himself headed towards the outpost.

Vosenedich - Lupin 12-Apr-19 06:02 PM

Lupin A patch of unnatural silver swamp grass quivered and swayed in the aftermath following the waves of radiation, the underside of the large palm leaf-like blades shimmering a violent violet. Roots creaked and moaned, mirroring the metallic frame upon which they had grown. Sss-xshrt? Shhh-xrt? Sxi-i-i-ir? A-a-are you al-xxrshht-ite? I'm lo-o-osing the conexxxst... The cephalon's sweet voice was scratched and shattered in the static, and whatever remained was being broadcasted out into the open, adding to the dreary scenery around them. Among the cargo units and toolboxes near Roskov's workplace, wrapped in a tarp and sprouted with silver leaves and vines was the source of the cacophonic call: a seemingly abandoned and defunct Oberon. "Finally..." The lethargic gruff bass complained softly as he stretched his free hand, slowly removing the clutter that had built around him over the last cycle or two of still meditation. Catching the tail end of the conversation between Vuko and Roskov, he slowly clambered up to his feet, the clattering of tools pushed around following his every move. He stood still and silent for a moment, the tarp wrapped around his right shoulder protecting well over half his body from acid exposure. In his ellipses, the gilded bladed horns had all but been completely covered by the silver creeping ivy seeded on his left palm. His head tracked Vuko, walking past him and into the building behind; a moment going by before he himself turned to follow. (edited)

Blood_Strider - Lekalis 08-May-19 02:33 PM

As @Kamos and Atela drew closer, it became clear that muddy storm on the Horizon was drawing ever nearer... It writhed across the sky like silt in a stream, clouding an otherwise clear, though sickly green, sky. Another vibrant lightning strike flashed, its hue closer to that distant burning sol, which sent another spike of radiation across the rusting hillocks. This time, even @Leveret felt its hissing touch. This time, even Tenno flinched; a few wincing in their frames as they clutched at their arm, looking down in frustration and surprise. The sudden pain was a thousand needles upon the skin, a sensation which would cut through the somatic link... A pain that only the Void might induce. The Tenno assembled there would find all elements of the Heads Up Display flickering, or utterly absent. Ammo counters, Warframe durability and shields, energy readings... all were encountering some form of interference. Whatever reserves of energy their Warframe's had, still remained, but regeneration was being cut off. That Voidborne pain did subside with the flash of lightning, but something remained... Voices. Murmuring to one another, at first it would have been fair to assume these voices were from their fellow Tenno... but these words cut through any interference, as if whispering but a hair's bredth from their ears in the Void. [1/5]

[2/5] Those of more mortal designs, as Ifrit was, would feel this increased dosage of radiation tenfold; of the ten Perrin defenders that stumbled about, eight of them fell, clutching their bellies. Some even vomitted out into the muddy ground, where blood could be seen flecking the spew. The other two stumbled and coughed, before setting their rifles aside to pick up their comrades, looking to Roskov. He was already sitting, but he hunched forward and groaned as Vuko left, heading up towards the Outpost. Thankfully, Roskov was only momentarily hindered; his suit was reinforced and sealed to protect against these sorts of hazards, and he'd worked in dump sites before so he'd a bit of experience enduring such afflictions... But he still stood up with urgency, his hands folding up the tablet and ripping the connection he had to Anne's helm. Blue sparks flashed out from the broken connection...

[3/5] "Egh-heh... Eee-Spirits?" Roskov asked warily as he motioned for the Perrin protectors to follow, along with Ifrit, "N-no, well, yes. I believe in the Tenno... They are like spirits, yes?" He chuckled nervously, "B-but come, come, there's a hole in this ship's hull, it should save us from that storm in the East..." Roskov insisted with a slight quiver in his voice as he shuffled on towards an unseen break in the shadowing ship's hull; it was large enough to let even a Warframe through, as it seemed to be an old injury from a Grineer boarding pod. Roskov reached into one of his jumpsuit's pockets and produced a simple glowstick, which he cracked so its blue light would illuminate the path as he ushered in his team, looking up to Ifrit, then the storm. He said something, but the words didn't seem to reach Ifrit.

[4/5] @Vuko Drakkainen would be able to make his way up to the top of the ship, and to the Outpost there. The Outpost itself was rather clearly soaked in a cloud of Radiation; the very air around it twinkled with little lights and grains of hyperactive atoms. The structure itself was signaturely Corpus-squat, square structure of three floors; The Main Floor was privy to biting into the ship with support struts, where a porch was set all about the square perimeter, and where the singular door remained ajar, facing the shipwreck to the West. Beside the door was a ladder which led to the roof which housed countless broken and sealed antennae. There were windows too; like a bunker, they looked out to the East and West, though they were shut and reinforced. A Basement dug into the ship itself, and a stark upper floor, bereft of any details but for pockmarks from corrosion...

[5/5] Most of the Tenno either began to leave, though a handful of perhaps 6 odd Warframe's ambled after Roskov like zombies. More still remained outside, gripping their weapons and looking out to the lightning; some leapt up and began to rush towards it, finding the boundaries unset with Ifrit's absence. 20 Warframes still stood about in the area, however, looking to eachother as parties grouped up...

[And for some reference. Ping me if you need some clarification ;D Arrows represent previous player's actions, aside for Roskov which represents his present location and path.]

Ross 08-May-19 05:43 PM

Leveret The Frost stiffened slightly as the stronger wave of radiation washed over him, clenching his fists and waiting for the sensation to pass. He smacked his palm against his helmet a few times as various sections of his HUD flickered and glitched. The only function that remained constant was the incessant near-buzz clicking of the Grineer-issue radiation meter that had long since replaced whatever sensor his frame would have had built in. Somehow still, the whispers drowned out even that noise, and left Leveret with a supernatural feeling of unease. Glancing around at the scene, Leveret was relieved to lay eyes on a familiar ash-white Rhino. "Kamos!" he said, only just loud enough to be heard over the storm, "Hoped I'd see you here." He moved closer for a greeting, though the mood was too dire for his standard joyous hug. The Frost settled for a handshake/shoulder pat - and a nod to Atela - before turning his head to gaze towards the radiation-stricken operatives. Leveret folded his arms grimly and watched as they stumbled towards safety. A tiny piece of him wanted to help, but he squashed the instinct immediately. "What's with all these Perrin shits, anyway? This isn't any of their business, last I checked." (edited)

Daakjenaar 09-May-19 03:19 PM

KAMOS & ATELA Kamos had been about to say something to Leveret after the pat on the shoulder. Well, that was before the sudden pain. While Atela sort of grasped the affected arm with her other hand and shook her head, Kamos was... far worse off. Seeing as his arm was how it is, well... He initially grunted in pain, before it really hit him. He collapsed to his knees, hunched over within moments. He was clutching at his forearm, already visibly shaking and clenching his fist. Figures, the one thing that'll really hurt him. He didn't even care about his HUD. No, the searing pain was too distracting. Once the whole thing had passed for her, Atela immediately crouched down and put a hand on Kamos' back. As much as she knew he could take pain well, this was obviously different. She knew what was wrong, and she knew that he would probably have to wait it out. She glanced (or more accurately glared) up at Leveret, indeed taking notice to the operatives. "Look, none of this makes sense. I'd say some wannabe Corpus are the least of our concerns."

Ross 09-May-19 08:27 PM

Leveret Whatever Leveret had that resembled guts all twisted in sympathy as Kamos hunched over, clutching his arm. He knew the Rhino's pain tolerance almost as well as Atela, and he could hardly fathom what the poor bastard was going through. It hurt to know there wasn't anything he could do to help, so he sidestepped slightly closer, both as reassurance and to block anyone from staring. "You're right. Unless they get antri-rad meds in them soon, they're cooked anyway." He huffed. "Idiots."

Midnight-Runner - Ella 12-May-19 10:39 PM

| Ifrit | "Childish ones at that." he added to Roskov's reply. Ifrit followed closely behind Roskov, checking their six every now and then as the hyper-atomized lightning struck closer to their locale. Still, it felt strange in a way being on a Radiation drunk planet due to untimely industrialization. The feeling of radiation wasn't foreign to him, and his suit helped in making the deathly feeling negligable. He happened to observe the Tenno... doing what they did not do so best, watching as his former perimeter broke with several of the children rushing off. "How did they even survive Transferrence..." He muttered carefully to himself, before turning on his helm light following Roskov into the ancient wound. (edited)

TheFafaltudios - Vuko 15-May-19 05:21 PM

Vuko: The Tenno almost made it into the outpost, but before he found his way, a very sudden illness fell upon him. He collapsed mid step onto the barren floor, holding himself by the stomach, into a fetal position. Blood being coughed up from his lungs, an odd rash showing on his face. As tough as he was, there is no sway when it comes to the effect radiation has on human flesh. As Vuko was convulsing, he seemed to be reaching out to something... trying to grab onto it. A few meters out of his reach, in odd flashes of view, there was a silhouette. No, no. Not a silhouette, a warframe! After a few seconds of intense radiation, his corpus styled Ivara, who has been following him, has finally lost the cloak. Having lost it’s energy, the warframe also lost the ability to move without its operator. In what looks to be a last ditch effort, Vuko gathered his strength, almost crawling through the floor, blood dripping from his mouth, and moved a bit, just enough to catch the frame by its ankle as he turned to violet mist. The smoke swirled into the Ivara, which fell on one knee after absorbing it all.

Vosenedich - Lupin 20-May-19 12:19 PM

Lupin Only a single step forward had been steady and assured, before the tidal wave of radiation forced him to one knee. The silver foliage around him flared in defiance, lilac and white flames turning them to dust as they succumbed to the overwhelming external force en masse. As the initial wave waned and the smoke and ash settled, he remained knelt on the floor, one gauntlet-hand digging into the caustic mud. "What in the- Void- was that?!" He complained out loud with a sliver of hope his Cephalon might hear too somehow, but his breath cut his already rusty voice twice over, and no answer came over comms. With a groan he pushed himself back up, and for the briefest of moments he managed to regain his composure. His eyes set on the building and the Ivara come to rescue its operator; then they swerved away, lured by the disembodied sounds. "No, no, no, no-" He groaned, reaching with both hands for his head; soon, the source of the groaning and cracking was not his voice, but the metal of the horned helmet- a desperate attempt to drown the whispers in his mind. With every scratch and crack, a ripple of energy washed over the knightly armor, dispelling the self-inflicted wounds. "You cannot be here." The warning lacked some of the usual strength of his character, an inkling of venomous urgency spreading through his mind and body. "I will not allow it." His declaration echoed still within the somatic link as the Oberon suddenly released its head and knelt down; from its back wispy strands of purple energy sprouted by the myriad, and from amongst them lashed out a pair of armor-clad arms latching onto the frame's shoulders for leverage as the operator materialized. Lupin stood besides his Oberon, one hand on its back for support as he caught his breath. (edited)

Blood_Strider - Lekalis 10-Jun-19 07:07 PM

Roskov could only offer a nervous chuckle as he focused on patting his comrades in, along with the few Warframes that trundled in; of the 10 that moved in, there were 3 Excaliburs, 2 Rhinos, a Mesa, and 3 Nidus who were all dazzlingly displayed, though one of the Nidus' boasted a darker hue. They muttered amidst themselves, "My Cephalon isn't responding..." "... neither is mine..." "... I can't call my ship in? My system's are on the fritz." "I'm gonna be right back." The last was spoken by one of the Nidus before he suddenly stood stock stiff near the entrance, earning a grumble from Roskov as he looked out to the Tenno in the field, then to Ifrit; "H-hey, think you can grab those guys? They don't looks so good!" Roskov called out as he shuffled forward and waved at the Hexis Operative. "If my guess is right! That storm is the same that caused this Outpost to get irradiated! Eheh..." He hummed and realized the comradic chuckle was perhaps poorly and morbidly timed, as he shook his head and ambled into the dark bowels of the crash Corpus vessel. [1/3]

Inside, he produced another Glowstick and snapped it, before dropping it in the mud; it illuminated the broken bulkheads and sheared metal. Caked blood and detonations painted the interior bluealloy walls in a grisly pattern... he recognized nuclear shadows from atomized Grineer and Corpus alike. Warframe wet work. With a nervous hum, he looked to his comrades and the Tenno, motioning them to walk deeper past the broken walls and hallways that were like ribs to this great ship. "Emiel, Biski, cycle their filters... here-here, I'll light things up. You -eh- make sure they're OK, ok?" the two unaffected Syndicate members nodded and grumbled a response as they were no doubt fighting their own twisting guts. Roskov pitied them, but then again... they never volunteered to scrub the reactor rooms and clean dump sites. Something like Karmic justice, he supposed with a small smile as he broke two more glowsticks and tossed them into the mud where the operatives were sat down, some ten meters into the vessel. The sticks illuminated the vessel, and even behind these thick metal walls, Roskov didn't feel safe from the storm. If his greater hypothesis, that this storm was coming from a Tenno... A Warframe, then their bodies would become like the shadows that still lingered here. The dark inside was almost suffocatingly close; he could only illuminate this barest path, and the Tenno's own light sources seemed to be flickering and failing to light up much more than the edges of this decrepit ship. [2/3] ==

[3/3] Outside, another lightning strike hit the ground. And again, the radiation washed over the crater and Tenno inside it. The Void that was carried with it was stronger still... the whispers turned to piercing wails. Familiar voices came with this wave, voices of families, friends... Their noise was sharp like a knife and carved itself into the mind. The wail lingered, the voices churned and cycled like a radio dial being spun on greased pins. Fighting to find a word.

[L I S T E N]

Then the screaming stopped, quick as it had come... it was silent then, but for the distant coming rain. The Storm moved like a black flood over the sky, and bloody red lights blinked in its churning gas... yet it was not storming thunder, for it made no noise as the sky began to blacken. And perhaps it was too much for one to assume the cloud was made of any sort of collection of dust, or gas, or smog... Its churning was much too smooth, and no shapes dissipated from its mass. One would need a scope or magnification of some kind to truly make out the design of its shape... but one could feel eyes looking down upon them.

Vosenedich - Lupin 11-Jun-19 03:06 AM

Lupin In the brief respite between the haunting thunderclaps, the usually stoic Tenno's visage was contorted in pain, straining to remained focused through it all; the nightmares now clawed the walls within his skull, slowly bleeding him dry from the inside. *whirl-hiss whirl-hiss* The rhythm of the air filter filled his ears now, drowning the whispers in a crescendo that matched the intensity of his breathing. As his focus renewed, a veil of shimmering energy formed and thickened around him, wrapping him tightly in its voidling carapace. *whirl-hisssss... whirl... hissssss...* He opened his eyes and found himself disoriented, scanning his new surrounding; where had he flung himself in the panic to escape the voices? His hand slipped from his frame as he slowly spun, the chaos around him invoking nightmares just as vivid as the ones that crawled now in the back of his head. *whirl hiss... whirl hiss...* Confusion and fear amongst the Tenno, even within the safety their armours, a hint of panic in their voices; one all too familiar. *whirl...* He picked up on it then. *hiss...* Not the chatter and bickering, but the real distress of another. *whirl-clack* Pupils narrowed at the foreshadowing silence and tingling static in the air. A hand reached to the knightly frame by instinct. "Slow.". His body lent forward and space quivered and shrunk between him and the downed Ivara. *hissssss...* A thick moisture escaped through the mask as he strained to extend his own protection to the injured before the wave of radiation washed over them both. [1/2] (edited)

Energy struck him with the pure unrelenting force of a tidal wave, smashing his body against the far harder back of the huntress, producing an unnatural cracking noise, of bone and energy alike. *hiss-clack*. His power did nothing to keep the nightmares at bay, however. He had only marginally saved the huntress from temporary lethality, while drawing himself just as close to the same fate. *whirl-hiss whirl-hiss whirl-hiss* He placed a panicked heavy grip on the Ivara's shoulder, his body bent over in pain both mental and physical. When the petrifying ghasts finally relented, and the order rang still in his ear, his head rose to look at the hollow knight. "I will... *whirl-hiss* ...be right back." *whirl-hiss* And with one last troubled breath he clambered back onto his feet, taking the first few slow uneven steps back towards his Oberon. [2/2] (edited)

Daakjenaar 14-Jun-19 09:38 PM

KAMOS & ATELA* Well, this time, Atela had been about to respond. The surge of radiation caused her to wince, but Kamos... He gasped and grunted, rolling over onto his side as he held his very affected arm against himself. His breath was shaky, and he really gave the impression that there wasn't much between him and completely losing what vague remnant of composure he had still. Atela's hand was on his shoulder, as she tried to look over the damage. Identify how bad it was. Just pain, but... "Take a deep breath..." She mumbled, hardly even glancing up at anything else as she tried calming Kamos. Normally, she'd just tell him to get back up, but she also knew that the radiation was bad news. Especially for him. "Gotta get into some shelter..." This time, she was a bit louder. It was a little bit more directed at Lev. Atela listened to the noises, the screams... but wasn't getting anything specific out of them. Not like Kamos could listen, but he didn't get anything specific either. Probably just broken comms, really. Right? (edited)

Ross 14-Jun-19 11:03 PM

Leveret The Frost looked over the area, clenching and unclenching his fist. He spied the opening in the hull and pointed, already moving to assist. "Looks like everyone is headed that way. Should provide some shelter." He crouched next to Kamos as well, preparing to help lift the Rhino. "Let's get him up and out of this storm. I'll take this side, on the count of three... uk...tok...ch-" Leveret's count was cut short by the sudden...wailing. An uncountable number of Grineer voices all cried out at once, each tone unique but every voice the same. Still crouching, he dropped one hand into the mud to steady himself as the voices grew louder. Suddenly, as though the inside of his head was submerged in water, even the near-vibrating click of his Geiger counter grew quiet. A single voice - neither his own nor that of his cephalon, but another - filled the empty space with a sort of deep, echoing hum. It spoke slowly and with confidence. Look before you leap, little rabbit... Then, just like that, the rain and the storm and the clicking of the Geiger counter all rushed back in. Leveret shook his head violently, as though trying to clear even the memory of the sounds. He rolled his shoulders and turned his attention back to the matter at hand. "Right. Uh. Yeah. Let's get Kamos up and out of here."

TheFafaltudios - Vuko 28-Jun-19 01:14 PM

Vuko: At first everything he could sense was darkness. The sudden release of his physical pain blinded all his senses. Then came a rhythmic thump thump thump, he could feel the blood swelling in his brain, pressuring and bringing a constant numbing pain alongside with it. “Vuuuukoooo” A ghastly quintet of delicate female voices rang out within his head. “Come join uuus” More voices seemed to join the choir, adding bass with male voices. “Give in... You don’t have anything left...” The chorus now reaching hundreds of souls, it was so thundering that the Tenno’s head was about to explode “GIVE UP! GIVE UP! GIVE UP!” The crowd started chanting, wanting him to let go of his life. ”GIVE UP! GIVE~ Suddenly the sounds smouldered to but a swell, pulsating once again within his head. They were not completely gone, but left enough room to think for now. The head of the warframe rose up to face his saviour. Not having enough strength to speak, he just nodded in thanks. Before he had the chance to analyse his situation, another lighting struck with a deafening KRAKA-THOOM! throwing Lupin into Vuko. Without waiting for his ally to get back into the warframe, he scurried off into the outpost, hoping that it will shield him from the bulk of the radiation. (edited)

Midnight-Runner - Ella 01-Jul-19 12:21 PM

| Ifrit | Ifrit let out a low toned grumble at the request, although he hated Tenno in every way, they were needed, for best, or for the worst. He tossed his Latron Wraith on his back, climbing back out of the hull breach towards the Tenno, ushering them in with pats and pointers. Realizing he needed a better way of communicating with children, he pointed once more into the twisted metal, and a Global Waypoint popped onto everyone's map and HUD with the letters: \\\OBJ/// "C'mon Tenno, get into the hull before you and your Warframes are fried- HEY, Nidus, let's go, into the hull breach!" He shook the stiff one's shoulder, earning a yet another displeased grumble and a curse for added effect, attempting to drag the tall Nidus into the breach if he had to. (edited)

Blood_Strider - Lekalis 10-Jul-19 04:12 PM

The Three Tenno, Kamos, Atela, and Leveret, who were shuffling through the dried mud felt a familiar sizzling rain patter across their shields. Soaking that rust and dust... the light above them blackened as the whorl of blood and black now loomed over them all. Midday sun turned to Dusk, as the light struggled to curl around this ephemeral black. It then reached Lupin, set upon the outpost, the corrosive rain stung and did slowly eat away at his Operator's suit... yet, not like acid ought.Bronze finish rusted and flaked away, black thread greyed and twisted and broke... as if hundreds of years passed in the blink of an eye. And... as the droplets fell upon his black plume of hair, it greyed. Where the droplets fell upon his Oberon, resting there and idle, flakes of stone and moss grew. [1/4]

[2/4] Vuko was spared this sight... though it was not a mercy. As he pushed into the Outpost, door slightly ajar, he would be greeted with an ungodly dark domain. Freckled with white noise, as atoms popped and collided in the radiation soaked environs... Yet the Tenno felt it not. There was a memory in the air, that lingered like a fog and curled its watery digits around Vuko's waist and wrists. Void energy was ripe here, and a Vazarin doctrine had been instilled into the pattern of the air; what pain the Radiation had imparted was washed away in this impercievable damp. Boon this was, it was still not a mercy; inside the Outpost lingered fractured shadows. As if their bodies had been blasted by a nuclear detonation; against the white noise, shadows moved along the walls, and across the furniture. Even against the Dark, the shadows showed. There were 8 in total, and their silhouettes were undeniably human... they moved with a grace better set in a gala than a radiation stricken box. There was something familiar about the scene, as one might feel looking into a murky pond for their own reflection. There was a vertical lever inset to the wall, beside the doorframe which Vuko had entered; it was pulled down, where a light slowly blinked red.

[3/4] Ifrit was privy to watching the approaching black red sky... privy to its ceaseless churning like a stormy sea. Privy to the growing red opening in its untenable depths as red lightning, like fingers, pulled away the black as if opening a fresh wound; black maggots fell with the rain from this gaping wound in the sky, as a sudden flash of lightning struck once where it had before, and again directly upon the edge of the crater... yet there was no flare of debris or detonation of energy. No radiation bloomed from this emission. Only a sudden thrum of Void energy which grew from where the lightning struck. The flash of the red lightning was nigh blinding, and the Three Tenno in the crater... Kamos, Atela, and Leveret, now saw familiar shadows before them. Given lingering shape with this overwhelming red; the small Steel Meridian colony of Red Rooves was brought back from its corroded destruction... It was a memory that was familiar, yet new. An undeniable end to a thread unfinished. The crater was no longer empty, but filled with the black shadows of a shanty town, with tarps fluttering in an unseen breeze... its denizens, all Grineer, ran and screamed in silent terror. There was no noise, as a Lancer ran past the Three Tenno. No noise as he clutched his head, and was suddenly tackled by another of his kin, wielding a sheev; no noise as the fallen's head was pulled off as if by a can opener. The Lancer wielding the sheev looked up to Leveret, Kamos, and Atela and howled in silence; its jaw hanging open in terror and pain as it ran towards them; weapon raised and aiming to strike at Leveret. Ifrit may have been momentarily blinded, but he would not be able to see anything the Tenno could... Nothing, but footprints that left behind visual snow. There were hundreds, racing and tracing out roads and alleys in the crater's mud. But there was one set of footprints racing towards him.

[4/4] Inside the Vessel where Roskov and his comrades lingered, the Tenno inside suddenly burst into violence; shooting aimlessly, before the Nidus that had idled was suddenly taken down, its limbs eviscerated as if by an unseen gheist. The Mesa fell soon after, from inside the Vessel; bullet holes suddenly appearing across her chest before one punctually ended the uniform existence of her skull. Roskov backed away from his comrades who howled in pain as they were cut and shot to pieces... he fell onto his haunches, perturbed, and confused. He clutched his helmet in muted despair. For all this sudden terror from the singular flash of red lightning, one stood over it all; watching, waiting. With horns to stretch the horizon, and sat upon a corpse of a steed made in ashen chitin and bronze ribs... a Loki. His mount had four true legs, that bled voidly energies from surgical wounds and openings, but there were many more legs below it which twisted and writhed in that red energy. In its left hand it wielded a trident of ash and bronze, with a hook upon its pommel and veins which twisted in a wind that was seen but not felt. In his right, he dropped the heads of an Excalibur, a Volt, and a Mag. The Loki itself was different, to put it simply; Prime by silhouette, what once were prongs and stunted growths on the arms now extended out into horns. What once were horns were longer still, and had bronze clamps to attempt to stop their growth... Its helm boasted a relay, a bronze horn, that was grafted to its right facing. It twisted upwards, tangential to its typical oxen design, and at its base was a singular red light. An eye that scanned over the crater. Indifferent, yet searching; a singular, warm light that grazed over the mayhem of shadows... It did not search for long, as it stared singularly at the Three Tenno... Kamos, Atela, and Leveret. (edited)

Daakjenaar 11-Jul-19 12:08 AM

KAMOS & ATELA The moment the rain started... Atela dragged Kamos to his feet without realizing Lev was distracted, with some effort. As the rain went on, she supported the Rhino as the two stumbled for cover and left the Frost behind. They made it a few steps, before he collapsed again. How had he become this weak? Was the pain really that debilitating? He was back on his knees, Atela standing over him once more and trying to... well, somehow maybe keep him out of the rain. Their shields could take it, but she didn't wanna risk anything with the state the lightning had left him in. "We never should have come here..." Atela mumbled, mostly to herself. She glanced back at Lev, and gestured to Kamos, very obviously asking for help with moving him once more. Why was he distracted? What was going on, now? This was all... no, not just strange. "This was a mistake. We should've left this whole thing behind us. Ignored it." When that lightning struck, when they saw the old settlement... Now, Atela had never seen much of it in the first place, but she knew what she was looking at. Same with Kamos, though he was in no state to do much more than lay there. She had assumed they were just shadows, nothing more than illusions. When one started to charge Lev, though, she wasn't about to take a risk. In an instant, she flung her glaive out, aiming to slice the thing in two. If it was real, then threat ideally neutralized. If not, well... nothing lost.

Ross 11-Jul-19 12:26 PM

Leveret Indeed, the frost was very distracted. At first, the distraction was from his Geiger counter - he expected another intensifying pattern of clicks as the sky darkened and the storm rolled in, but instead there was silence. He raised his arm to shield his face from the bright flash of red light, and when he lowered it, he stared in shock. Red Rooves? What had happened here? Before he could follow that train of thought, he watched in horror as Leveret's shield expanded from his arm and he brought it up to block the incoming attack. Despite his attacker's spectral form, he recognized that this was a member of Steel Meridian. His instincts screamed two things: protect, and reason with. "Hey! Whoa! Hey!" he cried, switching to grineer, "<Talk to me bud, what's going on?!>" Leveret was far too distracted with the ghostly attacker to notice the Loki's single red eye gazing on him and his friends.

Midnight-Runner - Ella 13-Jul-19 08:16 AM

| Ifrit | Ifrit’s face within the helm warped into an amalgamation of twisted surprise and a rare case of worry, his visor did its best to dampen the blinding strike, before witnessing the ethereal stampede, one of which he noticed rushing towards him. He grabbed towards his Latron Wraith, “Mhola-” His words were stopped as he heard a voice behind him beckon with panic and worry, one that sounded familiar. “Tanis!” Snapping his body towards the source, the breach, he realized the entire team within had been nearly defeated, save for one that was cowering amidst the death. ------------- A little girl sat amidst ashen petals flowing upon a windless breeze, deteriorating as they caressed the ground around her. She clamped her hands against her ears, weeping silently, as if some ghastly scene had just played nary a second ago.. ------------- The vision shattered away at the touch of his rifle’s handle, looking at a Corpus man in a similar prose from the little girl’s. “Roskov!!!” Ifrit shouted, taking his hand off the handle and breaking into a full run, rushing by, past, and over the bodies of his acquaintances, ignoring the sound of death and gunfire. He attempted to engage his cloak, but was answered by a swift message:

[ERROR: SYSTEM RECOVERING -81%-.]

He cursed, maintaining his dash. (edited)

Vosenedich - Lupin 13-Jul-19 02:37 PM

Lupin In the corner if his eye he caught Vuko standing back nary a moment after the last blow; his steps slowed just enough to shout back at the stubborn Tenno. "Wait for- *cough* -curses!" Between Vuko's speed and his battered self, there would be no chance of catching up to him. If only he could get back to his frame, and steer it inside, he could make up for lost time with its abilities. The hellish rain would have it otherwise however. The Tenno had barely made any progress through the mud on his way back, when the storm began to devour his very time upon this reality. "*whirl-hiss* What in the Void is this madness?!" He summoned a deep coarse rumbling roar, inspiring his body to continue trudging through the mud; his hair turned an ashen grey to match his quickly dissolving armor and clothes. His skin hissed and cracked where transference scars had been hidden by synthetic tissue and makeup, spreading the cosmic-violet vines across his arms and left face. He watched as his Oberon slowly turned to stone, moss overtaking the once polished metal surfaces; despair ravaged his deteriorating features, his eyes flicked between outpost, frame, sky and crater. The crimson flash framed him as if within a grotesque painting of the Empire's time, only to leave him blind a moment later. With his vision impaired, he bargained on his skills, flinging himself towards his frame on memory and orientation alone. His marked missed, he struck the ground and rolled with the excess momentum, arriving at the knight's feet. By then the armor protecting him was little more than scraps and threads, fit only to protect his decency, if only barely so. "Wake up." The Tenno called out to his frame, reached up and wiped the moss off the visor. A long deep breath followed. Please let there be silence. He pleaded silently before he plunged the hand through, slowly letting himself be engulfed by transference. (edited)

TheFafaltudios - Vuko 15-Jul-19 06:00 PM

Vuko: He barged straight into the darkness of the halls, trying to get away from the hallucinogenic visions of the outside, quickly hiding from the thunder behind a wall. Once within, it took him quite a few seconds to take a deep breath, and activate the flashlight with a light tap to the side of his head. Visibly taken aback by the physicality of the radiation, as well as the overwhelming amount of void energy, he tried pushing all the mental pressure to the side and started slowly moving alongside the wall, seemingly trying to avoid it while getting to the next room. Before he could however, an unsuspected movement on the walls, that were the shadows, ticked him off. Without a second of consideration Vuko holstered his Zylok and started firing wildly at the creatures whilst running further inside the compound. (edited)

Blood_Strider - Lekalis 17-Jul-19 04:48 AM

Spinning blades scythed through the shadows like water; the black staining the weapon, which swiftly returned, covered in the inkish substance... Where it touched the Warframe's hand, a vicious sting was felt. Like gasoline, it burned. The Shadow of the Lancer did not cease its charge, though its raised Sheev fell away from where Atela's glaive had cut its arm off, it still barrelled into Leveret's arms... yet his shields would absorb the impact, and the Shadow's ink would stain the white and orange of Leveret's Frost. It could be felt through the Void, as if water had drenched his torso. Leveret would feel the nettled sting of the black oil, as Atela did. The Three caught in the red gaze could hear a growing white noise, a wet static that began to fill their ears like a rising tide, threatening to drown them. There was one noise that stood out above the static; the wet pounding of feet through mud. Grineer voices could be heard, like shouted whispers, coming closer. The clangor of battle began to echo through the familiar alleys and roads... the Song of Mayhem began its first verse. [1/4]

[2/4] The distant crashed ship played like distant and rising precussion, as one of the two remaining Nidus found himself incapable of sustaining his chain; a brief lapse in regeneration, in power, and it lost an arm. Maggots and flash infestation wriggled and writhed as it died. The last fared better as it held a steady stack; energy expent, then restored as it sent forth its own Ravenous maggots which leapt and latched onto the unseen shadows which were given form as their red blood spilled out into reality, painting sanguine silhouettes against the glowstick's light. "Gotcha.", it rasped as a Parasitic Link was cast between it and the phantom; a surge of confidence could be felt as Ifrit reached Roskov and the Nidus fended off assailants, seen only as they were blasted into crimson paste alongside the atomized shadows staining the steel of the ship's interior. Roskov looked to Ifrit, his face wet with tears and a small spill of vomit could be seen at the corner of his mouth. Closer now, one could see pimples on his jaw and brow, where youth still ravaged his skin; he blinked away tears and clasped Ifrit's arm, knowing well how to be guided,and stood up. Though he clutched onto Ifrit's arm desperately, "W-what's happening?" He whispered, before footsteps raced past the two and collided with them; sending Roskov back into the mud. (edited)

[3/4] The footsteps left a trail towards the battling Nidus and the unseen onslaught. The Two Rhinos seemed to have been taken by surprise; one lay in a pile beside the butched Perrin agents, and the other had a chunk carved out of its heaving shoulders... but it still moved; its iron skin had black marks carved into its hide, and its bassy roar echoed in the hideaway as it swung a Magistar through the air with channeled might. Particles in the shape of Corpus Crewmen and Grineer Lancers alike floated away in the wake of its swings. The Rhino seemed to notice Ifrit and Roskov, and leapt over before slamming the weapon into the earth only to pull it up without a word to swing at yet another unseen ghost in the ship. Two of the Excaliburs were dead as well; though the last moved to stand beside the Nidus taking potshots at the air. The traces that spat out hit something, then fell to the ground black and crackling. "I-I want... to go home... I'm... I'm finished." Roskov blubbered as he jolted from the impact of the Rhino and made to crawl away from Ifrit, into the black of the uncountable corridors of the derelict. (edited)

[4/4] In the Dark above the vessel, near Outpost Ait-8, Lupin's embrace of Transference would be unimpeded; as his systems came back online (hindered as they were before) a base amount of shields wold crackle to life and cease the stoney growth and decay. It seemed safe enough. Though within the Outpost Vuko would find Dark and Darker more; his Zylok's snappy shots plunged into the ephemeral forms and vanished, before their impact could be seen on the wall behind. The Shadows did react, however, and twisted and writhed in pain as they fell... Though now, yet more turned to look at the Tenno. The whispers grew louder as they huddled together like gossips, looking to fallen comrades with as much amusement as one might look upon a playwright in the street. Vuko's plunge into the Outpost brought him to the lower floor, which was furnished with naught but cargo containers of all shapes and sizes; large enough to be carried by one or two men, at most, with ammo and muntions cases opend and strewn about. His wild firing displayed a sharp and familiar red leading deeper into the room; a blood trail. The Shadows and whispering faded here... but there was a less staticked murmuring deeper within, a whimpering. Hidden behind several crates, a light flickered to life every odd second or two, where the murmuring could be heard. (edited)

Ross 17-Jul-19 01:57 PM

Leveret Luckily, his shield blocked a good third of the defector-turned-raining-goop, but he still grunted in pain and surprise as the other two thirds stung his torso and arms. What the muck...? He looked around in shock, only to catch the bloody red gaze of the strange loki. He was nearly hypnotized, staring as the white noise pressed in on him. His words come out in stuttering grineer first before he corrects himself, still staring at the loki. "Get...get inside...something's wrong..." He wanted to move towards shelter as well, but he struggled to tear himself away from the sounds of the invisible battle and the burrowing gaze of the loki.

Vosenedich - Lupin 17-Jul-19 03:13 PM

Lupin "Hue, requesting immediate extraction." He demanded over their private channel, but where the narrator-worthy voice should've responded he found only static-distorted echoes; the quaking noise grew slowly and rhythmically. "Huginn!" He insisted, his voice strained too far and caused a coughing fit. In his ears, like some ironic torture, the noise throbbed and reverberated like the beating of thousands of wings around him. "Void damn it!" His voice still restrained, wary bringing attention to himself might somehow bring upon himself further misfortune. The Oberon creaked and cracked as he fell forward, the newly-acquired stone shell interfering with his movements. Getting back on his feet required him to draw his weapon and with effort use it as a walking stick, sinking the six points through the thin layer of mud and grime until they reached the Outpost's solid ground beneath. Still holding onto the pommel of his hammer for support, he looked towards the crater, the blurry figures of three warframes fighting specters of shadow caught his eye. Are those ghosts? Memories? They looked unlike the slaves of a Nekros' whims. He turned towards the outpost once again tracing the quickly vanishing trail of Vuko with his eyes, it lead indoors and away from the chaos of the rain, ghosts and whispers of madness. "Void damn it!" He let out freely, as he spun his slow body into a quarter turn and slung the hammer around to hold in both hands. Rolling his shoulders he focused on the energy left within his frame with the faint hope that perhaps some healing could still be coerced out of it; and finally, with a sharp inhalation he began a labored sprinting in the direction of the crater.

Daakjenaar 17-Jul-19 08:15 PM

KAMOS & ATELA A hiss of pain, as the glaive returned to her. So, it wasn't a shadow. It was made of something. She dropped it on the ground rather suddenly, really not about to deal with it. She gave one more try at lifting Kamos back up. Finally, he was able to stand up, at least a bit. The two struggled to keep moving, toward that shelter the two needed so much. Well, the three. Neither turned around, though. Unlike Lev, neither became too focused on the battle, and neither found themselves focused on it. But that white noise was starting to irritate Atela, who shook her head as she helped the Rhino get out of here. "We need to get out of here. I'm not putting up with this!" Atela was raising her voice, trying to speak over the white noise that surrounded all of them. She lowered Kamos back to the ground the moment they were in cover, crouching down and trying to send a communication back up into orbit, to their ship. "We need evac, right now. Situation's deteriorating, it's chaos down here, Kamos is hurt. Get. Us. Out. Of. Here." Here's hoping their cephalon responded.

Almighty_Jado - Kapak 17-Jul-19 10:55 PM

Kapak: Kapak sat back in his Orbiter, feet kicked up on a flesh-covered Orokin coffee table. In the background, bells and buzzers rang out as a holographic display broadcasted an intense Index match. Kapak yawned loudly, his hands preoccupied with holding a glass jar of worm-riddled Ostron fruit. "Helminth, I think this is the last jar of maprico, eh? Need to get some more to ferment. Could you be a dear and write down 'visit Cetus' in the agenda?" ⇝Helminth:

-YES, MASTER. I SHALL SCHEDULE IT FOR FOUR DAYS FROM TODAY.

Kapak: Kapak smacked his lips before tossing back the rest of the container's contents. "Delicious," Kapak sighed happily before burping. He leaned back, cradling the rough back of his head in his hands, enjoying the Index game. That is, until the words flashed across his screen. Kapak sat upright, rubbing his face. "Di- did you see that? Helminth, what was that?" ⇝Helminth:

-NOTHING, MASTER. PERHAPS SOME INTERFERENCE. GRINEER TEXT CHATTER. IT CANNOT BE DECODED BY US. WE SHALL CHANGE FRE-

Kapak: Kapak wasn't fooled as the words flicked through the Index match once again. It was an unmistakable text. Kapak's gaze darted towards the rust-dusted Loki that knelt against the opposing wall. Could it be? "Helminth, whatever you're about to say shut the Void up and trace that signal." ⇝Helminth:

-MASTER, WE REALLY DON-

Kapak: "THE VOID DID I JUST TELL YOU, YOU FATHERMUCKING EYEBALL? Trace that voiddamn signal and take me there asap! NOW!" The Infested Cephalon's voice fell silent as the ship's engines began to power up, dragging Kapak's beat up Orbiter towards Ceres. Within a mere half an hour, Kapak was shuttled down to the surface and was now standing on the very rock Vuko had leaned against not an hour ago. Of course, the mutant Nidus' nostrils failed to pick up his friends' scent at all thanks to the treacherous acidic downpour. The Nidus' flesh writhed literally in response to the acid falling from the clouds. Poor conditions for Kapak- if he encountered combat outdoors here, his ability to heal would be impeded significantly. Kapak was oblivious to the Corpus operation here, meaning that when he set his sights on the Corpus wreckage ahead of him, it drew surprise. "The Void are the Corpus doing here...? Perrin Sequence it seems. Might be in luck. Helminth, keep the orbiter close by in case I need a getaway- or anything else."

Midnight-Runner - Ella 23-Jul-19 01:46 AM

| Ifrit |

L-L-L-LISTEN LISTEN DEMON OF DUST LI---S-

--- The girl raised her head to the pattern of footsteps, her eyes of gold glittering amidst the flowing tears. --- Ifrit promptly ignored the vision, and the message, grabbing duly onto Roskov's arm. When the Corpus asked Ifrit, the mercenary couldn't think of a reason as he delayed a respone. For once in his life, he knew not of what events were transpiring, he felt... exposed... "I... I don't know!" He shakenly propped a drooping prong to its full length, he knew it was moot, but he had to at least try. "Mholah-Re III, this is Ifrit, do you copy!?" The static was too powerful to let him reach the outside. Ifrit was tugged to the ground before he could berate a dead reply, interrupting his vain attempt as those dreaded ghostly steps shoved them to the ground. He watched, crawling onto his knees, Roskov retreating further into the darkness, his light struggling to find flickering purchase on the Corpus man from its debilitated status. He snapped out of a collective daze, crawling towards the young companion. "Roskov we gotta stay together!"

TheFafaltudios - Vuko 23-Jul-19 06:08 PM

Vuko: Upon reaching the next level, and not seeing any more twisted wall-horrors, he relaxed a tiny bit assuming that he escapes them. That however didn’t lower how perplexed he was about this entire situation. Sure, he had seen his fair share of messed up stuff, both during the sentient war, and his short time aboard the /RU. But he didn’t expect it here. While continuing his pondering, Vuko was looking around the room for any clues that might lead him to his target. He was after all looking for his old nemesis? frenemy? Ah, it’s too confusing to think about now. So how could all this paranormal activity be related to him? At that point did he finally find the source of the murmuring, alongside the creepy light. With his pistol raised towards the unknown, he moved the final crate allowing him to see the source.

Blood_Strider - Lekalis 05-Nov-19 09:50 AM

Far above the humple slice of Ceres, where Orbiters and Landers and Cephalon lingered like forgotten angels, the sky had long become unnatural and incalcuable. Signals going in and out of the sudden storm had been all but cut; the Cephalons only readings were striking maximum values on Radiation and Void energies. The source was clear enough, the red sworling cloud that veiled Outpost Ait-8, but where the cloud had come from was a mystery. The cloud itself only covered a select portion of the sky... theoretically, one could fly their ship around and under the cloud. Or through it, if one were so bold... ... To those Cephalons familiar with radiation or Void readings, they could discern a veritable pattern amidst the overflow. An intentional design, not unlike a firewall. It would take time, but studying the Red Storm's patterns may provide some measure of answer. Those on the ground would hear nothing but static over their comms; white noise pervading any potential communique`. \

\ @Lupin was left only the silent hiss of rain in response to his demands; vital knowledge and information drowned away with the intensity of the noise that did grow as he moved towards the crater where mayhem ensued. Luckily, it did seem his Oberon could conduct the energies of Lupin to heal itself with admirable reward. The flakes of stone fell away from his joints, and his movement would return to him. Movement which attracted the eye of the Phantoms, all but impercievable but for the red light rimming their silhouettes. A light cast out from the Strider at the presipice of the crater's lip, whose steed pawed at the soil anxiously before its Master gently nudged it on and down into the basin; a slow and steady trot, which made the bloody nightmare evermore tangible as the light bloomed brighter and closer to it still. The Phantoms were busy reenacting silent tragedies of violence as Lupin approached the Crater's bloody copy of what once was... or perhaps, what will always be. @Kamos and Atela could see Lupin's Oberon silhouette. It was dark, but its depth and glow of energy marked as seperate from the Strider's machinations; though the same could not be said of their comrade Leveret... the black blood which spilled and pooled at his feet now spread like blood from an open wound, the fringes sizzling radioactive hot as the Tenno's words became silenced, struggling in futility as the Frost fell to its knees, fingers digging into its metalflesh skull. What violence occurred in the shadow of the dead settlement was soon coming to a close; heads were sheared, bodies bisected and death remade. What followed were mad celebrations and melancholies, mourning and frantic glee as trophies were lofted and corpses wept upon. Yet the mayhem seemed to only have just begun. [1/3]

[2/3] To @Kapak, the scene before him was perhaps uncomfortably familiar. If not through clear memory, then by impulse of war; the rock which Vuko had lingered upon was now the grave of some misbegotten Nova. Blood slowly dripped out from the meat golem, and unnaturally made a heading towards the bloody crater. From his vantage the painting of murderous intent could be wholly enjoyed; the Strider, undeniable in the grace and flow of motion, strode upon his red steed which left a blood trail in its wake, where red lightning struck and illuminated the Phantoms and Shadow of the Red Rooves settlement. The dilapidated wreckage of the Corpus vessel being the only blue respite from the red chaos which bled out from where the Strider travelled. In the penumbra of the red and the blue, were four untamed elements; Four Warframes, though one seemed to be losing itself to the madness as two struggled on to reunite with the fourth. [ @Ella the Runner ] Unbeknownst to those outside the Corpus vessel, was the slaughter inside; Ifrit's attempts to contact were met with static. Though, thankfully, Roskov was far from being as nimble as Ifrit; who was able to easily catch up with the Perrin agent who looked upon the fringes of madness himself. His lips moved faster than they could form words and his eyes stared distantly as he struggled to find time to breathe amidst it all. The Rhino behind them valiantly held the Phantoms at bay, but his armor was wearing thin; wounds began to mark the metal meat of his Warframe, and his swings began to lose their aim. The Excalibur fell, gored by some deep black thing, its wound festered and spread. Leaving the Nidus alone as it was forced to give ground. The bioluminescence of the Nidus seemed to grow evermore distant from the group in its violent retreat...

[3/3] ... Far above it all was the Outpost; where @Vuko Drakkainen now encroached upon that flickering light and murmured voice. The crates were easy enough to move, and in this humble respite from the haunts in the upper floor, there was a whimpering boy. His eyes stared at a disembodied bloody hand holding the lamp, the source of the flickering light. The boy was muttering words too low and too fast for Vuko to rightly comprehend; names, places... blood, tide, rhythm, sorrow. Words only barely caught. Though, with Vuko now in full display, the Boy's eyes locked onto the Tenno and he became uncomfortably silent. Blood drenched the Boy's fatigues and lower mouth, and he held an Arca Scisco in one hand. The question of Fight or Flight was clearly painted in the boys mercurial eyes...

Daakjenaar 10-Nov-19 06:09 PM

KAMOS & ATELA “”WHAT THE-” As Leveret succumbed to… whatever any of this was, Atela continued with her attempts to drag the still definitely hurt Kamos out of harm’s way. She fumbled for her sidearm once more, getting in between the fallen Frost and the Rhino. Nothing here made sense anymore, nothing. Absolutely nothing. She didn’t even try to comprehend or make sense of any of this, focused instead on not ending up like Leveret. Or letting Kamos end up like Leveret. No, this wasn’t gonna happen today. “Anyone else out there? Anyone!?” Not a call for help to their Orbiter, this time. No, this message (assuming comms worked) was going out to pretty much everyone in the immediate area. This situation only got more desperate, and Atela, for once, knew backup might be the only option. Seeing the Oberon off in the distance caught her off-guard, though, and her first instinct was to raise her weapon once more. Pointed directly at Lupin’s frame. Not that a weapon like the Azima would be ideal at that range, but the time for strategy and planning had long since passed. “What’s… what’s going on…” Kamos mumbled, clutching his arm even now. Everything was so loud, Atela was yelling something, and- oh, that was Leveret. His arm still burned, almost as bad as it had felt the first time it had been wounded. In the confusion, in the absolute chaos, he had almost forgotten where they were. Or why they were here, at all. Lekalis had to be here… somewhere. But what could Kamos do, right now? Everything was a struggle, and the pain in his arm never quite went away. He could barely think straight, he couldn’t fight… Why was this happening?

Vosenedich - Lupin 02-Dec-19 11:02 AM

Lupin His stride came to a momentary lull as one of the three silhouettes was engulfed by the ground beneath them, his gait slowed to a strained walk once more. His eyes darted between the increasingly treacherous battlefield before him and the safe ground behind, the only tactically sound choice was retreat. "Void. Damn. It." The words escaped into the acrid air and as his shoulders lightened, with yet another layer of stone shed, his charge renewed. Dodging and weaving past the vanguard of phantasmal warriors, his dash towards the stranded frames continued. His eyes however, kept veering towards the basin's depths, where the blooming light of the horse-bound giant loomed. With every passing moment the being seemed to warp the world around it further, and with the changes it was obvious more of these specters arose and the muddy wastelands were transformed into a bloody coliseum. "What are you waiting for?" He yelled at the two Tenno within the crater. "Get out of there!" His feet dug deep into the ground at the edge of the maelstrom, one arm motioning for them to come closer and evacuate back towards the encampment, but he was still unsure they could hear him over the chaos. The window of opportunity to get back to safety was clearly closing down on them, even with the surrounding madness, he could be certain of that at least.

TheFafaltudios - Vuko 09-Dec-19 06:17 AM

Vuko: He stopped. That was his first reaction. To stop with the barrel of his gun aimed straight at the little boy. What continued, was a good moment of an eye staring contest, before Vuko finally decided to say something. “Put... the gun... down...” He poured slowly through his synthetisier, making him sound very cephalon-like. Only then he started noticing how wrong the picture of the boy is, other than the gun. Blood dripping down his face, eyes glistening like no should, eerie words coming out his mouth. It made Vuko... uneasy. And most importantly, uncomfortable with taking him off the sight of his gun.

Blood_Strider - Lekalis 18-Dec-19 10:34 PM

[do you hear them?]

Words travelled and plucked upon the ephemeral attunement to the Void that all Tenno were privy to. A thought instilled by blood pumped from extremities to heart to mind; a gheist's desperate forlorn murmur that befell, first, those within the crater. The message undeniably familiar to that which had called this particular cast to the bloody painting of mayhem. Atela's call for aide fell on scattered comms; the waves that might have taken her message farther than her own voice could throw were all in disarray. Whatever the hyperactive atoms could not tremble to gibberish, the Void churned into twisted noise. With @Lupin naught but some ten meters away, they could only just barely make out one another's words above the hissing static.

[do you see them?]

The Strider had stopped his mount, naught but 20 meters away, just down the street from Kamos, Atela, and Lupin. Forlorn his tone may have been, but it lacked true sorrow; only desolation. It was a meek thrum, desperate to listen, to be heard. Yet the bloodstained Loki looked aught but vitriolic in his vermillion shroud, stepping off his mount, the hissing subsided; the steed fretfully pawed at the ground and, closer now, the writhing red underbelly of the creature was revealed to be childlike apparitions that pushed and clawed at the mud. The Phantoms had watched Lupin approach, watched @Kamos and Atela, but now bristled and their labored breathing could be heard over the diminishing static. Kamos' stung hand now began to feel a crushing pressure, suddenly and acutely aware of the sensation of his arm being within the Rhino's own... The rain that fell upon them began to spread and bleed their shadows into reality; the veritable chaotic storm soothed, yet it was clear the ravenous nightmares made manifest were hostile still... the Rhino's stung hand began to lose its metallic sheen, the paint sloughing off as the meat began to sag and rot with mold and moss. Even in brief seconds passed, a hole two fingers wide could be seen through the arm, and within it Kamos' Operator arm lay, made black as the phantoms once were. Yet for all the dreadful visage, the rotting Warframe arm was a relief from the pressure, and the rain a gentle and welcome soothe. The Strider's hand reached out to Kamos, Atela, and Lupin; not in invitation or beckoning, but as a futile grasp of the drowned and forgotten...

[do you feel--]

[1/2]

[2/2] ...The last familiar hum across the Void was cut short as a shield wielding butcher tackled the Loki to the ground; four others immediately surged forth and were swept away with a pained gutteral wail through the Void. The Trident the Strider had wielded had sent the Butcher's aside with crushed abdomens, but they rose and thus mayhem began anew; Lancers, Gunners, Bombardiers, and all those between now rushed towards the Strider, and the three other Tenno set in the field. Instead of hissing silence, the mad blood curdled screams of the Grineer filled the air. To the immediate threat of Kamos and Atela, were six Lancers and six Butchers; wielding cleavers and sheevs respectively. To Lupin's nearest threat were another eight Lancers. Though they were hardly the end to their worries; the air was filled with hundreds of mad screams as Grineer toppled and trampled eachother to get closer to the Tenno. Though the apparent hypereality of the storm seemed to be manifesting to tangible airs, the surreal red glare of the sky above still stained the immaterial made manifest in abstract lighting. Where the black shadows still lingered, such as upon the corpses of the fallen, the buildings, and Leveret, stone and moss began to grow. Nature's reclamation accelerated by the unknown design of the rain that fell. The Strider, still some twenty meters away, was engaged in a struggling melee; he ducked and weaved in familiar grace, yet stone had begun to grow on the Warframe, just as it had on Lupin's unshielded Oberon some moments ago. Each strike and dive came slower than the last, as more stone clung to his form...

==+1== ... The Boy stared at @Vuko Drakkainen , and he breathed; some small careful relief stolen as his body trembled and the gun lowered. He sniffled and took a shuddering breath, "Y-you're... Tenno..." his words were simple, but enunciated with reassuring intellect. "... L-like on... On the screens." Fascination grew, perhaps desperately, where woe and fear and violence once did. "A starchild..." he muttered and reached out to touch Vuko, the Arca Scisco falling to the floor with a jarring clang, though the boy was heedless to it as he stood up to a crouch. It was then, as the measure of the lighting became familiar to Vuko, that the Boy's shadow was missing.

CephalonEloHim - Elo 09-Jan-20 12:39 AM

[The Seeker]

A red shadow runs past @Kapak, heading into the storm of Void and Radiation...sword in hand. He observed enough. The Strider was here, like the Father told him. And now... He was heading head first into the massacre to meet Him. Grineer. He remembers the scars they left on his form. Yet he lived. Somehow, through all that pain. It was worth it in the end...that was what mattered. It was not his first massacre, after that one there were many more. Hundreds, thousands of cloned fleshbags. Death would be freedom for them. Freedom from angry miniscule lives of cannon fodder. He will free them. Until he is freed. Tenno. Those that slept for far too long. Stagnation. Inaction...by choice? By deception? He ignores their forms. In the Red Sea of Death they are but piles of driftwood getting tossed around and drowned. They will all float, eventually. They always do... those who do not know how to swim. Those who are...too tired to swim. He needs to do right by his name. He needs to Seek Him out in the Red Madness...and help, however he can. The armor...it will protect him from Radiation and Void...not for long but it will. He runs to the Loki, cutting through the ghosts of the Red with his blade. He cut hundreds of thousands of them throughout all his lifetime... another hundred would be...like a drop blood. Another thousand...wouldn't even be noticed. (edited)

Vosenedich - Lupin 06-Feb-20 01:39 PM

Lupin A breath's span passed, his eyes seeing naught but the silhouette of the Loki engulfed by the mass of Grineer. The slicing Trident's stride broke the butcher and spell alike. "Muck..." The word escaped his mouth as his gaze abandoned his allies and browsed the squadron of Lancers advancing on his position. They were at a great disadvantage, enemies abounded, the terrain was unfavorable, the weather noxious and draining. He felt the mental fatigue building up, his breath uneven far beyond the strain of combat. His energy would eventually run out, and then it would be a slow and painful end as the time-corrosive rain consumed them. "Either leave..." He began, his rough voice viciously booming against the fading static; his core reached for the stability and strength of the ground beneath. "...or stop gawking and fight." With the threat upon him and no choice but to accept the madness, he sprung forth and into the crater, leaving the Lancers to chase after him; his body readied for a reckless cleaving swing of the heavy maul mid-air. If he could close the gap, he could extend his renewing energy to replenish their shields, brief as they might last for. They would most likely be done for if either his energy ran out or the Grineer broke through their little remaining protection.

TheFafaltudios - Vuko 02-Mar-20 08:24 AM

Vuko: “Yes, I am.” His mechanical voice perpetrated the room as he responded slowly to the child, but still not lowering his gun. The notice of a lack of a shadow made Vuko nervous, and put a lot of suspicion on the little one. “What happened here?” The tenno asked, visibly reluctant to aid the child, as he made sure to step back once the boy stood up, not letting himself be touched. (edited)

Daakjenaar 12-Apr-20 03:15 PM

KAMOS & ATELA No one out there was going to hear them, no matter what Atela did. They had to keep moving, though. It wasn't safe here. It wasn't safe anywhere, as far as she knew. Maybe, though, they'd be better off somewhere else. All that was keeping her going was absolute desperation. She kept her head down, as she tried to drag Kamos to his feet once more. He could make it, right? Of course he could, it wouldn't be that far. Just need to keep moving- Was he... dissolving? Kamos grunted, trying to clear his head and focus on his hand. The frame was melting away, at least there on his hand. He gasped, trying to somehow shield it from the rain and clutching at it with his good hand. While Atela tried to get him to stand up again, he found himself preoccupied by the site of his actual hand. Besides the obvious, something was wrong. His hand was already scorched and blackened, but this was different. This wasn't the burn, it was something else entirely. He tried mumbling something to Atela, but she was once again distracted. Specifically, distracted by the Grineer closing in. Atela pushed Kamos back, standing between him and their assailants. Alright, twelve of them- All with blades. Right. She reached for her glaive once more, before remembering she had discarded it already. Muck. Her sidearm wouldn't be of much help, either. Not if these Grineer were armored. Okay, okay. For lack of a better plan, she crouched down and blindly grabbed whatever weapon she could from Kamos. That might have been the closest thing to good luck Atela's had so far today. Managing to find his pistol, she hastily raised the Lex and opened fire without any hesitation whatsoever. The pistol itself was accurate, she had solid aim, and she was really just hoping she could fend all of them off. There were twelve of them, though, and six bullets in the gun. That wasn't going to stop all of them. What else could she do, though?

Disruptis - Disruptis 04-Dec-20 08:30 PM

[INCOMPLETE]

Blood_Strider - Lekalis 06-Jan-21 02:40 AM

In times archaic, it was once thought that Life flowed through the blood. That rich sanguine substance that shone vermillion in deepest darks and brightest lights; whose coppery stain and metallic taste could never be misplaced. Those times are gone to dust and ash, the measure of life in the System has been schism’d by violence and undeath. The measure has gone beyond the blood, beyond flesh and bone… … Yet blood, flesh, skin, bone all remain in this vexxed pool of slaughter we call our Sol. Here, on Ceres, these designs all coalesced into one break on the thin astringent holding back the Void. Unbound, undone, unfitting; this singular droplet had stirred a maelstrom of energy on the planet and gone unnoticed for its nature. For the mayhem of the perfect pattern seemed undisturbed by such egregious violence; such was the way of Sol. That is, until a small copse of Tenno thought to investigate, to fix an irregularity in a system they thought to be saving. Thus, was the true design of this charybdis of Void made manifest; like a kite on a wayward wind it made its shape known upon the sky, where the anomalous tear in reality bled so literally like a wound in some great primordial being. Rains of pure chaos and wind both screaming and still fell upon the Tenno to show them what they had lost… what they would lose; in time, to time. Leveret, Kamos and Atela, Kapak and Vuko; a handful of names lost to a time before would be among the few to have found themselves survivors of this path of mayhem. Where reality raged at the violence, the slaughter; at the measure of life by the death wrung out of it.

Those fateful few would recollect scattered memories of their time within the maelstrom, beneath a bloody lune that hung low in a storming sky. They would recollect the visage of The Strider, the Instrument of Mayhem there; caught in its crimson currents, yet conducting them still with trident in hand, as some Mycanaen deity once had. There by choice or by capture, it was impossible to tell as there was no sorrow in his composure. Though these memories would find themselves amongst so many others, what memories they may recount belied a desolation of mind. Time moved sluggish yet erratic… … Blood will clot, in time; so too did this storm. The Strider the Few had seen, still lost to the Void. [CLOSING PROSE]