《Ten Zero》


 A Job Well Done

    "All clear, you''re good to go!" I say to the elderly gentleman in his car. To be entirely fair, I don''t really know that he''s good to go; I can barely tell what someone''s picture looks like on their ID when then hold it up, and you can only lean so far out of the guard booth before you fall head first onto the concrete below. But stopping every single person who passes through, and physically grabbing their ID so that I could mean-mug them not only leads to upset workers, but also isn''t a generally efficient way to operate a guard shack. Did they hold the ID up while coming up to the window, with the practiced motions of someone''s whose been through the routine 100''s of times before? Did they creep forward before I had a chance to even really look at it, because they already know I''m gonna let them through just like last time? Did they greet me by name? Then they''re probably good.


    I hit the red gate arm button and wave as the worker throws his ID badge onto the seat next to him, a dull look in his eye. "Thanks Antimony," he says, as he pulls away from the window. There''s always the chance that this guy is actually some super spy, here to steal vital scientific research from the facility I was supposedly guarding. It would explain how he knew my name, but the look in his eye said less ''corporate espionage'' and more ''I wish I was literally anywhere else right now'', and that sort of misery isn''t something you can fake. You can only earn that monotony through tens of thousands of hours of working the same job, day in, day out, with nothing ever changing. And, if by some miracle I actually am just being bamboozled by some incredible acting skills, well, he can go ahead and do whatever espionage he wants. I''d imagine he needs the money to pay his acting coach.


    Turning my attention to the singular road in front of me, I hum along to the funky tunes from J3N2000, waiting for someone to show up. Some people might''ve found the amount of downtime in a security position boring, or even frustrating, but I always found it pleasant. I don''t have a supervisor breathing down my neck, nor do I have to worry about being run ragged after work. I''d already worked a job in food service, as well as a job as a CSR (aka, a grocery store clerk), and I can''t say I enjoyed working with the general public. While I still have to interact with people daily as a security guard, the facility I''m guarding is a research lab, so generally I interact with the same set of people every day; mostly scientists, a handful of facility workers, and sometimes some delivery drivers. By and large that meant that not only am I able to build a rapport with most people that pass through the gate, but they are also usually pretty intelligent, which is more than I''d say for the general public.


    "Put-put-put your head out..." I mumble, as I watch the sun slowly dip beneath the treeline at the end of the street. There is also only 30 minutes left in my shift, which is probably a large contributor to my good mood as well. As another car begins pulling up, I adjust my chair, swiveling towards the window so that I''d be able to reach the gate button, as well as be within range to view the ID that I would be shown. However, as I watch the gate cameras, I see the car slow to a crawl, and finally, stop part way up the road. "Another one", I think to myself, as I roll my chair back to in front of the computer. Sometimes people would try to get... somewhere, and end up in front of our gate, confused. It''s a private road, and there''s no way to even pass through it to get to somewhere else, since the whole facility is fenced off. But even with all of that, we still get people who would pull up with the intent to ''just pass through'' to get where they were going. They usually figure it out without needing me to let know, but sometimes the PRIVATE ROAD and NO THRU ROAD and RESTRICTED PROPERTY signs are not enough to dissuade people and I have to gently redirect them to a main road.


    That doesn''t seem to be what was happening here though. The car hasn''t moved for nearly 30 seconds, and since there''s still sunlight out, the car didn''t pull up with their headlights on; I wasn''t even sure if the car was still running or not. I slowly begin to stand, my view shifting between the gate camera, and the wall length window, on the off chance that the camera is frozen or malfunctioning. I stand there for another ten seconds, but neither the car or it''s occupant make any indication that they are planning to move, and I know I need to go talk to them. There is, unfortunately, one downside to working security at this location, and that''s the protesters.


    Now, at a high enough level, I can understand why they are protesting. This is a research facility, and as we live in the 21st century and don''t perform said research on humans, we use our closest animal analog, monkeys. Protesters are upset that said research is happening on monkeys. But to pretend the issue ended there is willfully ignorant. They are literally working on developing a cure to cancer. Breast cancer, specifically. A few years ago, they were even a major contributor in developing the vaccines for COVID. Also, the monkeys are treated well, from what I could tell. Again, as a security guard I don''t have the best insight into the treatment and care of a rhesus monkey, but my few glimpses into their day to day seemed to check all the boxes one might worry about. They have outside pens (unless it was too hot/too cold, in which case they have indoor pens), they are fed regularly, bathed regularly (although it could stand to be a bit more often), and since I''ve started working I haven''t heard of a single monkey dying. I assume they do, occasionally, but when I was being given my initial tour, they explained that it''s actually quite hard to get your hands on monkeys, whether due to funding or transportation or whatnot, and so they''d prefer to keep them alive, if at all possible. And all of this is ignoring that these people are trying find a cure for cancer, which usually comes from a place of empathy.


    So, when 2 or 3 protesters would stand outside the gate, holding signs that said something along the lines of ''No Animal Testing'' or ''Let Them Free'', I often found myself doing my best to bite my tongue. "I understand your concerns,", I''d say. "We have monthly tours if you''re worried about the treatment of the animals," I''d say. "No, we aren''t a secret monkey butchery farm, and selling the meat off to Sysco," I''d say. But the kind of person who drives out to a well established vaccine research facility to protest by themselves is not the kind of person who is going to listen to ''The Man''. Or, the woman, in this case. But the job description''s pretty clear, so I make my over to the door, shove my shoulder against it (they keep promising to get the door frame fixed and they keep not doing it), and start to make my way down the street, doing my best to look as non confrontational as possible.


    "Hey there!" I say with a wave, squinting into the sunlight. "Need any help? Car break down? I can give you a jump, if you need," I ramble off as I make my way down the street towards the now clearly turned off car. I make sure that I''m positioned so that I can maneuver out of the way if they decide to suddenly try to run me down, and take my time as I approach the driver side window. With the glare in my eyes, and the unlit interior of the car, I''m unable to see it''s occupant until I''m a mere foot away from the reflective silver paneling of the door. My music switches over to Queztacotl by deadmau5, but I put it on pause. A good song, but I figure it''s better to have my full attention on this interaction than to potentially mishear something and cause the situation to escalate. The man in the car looks at me, but I still can''t get a clear view of his face. I have his attention though, so I do the universal ''roll your window down'' hand sign and take a step back. "Hey man," I ask, as the window passes it''s halfway point. "Having car troubles?" He gives me a look as though I''m stupid, and his eyes briefly flick down, then back up. Was he... trying to look down my shirt? Or... no, he probably just wanted to see what I was carrying. Which in this case, is a big fat nothing, as the security company I work for doesn''t arm me. They do have armed positions, I just don''t happen to be one of them, for whatever reason.


    When talking to friends and family (and occasionally strangers) about the fact that I''m an unarmed security guard, I get a lot of responses, usually along the lines of "Oh but how will you protect yourself?", which I usually follow up with "Same way I do on a day to day basis". Like most conflict, I solve it with words, because we are (or at least pretend to be) a civilized society in the 21st century, and I don''t generally find the need to sort my disputes with the smoking barrel of a gun. Sure, there''s a time and place for weapons, but hot take, I don''t think security guards is it, unless you''re guarding a bank vault or something similar. In my case, however, I find it easier to interact with people when they don''t think that I might shoot them, and today seems to be another one of those cases. "I''m here for the protest," he mumbles, failing to make eye contact. I see the signs on the passenger seat; ALL LIFE MATTERS it proudly claims. "I wonder if that sign is pulling double duty", I think to myself, as I look at the template of every man whose ever called me a slur. That being said, I''ve got the magic symbol sitting on my chest, a sign a of ''authority'', and I was confident that at the first sign of pressure this man would crumple like a wet paper towel. "Oh, that''s... odd," I say, looking around at the empty street. "Are you sure you''re at the right place? There''s no one here protesting; this is a research facility with a bunch of red blooded americans doing their absolute darndest to save lives," as I give him my best guileless face. I watch as his face moves through a number of different expressions, as though fighting to determine whether or not he was offended by what I said. "I may have laid it on a bit thick", I think, as his expression finally lands on derision.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    "That''s just what they want you to think. This is actually the work of satan; the researching is just a front. They are actually trying to extend the lives of the liberal elite by using the blood of aborted babies. You think they''re shipping in monkey''s but they''re actually shipping in fetuses!" By the time he finishes his statement, the man is red in the face, and nearly out of breath from his exclamation. I give him a moment, and do my best to look like I''m really thinking hard about what he said. If I were to just brush him off immediately, then he''d think that I was part of the problem, and he would straight up ignore anything else I''d say from that point on. "Really?" I start off, "if you''re sure about this then..." I look around, as though making sure I wouldn''t be overheard, then lean in close. "I hadn''t heard about any of this. Here''s what I can do. I have full access to the entire facility," I state, reaching for my key card to show him. I''m totally lying, of course, and only have access to maybe 75% of the facility. But the man doesn''t know that, and confidence and perceived authority will get you everywhere. "How''s about I... look into this, and then, when I find some evidence, I can get in touch with you, yea? I''ll take some photo''s, some video, and then we can take this to Fox-", but he cuts me off before I can finish. "Truth Social! You can''t trust the media these days." He says, as he reaches for his phone. "Right, right, that''s a great point. Here, give me your phone number, and I''ll text you the photos and videos once I''ve got conclusive evidence," I say, as I watch his expression. I can tell he''s coming around to the idea, and to be entirely fair, I never did lie to him. I just wasn''t going to end up finding any evidence of blood rituals or aborted fetuses, so I wasn''t ever going to be able to send him anything. It''s clear, however, that the man feels like he''s got someone on the ''inside'' now, and he can go home rather than protest. So he gives me his Truth Social username, as well as his full legal name (thanks so much Mark Harnsby), and starts to turn around. I make sure to give him some room (just in case he has a last minute change of mind on running me over) and as he drives off, I start to make my way back to the guard shack.


    Not every encounter with a protester is usually that... flavorful, but if I can sort the situation quickly and easily, then I don''t care what part I need to play. I''d rather just swallow my ego than to try to die on this hill, because to be frank, it''s just not that great of a hill. At the end of the day, it''s just a job, and while I do agree with what the scientists are doing, I just don''t care strongly enough to get into a shouting match with a stranger over inane bullshit. Plus, I''d get in trouble for it. Having the security company''s logo prominently displayed on your arm means that if I was to be filmed doing anything that could get the company in trouble, I would absolutely be hearing about it later, even if I didn''t give anyone my name. There was even a video I saw during training where that exact situation happened, and as one might expect, he is no longer working with us.


    I finally make it back to the guard shack, and press the touch sensitive bluetooth headphone to get my music started up again. The electronic tones of this newest release start pulsing through my headset, and I start packing up my stuff as I bob my head to the beat. The whole interaction with the man didn''t take more than ten minutes, but my shift replacement is usually early rather than late, so there''s a good chance I''m going to see him pulling up any moment. With my laptop in it''s bag, and the charging cable wrapped up next to it, I sit back down in the chair and wait for the dark blue Nissan leaf to arrive. I barely finish the song that I''m listening to before I see a car turn down near the end of the street. As I watch it approach, the light glares off the top of the car until finally it''s close enough for me to see the reflective blue paint I was keeping an eye out for. "Hey," says my replacement, flashing his badge, not that I needed to see it. I give him the ''hey'' nod back, having already pressed the gate arm button, so he barely needs to slow down as he passes by the shack and goes to park. A few minutes later, he''s made his way back from the parking lot and into the guard shack.


    "''Sup. Anything interesting happen?" he asks, setting his bag and security jacket on the back of the secondary chair in the office. I chuckle, and he looks at me with the knowing look of a routine being broken. "Yea? Is the gate ghost still acting up?" he hazards, trying to see from my face if his guess was right. "It is, actually, but that''s not what I was thinking. Literally 10 minutes ago I had a fantastic conversation with a gentleman about the secret operations of this facility. Did you know we process human fetuses here?" I say, doing my best to keep a straight face. "Oh! That''s news to me. What are we doing with ''em?" He says, going along with the bit. "I''ll be honest, I''ve already forgotten. It was either part of a satanist ritual, or to keep the liberal elite alive forever. But don''t worry, I''ve got his Truth Social. We can get in touch with him once we''ve cracked this conspiracy wide open!" As I finish the sentence, I crack a smile, and my shift replacement gives one back. He doesn''t run into protesters since he works the night shift, but like me he''s worked in customer service before this job, so it''s easy to empathize.


    "Seriously though, we''re all clear. No alarms, nothing to note. It''s my Friday, so I''ll see you in a few days," I let him know, as I gather my bag and make my way out the side door. "Yea no prob, see you then," he says as he gives me a lazy wave, already focused on getting through setup for his shift. I head to my car, excited to get home and have a few drinks since I''m not working the following day. On the drive home, I plug my phone into my adapter, which plugs into another adapter, which plugs into the aux cable, which is attached to the cassette player. My wife calls it ''adapter-ception'' but I call it ''functional'' and don''t think much about it. The car was my grandfather''s, and when he passed I got it for free, which is definitely a hard deal to pass up. I didn''t have the money to swap out the stereo with a newer one at the time, so I just bought a cheap adapter, but then realized that the adapter would also need an adapter since my phone didn''t have a headphone port anymore. I could probably afford to replace it now, it''s not worth the effort since it lets me play music through my car, and that''s all I need it do. If I was planning on spending money, I''d rather spend it on the tinny speakers instead. They don''t quite have the kick I''m looking for when listening to bass-heavy music, such as the current song, Infraliminal.


    As I''m pulling up to the driveway, I take a look around to see if my wife''s car is here, or if I''m going to miss her again. Since our schedule''s don''t quite line up, there''s quite a few days where I''ll finish work, and then I wouldn''t see her until I''d already been home for four hours, or when we''d fall asleep together, but then I''d have to leave early in the morning while she was still sleeping. It''s not ideal, but you make do when you''re focused on keeping a roof over your head, and having experienced homelessness before, I wasn''t eager to repeat the process. Unfortunately, it doesn''t look like she''s around; it''s possible she is at D&D, but I can never remember unless I physically check a calendar, so I just shrug and park the car. As I make my way inside the house, I give a wave to our roommate who is hanging out in the living room. "Hey, do we still have drinks in the fridge?" I ask, setting my stuff down on the dining room chair closest to me. "Yeah, I''m pretty sure we do. Check the shelf on the door," he says, without looking away from him game of the week. I look, and we do still have a few 11% beers left, so I grab one and make my way over to the stairs. "Still Elden Ring?" I ask, as I watch him roll dodge around ''Adan, Thief of Fire''. "More like game of the month, at this rate," he says after a moment, intense focus on his face. "That''s a good thing though, right? Who doesn''t want more game?" I ask, watching him desperately drink his... health potion? I think? "....yeah," he mutters after a moment. It''s clear he''s pretty engaged and I''m not going to get much more out of him, so I leave him be, and make my way up to my room.


    Once there, I take the opportunity to kick back in my chair and open up Youtube. My phone automatically connects to my computer and the music I was listening to starts blaring out of the speakers, so I reach over and turn it down, then switch back over to the browser tab and start scrolling through my subscriptions to look for something to watch. While I''m scrolling with one hand, I use my other to crack open the drink I had placed on my desk, and go to have a drink. It''s exactly the sort of drink I had been wanting after work; bitter, but not too much so, with a sweet aftertaste that lingers on the back of my tongue. The drink hits my stomach and every part of my body lights up from the warmth of the alcohol, and I can feel the tension melt out of my shoulders. "Damn, this is good. Did I buy this?", I wonder, as I look at the brand. It''s not one I recognize; in true IPA fashion the labeling is colorful, and named something wacky. In this case, it seems to be called Voidtrip, which is an awesome name for something that''s not a beer. I snort as I read the label. It''s good, but it''s not ''that'' good. Voidtrip sounds like the name of a drug combo, or an awesome electronic band. Using it as the name for an IPA feels... pretentious, for lack of a better word. As I look at the can, I hear the front door open and close downstairs. I turn to shout out and let my wife know I''m upstairs, but as I do, I feel a sluggishness take over, as though the air has suddenly gotten thick and hard to move through. As my head begins to turn, the muscles feel like they''ve got input lag; they don''t respond immediately, and then continue the action I was trying to perform long after I''ve stopped attempting them. I try to open my mouth to say something, anything, but my lungs don''t feel like they''re in my control anymore, and my breathing feels heavy and labored.


    "Oh. Fuck. I''m dying." I can feel the though crystallize in my mind quickly and responsively, as though everything in my body prioritized that one action.


    "FUCK", I think.


    "I''m going to die", I think. I feel a single tear inch down my face, my skin burning from the salt left behind.


    "I''m not ready to die", I think.


    And then I don''t think anything else.

 Plant Biology

    My head is pounding.


    Flashes of memory stutter and spark in my mind, as I try to pull together a recollection of the night before. "_Ouch, owie, my bones_", I think sardonically, as I let my brain mentally pull itself out of it''s fog. I can feel something small and hard underneath me, and I go to reach for it, assuming one of headphones fell out of my ear during the night.


    The thing I grab doesn''t feel like a headphone.


    "Is this a pen from work?", I wonder, as I try to open my crusted shut eyes. I do my best to feel it out using just my touch. It''s cold and hard and small, like a rock. "Is this a rock? Why''s there a rock in my bed?", I throw the rock at where I assume the waste basket is.


    I don''t hear it land in the basket.


    My arms feel sore; not like a good workout sore, but like I had a charlie horse in multiple places at once. They feel unresponsive, like I had slept on them funny, and they were still in that stage before pins and needles where you can technically move them around, and you can feel some level of pressure, but they''re unwieldy like they don''t belong to you. I go to wipe the sleep from my eyes, and as I open my eyes, I get flashbanged by the sun. "Damn it! Did I fall asleep with the window open?", I think, as I flail for the blanket.


    There is no blanket.


    "This sucks, I kicked the damn thing off the bed," I think, as I try to reach over the side of the bed. But as I reach over to the left, I don''t find the edge. I reach a little father, and my jacket gets caught on something sharp.


    Where is the edge of my bed?


    Acknowledgment. I''m not in my bed. Every nerve in my body lights on fire as adrenaline floods my system. My eyes go to shoot open, but they''re still blurry, and the sun is still beaming down. I rub my eyes and try to focus on the room around me, but nothing is focusing. All I can see is green, and brown, and blue and gray, and nothing is forming into shapes that I would expect to see in my room, or any room that I would logically be in. "This isn''t my room", I think to myself, as I do my best to force my way into a standing position. The same issue I had with my arms affects every limb, every muscle of my body, and I struggle to stay standing. Impulses of strength shoot down to my legs, and I wobble as I try to balance. I try to lower my center of gravity, but my legs are unionizing, and won''t listen to my demands until I let them rest. I stumble crouch around, trying to lean up against something, anything, and finally make my way over to a brown, which feels sturdy enough to sit up against. It feels tough, and wet? Slimy? Almost oily, maybe? It''s dry, but it feel like the dry of clothes that still have soap on them from the wash, or conditioner that didn''t wash all the way out. Not quite dry or wet, but something in between that the human brain doesn''t quite know how to categorize. The texture under the texture feels crumbly but fibrous, almost like the redwoods from back home in California.


    My eyes are focusing now, but my brain is not. I''m seeing objects that aren''t activating neurons correctly. Gray, rough, angular object on a brown multitude, with greens of different shapes, all cardstock thick, like...


    "Am I outside?" I wonder. It looks like outside, but I don''t understand how there could be outside here, where I am. I''m inside. Or, I was inside? Am I no longer inside? My head is still pounding, and trying to recollect isn''t working. I can remember leaving work, and getting home. Then... something happened at home. I fell asleep? I remember laying my head down on my desk. I remember closing my eyes. I remember sadness. I remember fear. I remember the words on my lips that I couldn''t spit out no matter how much I tried to force them.


    "I''m sorry," said the words.


    "I don''t want to leave, I love you, I want to stay here," the words cried out in silence.


    "Please don''t take me," whispered the words. "I''m not done."


    "Let me live."


    I throw up.


    <hr>


    I sit there for about thirty minutes, bawling my eyes out. The logical part of my brain wants to immediately deal with the situation; stop, observe, assess, react. To be fair, I am doing a lot of reacting right now, just not the kind that that part of my brain was hoping for. My brain is getting flooded with emotions, however, and I can''t form a coherent thought. The only thing that I''m thinking, the only thing I CAN think, is that I may have died.


    A shudder goes through me as the thought passes through my mind again. But how could I be dead? I feel pretty miserable right now, sure, but I don''t feel dead. I mostly feel sore, and pins and needle-y. I feel sad, and I feel confused, and none of those are what I would associate with ''dead''. I was raised some variation of Christian, although the specifics I couldn''t tell you. I was young, and it was all very ''modern'', and since we moved a lot we also changed churches a lot, and by the time I was old enough to seriously start examining the faith that had been forced upon me as a child, I stopped participating, which meant that I never bothered to get an answer from my mom about it. But nearly all Christianity has the whole heaven/hell thing going on, and this felt like neither heaven nor hell. I was much too miserable for it to be heaven, but not nearly enough for it to be otherwise. Also, there was a stunning lack of fire, although I did always think that if there was a hell, it would be a lot more customized than just ''everything is on fire'', so there was still room for that to be the case. But other than the smell of the vomit wafting over from the opposite side of the tree I sat on, and the soreness of my ass, I didn''t feel particularly bad. I just felt... like I was sitting against a tree. The same way I would if I was alive. I hiccup.


    "Okay, so... maybe not dead then," I croak. My throat feels like it''s sore, like I haven''t spoken in a while, and dry like I had fallen asleep with my mouth open in the Sahara. "Ahhhhhhpppbbbllltttt." I do my best to get feeling back into my mouth and throat and lungs, and try to generate a bit of spit so my tongue can stop doing it''s impression of sandpaper. Using the tree I''m sat up against, I slowly make my way to my feet, still doing my best to keep a lower center of gravity, until I''m confident I won''t fall over. Then, once I feel as steady as I can be on the roots of the tree, I take a deep breath, and really look around at the space I''m in.


    At first, it just looks like a forest. But, the more I look, the less... correct it looks. Broadly speaking, all the stuff you''d expect to be there is there. Stones, dirt, trees, bushes, the works. Very forest chic. But then then you realize the dirt is dark. Like really dark, almost like loam dark. The sort of dirt you''d see in a planter box, not out in the wild. And the trees sort of look like redwoods, but the color isn''t redwood color. And when you look at the plants, there''s not a single recognizable one. They all look like plants that are the cousins of plants you would know. Like a fern''s brother''s sister''s aunt. Obviously, since I''m only a security guard and am not also moonlighting as a secret phytologist, I can''t really be sure that the plants and the trees are wrong. But there''s just something... off putting about them. Not in the ''Hi, my name is Audrey II'' way, but more like they had all been created from memory or something. Familiar, but different.


    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    But I figure I can''t keep mean mugging the wish.com fern forever. For some inexplicable reason, I''ve found myself in the forest, and while the exact reasoning behind how or why is currently beyond me, I still need to find a way to be... not... in the forest. If I''m going with the assumption that I''m still alive...


    I can feel just the hint of the idea of my death trying to drag me down into an emotional spiral again. I take another deep breath, doing my best to center myself; to not let my emotions run ragged on me. Based on the assumption that I was, in fact, among the living, then I had to have gotten from my room to here. And to get from there to here means I physically moved. So all I would have to do is move the opposite way, and I would be right back home. Now, I''m not entirely sure where either place is in relation to each other, but journey of a thousand steps blah blah blah. I take my first step in a direction I have ceremoniously decided is ''my north'', and immediately stumble on the branch of the off-brand redwood. The green-brownwood, as it were, although that doesn''t really roll off the tongue like redwood does. I carefully kneel down on the brownwood, and touch the large root beneath me. It has the same semi oily touch to it that the rest of the tree does. "*Is this tree sap or something?"*, I wonder, as I try to determine where the material came from. It feels weird, like oil, or velvet, or mold, and I would assume that something was wrong with the tree if the sap didn''t cover every inch of it with seemingly no issue. I pause for a moment, then slowly bring my fingers up to my nose to smell the substance.


    "Well that can''t be right", I think, as the sharp pungent odor of old machine grease and pinesol assault my noise. I look at the brownwood again, but there''s no sign that anything is wrong with it. It''s huge, and it''s leaves are vibrant, if a bit more yellow than expected. I look around, and the leaves of every brownwood have the same yellow tinge to them. "Either every tree here is sick with the same thing or it''s just normal", I think, as I stand back up. "I just have to be careful on the roots". I inch my way down towards the forest floor, making sure to always face ''my north'', and make it down with any further incident. "Up was easier," I murmur, looking up at the tree. If the branches started lower, I would have climbed them to get a lay of the land, but as it is, I don''t have a 30 foot leap in me, so boots on the ground for me it is. As I scan the area, I keep my ear open for the sound of cars, or people, or water, or animals, but I don''t hear anything but the wind whistling through the branches and leaves of the greenery around me.


    I open my mouth to shout for help, but then reluctantly close it again. The current theory percolating on the back burner of my mind is that I was poisoned and kidnapped, and then... something happened and I ended up in the forest. Whether on accident or purpose, I hadn''t quite decided, but in both cases, I could imagine that whoever orchestrated the situation would be looking for me, and so giving out my position might not be the best play. As to why someone would kidnap me from my own bedroom, that part is still unclear, but I didn''t really have any other great theories as to how I ended up in a forest yet, so, I was working with what I had. I began making my way forward, making sure to leave a clear and visible trail behind me for reference.


    It''s easy to get lost in a forest, and find yourself walking in circles. Someone might think, "oh, just walk in a straight line! How hard could it be?", but what ends up happening is all the little course corrections around trees, and rocks, and obstacles leads them to turning left, and right, and then they over correct when they try to straighten out, and eventually their path is just a spaghetti noodle in a 2 mile radius and they make no progress anywhere. The best thing to do is have a visible marker on the horizon that you can follow. Not the sun, or anything that can be reached, but something huge and static, like a mountain or something. Unfortunately, there were no sight-lines like that in this forest. So I had to make do with making a very clear and obvious trail behind me; broken bushes, furrows in the dirt, rocks kicked out of the way, etc. When I would look behind me, I could get a rough idea of how straight I was moving, and if I needed to course correct, it was easy to tell which direction I was originally moving. Realistically I could still end up noodling around the forest, but if I did so, my radius would be 50 miles wide, not 2, and really, what is a straight line but one big circle around the planet? Anyways, it was the best I could do under the circumstances, so I made sure to stick to it as best I could.


    As I walked, I kept my ear out for any sounds. Preferably, sounds of civilization, and secondarily, the sounds of running water. If I couldn''t find a road anywhere nearby, then a going downstream would eventually have me connect with something or someone, and worst comes to worst, I''d hit the ocean. At that point, there''s only so many oceans on the planet, and realistically there could only be one ocean I would be near. If I were kidnapped, there''s no way they could''ve flown me across the country without me regaining consciousness at least once during the trip. So, with the catharsis from my moment near the tree, I felt... maybe not happy, or excited, but at least confident that I could sort this situation out. I''ve always felt confident in my self sufficiency skills, even if they did develop from a somewhat tumultuous childhood.


    Unfortunately, after walking for what felt like roughly an hour, I still hadn''t heard anything like running water or cars. I did occasionally hear birds though, and as I looked in the sky, I could see that the sun was lowering. I still had maybe 4 hours of sunlight? I pulled my phone out to check the- "MY PHONE?" I shouted, all thoughts of keeping quiet having immediately fled from my mind. I had just assumed I didn''t have it! If I was kidnapped, then why would they leave my phone on me?! I didn''t even think to look for it, but when I was thinking about what time it was, muscle memory slipped my hand into my coat, and lo and behold, there it was. My fingers went through their usual movements to unlock the phone, but the treesap from the brownwoods was causing my finger to not be recognized. I swiped up so I could enter the PIN backup, and was met with my home screen. "Oh thank god!" I exclaimed, before my eyes flicked up to the top bar; no signal. "Yea, that figures", before I punch in 911. I''ve heard that even when you don''t have signal, you might still be able to reach emergency services, because 911 uses any and all towers around you, but as I put the phone up to my ear, I just heard the automated voice telling me that no connection could be found. As I hung up the call, I looked at the battery on my phone, before turning it off. Even though I still had 83%, I knew that my phone''s battery would start dropping aggressively the moment I started trying to use it for anything at all. While keeping it on meant that there was a chance that I''d catch incoming calls, it was more likely that my phone would just die before the day was out.


    Speaking of the day coming to a close, I decided to refocus my attention on my immediate situation. With only a few hours of sunlight left, I knew I''d need to find or build a shelter. You didn''t want to wait until the last moment and then be stuck trying to sort it out in the dark. It would better, and easier, to build one in the daylight, if at all possible. I hadn''t really planned on sheltering in the forest, because I was previously pretty confident that I''d find something or someone, but it looked like I was going to be stuck here for at least the night. "Ugh, this sucks," I grumbled, as I started looking around for leaf-y tree limbs that may have fallen, or were within tearing-off range. I hadn''t seen any cliffs that might have a cave for me to shelter in, and rather than continue to wander, I figured I''d just stack as many branches and leaves up against the side of a brownwood to create a sort of lean-to. It wasn''t going to be the best, but with the lean-to over my head, along with my security jacket that I was currently wearing, I figured I''d be warm enough. Also, I still had my flint and steel on my carabiner, since I had never had a situation where I actually needed to use it. I also had all my car keys, which I didn''t think would be useful, but I did find odd. "Why did they leave me with all my stuff?", I think, as I pat down my pockets. Headphones, phone, wallet, keys, pen, and my work ID was everything I had on me. "How could this have happened?" I think, for probably the 100th time.


    "How screwed am I?"

 Star Scout

    I consider what I know, as I scour the forest for the materials for my lean-to. "My current running theory is that I was kidnapped, for some reason, then lost or abandoned in a forest, for some reason. Obviously the theory has holes, but I''m trying my best to find Occam''s Razor. Again, for ''some reason'', they left me in my work clothes, with all the stuff I had on me when I was poisoned in my house. What are the strikes against the theory, barring things that I''m missing or don''t make sense? Well, it seems pretty infeasible for someone to sneak a poison beer into our fridge. Also, it would be very infeasible for kidnappers to get me out of my house without being noticed." I pause in my collection process. "Unless they didn''t get me out without being noticed." I don''t like that.


    But there''s no point in worrying about my roommates or... my wife. Right now, anyways. I have bottom tier maslow''s to deal with right now. "So... the kidnappers get me, and then bring me somewhere. Running with that theory, I can''t be far from Portland, because I would''ve woken up. Unless they kept me drugged with a different drug. Like being put under during a surgery. Although that requires an anesthesiologist and a whole set up. Is that realistic? I don''t know much about anesthesiology, so we''ll just assume yes right now, because that solves the question I had about the forest. Because this very much does not look like any place on the west coast that I''ve been to, or even heard of. Could they have gotten me out of the country? That seems like a stretch, they''d have to smuggle me out while keeping me under. So I''m likely somewhere in the US, although I still can''t imagine what place looks and smells like this." I take a deep breath, and wrinkle my nose. I couldn''t quite tell before, by the air itself smells off, like a building that is rotting away, or like a rusty machine, or something. I can even taste it at the back of my throat, and as the exertion from the walk and the lean-to building process has continued, I''ve started noticing it more and more.


    "It doesn''t smell healthy. If I were in a building, I''d leave, but I''m outside right now. This should be the fresh air. I don''t really know what that means. If I could move away from it I would but I feel like I''ve been smelling it the whole walk. Maybe it''s a factory nearby off-gassing or something? That''s... still not great for the environment, but at least I''d be able to find people. So, I''m tentatively somewhere in the contiguous US, and for what is the biggest sticking point of this whole theory, I''m ''alone'' in this forest. If I was kidnapped, and the kidnappers went through all that effort to get me here, why? There''s no way I just... fell out of a plane or something. So I had to have been planted here." I stop again. I know that my imagination is running away from me but I can''t help verbalizing a thought tickling in the back of my mind. "Am I... in some sort of lab experiment?", I whisper out loud. I look around at the uncanny valley forest, then look to the sky. I don''t see glass, or screens, or anything that would insinuate I was trapped inside a bio-dome, but there was always a chance this was some sort of Maze Runner type situation. If that was true, then moving forward was the best course of action until I encountered a wall of some sort, and then I could maybe use one of the brownwoods to help scale it.


    I hated that that was currently my most viable theory.


    <hr>


    After about 2 hours of gathering branches and the like, I had finally assembled my lean-to. It wasn''t going to win me any awards, but I''d already got my Star Scout badge when I was younger, and plus, as long as it kept me safe (or at least safer) from the elements, I figure it could be considered a success. Even though there is still a couple hours of sunlight left, I make my way inside, and seal myself in. I figure it''s better to try to get some sleep now, based on a few factors. First, I was going to have a hard time getting asleep. I''m used to a cushy bed and a weighted blanket in an air conditioned room. I hadn''t been camping in over a decade, and although all the mental skills were still there, the physical ones were not. I also knew that I would have a hard time staying asleep. I can be a heavy sleeper when I feel safe, but from my experiences of homelessness, I also knew that I could wake at the slightest sound or touch, and be raring to go in seconds. And even though I hadn''t really seen any animals (probably due to how loud I was being), I''d occasionally heard birds off in the distance, so I knew there was definitely living things in the area. That also meant that once I fell asleep, there was a good chance that animals would move into the area at night, and so if I was going to be sleeping rough (in all senses of the word) I would want to make sure I could sleep for more time than usual, so as to be rested in the morning.


    I do my best to get comfortable in the lean-to. At first, I think to take my jacket off and ball it up to use it as a pillow, but if I did that then I was missing out on the warmth that it provided, and that was much more important than a bit of discomfort. I eventually find myself on my back, hands behind my head, and I watch as the sunlight slowly shifts through the small holes in the the lean-to. "I don''t know how long I''m going to be here", I think, listening to the sounds of the wind. "I can hope for a quick end to the situation, but there''s a good chance that I''m going to be here for some amount of time. I need to think about my pyramid". In my case, it was similar to Maslow''s, but if differed in a few respects. Obviously water, food, shelter in that order was the most important, but beyond that, I also needed to account for withdraw from medications. "*''m going to have headaches, and trouble focusing from the ritalin withdraws. The caffeine withdraws are definitely going to be worse. But in both respects, water and rest will help. If I can make a cache of food and water, then I can have some downtime to try and deal with it. But I may have to just power through it. There''s not really withdraw symptoms from HRT, but my emotional state is going to be all over the place", I chuckle, "although that''s pretty much where we are now. Obviously, long term that can be an issue, but if I start developing osteoporosis after being in the forest for 40 years or something, well...", I sigh. I don''t like having to consider the fact that I might be here forever, but it''s important to set immediate, short, medium and long term goals. I want to believe that I can find my way back to civilization, but the amount of infrastructure that would be needed to pull of a kidnapping like this is just... worrisome. But at least, one day one, I don''t need to give it more than a passing thought. I can almost see the sun beginning to set through the branches of my lean-to, so I turn my mind to attempting sleep. If all goes well, I''ll be able to get a full nights rest, and I can start looking for water right as I wake. I squirm and wiggle, doing my best to get comfortable up against the roots of the brownwood, and close my eyes.


    ---


    My eyes open for the fifth time tonight. It''s likely just something wandering around like the last few time I woke up, but in this case, as I bleary peek through, I can see that the sun is just barely starting to rise. I could do with a few more hours of sleep, but time waits for no one. I wait until I hear the scuffling of the animal move away, then slowly come out of the lean-to. Like all the other animals I heard around that night, I didn''t do anything to try and scare them off or alert them to my presence. While none of the footsteps sounded particularly heavy, I hadn''t really wanted to peek my head out to find a bear or something instead of a rat or fox. As it left, I listened to the direction it meandered, and like the other four times, I heard the animals move from ''my northwest'' to ''my southeast'', or vice versa. I figured that meant that there was a 50% chance that water was one of those directions, and since I was already heading ''my north'', I figured it made sense to course correct slightly and continue on my route. "No time like the present", I think, as I stretch next to the lean-to. I don''t have food or water, nor do I have any other tasks I need to attend to, so it makes sense to just start off right away. I look around camp, trying to spot a trail left by the animals, and find a few subtle furrows left on the ground. It looks kind of like something dragging through the dirt, possibly a tail of something low to the ground. More confident of my heading, I start off through the bushes.


    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    "I hope there''s water, and that this isn''t just like, the route that this family of beavers or whatever tends to wander in", I think, as I wriggle my dry tongue around in my mouth. I can taste that weird moldy house air in the back of my throat, and I can''t seem to generate any spit. I keep at it, while keeping an eye on the ground, just in case the animal veered off at any point. I''m no tracker, but the animal wasn''t trying to be sneaky, and I''m taking my time, so I feel pretty confident that I would notice if the path suddenly vanished on me. As I keep my head down, I start to hear the wind pick up, but for some reason, I don''t feel the breeze... wait. "Is that running water?" I think to myself, smile forming, unbidden on my face. I pick up the pace, moving by ear now, as I make my way closer to the clearly bubbling and rushing sound of a river or creek. And, as I round a tree, I see it. What appears to be clear, running water. There''s even an animal drinking out of it right now-oh wait. "That''s dinner." I realize. "This is a crazy stroke of luck, and if I don''t kill that rabbit... jackrabbit? If I don''t kill that jackrabbit, I might be subsisting off of berries or something for the time being." A small part of my mind reminds me that I hadn''t seen anything that I would consider genuinely edible since I''ve been here. No berries, or any recognizable edible leaves, or anything. I watch the jackrabbit as it''s face is in the water, and I try to formulate a plan. "Alright, I don''t have tools, so... maybe I can crush it''s head with a rock? If I get a heavy enough rock, and I''m quiet about it, I could sneak up on it maybe. Or maybe I should just wait for it to head back to-" my thoughts comes to a screeching halt, as the jackrabbit leans away from the water. It has three arms.


    Why does it have three arms? WHY DOES IT HAVE THREE ARMS? "What the fuck?!" I scream, forgetting for a moment to be quiet. It''s head snaps up to look at me. "Shit," I say, realizing I might lose my chance for dinner, and I start to look for a heavy rock, but I realize pretty quickly that the rabbit creature isn''t fleeing. It takes a step towards me, and... hisses? "What the fuck is wrong with you!?" I shout, because the damn thing had sharp, needle like teeth in it''s mouth and it hissed at me and now that''s getting closer, I can see that it doesn''t have fur like some sort of naked mole rat or something and suddenly, it''s in front of me, and I don''t have a rock. This wasn''t the plan.


    I decide to abort the plan, because I''m not even really confident that I should be eating this irradiated rabbit creature, and I try to make myself big to scare it off. "Hey!" I shout, arms up wide in the sky. "Fuck off!" I bellow. Instead, it just leans down close to the ground, the third arm growing out of the center of it''s chest pressed against the floor, looking almost like it''s laying down in front of me. It''s lips peel back, and it''s eyes look at me as it snarls and hisses again. I can see those teeth much closer now, and it''s very clear they are predator teeth. But like, predator teeth on crack. "RAH! GO AWAY." I shout, as I take my jacket off to wave it at the creature. But as I go to make a motion in it''s direction, it springs towards me; the legs and arm positioned against the floor giving it an almost sprinter''s like stance used to it''s fullest advantage. It closes the gap between us in an instant, barely giving me enough time to start to step away from it. As it leaps towards me, it''s mouth opens wide, and I just barely manage to get my jacket in front of it. The resistance of my jacket slows it enough that instead of tearing my throat out, it instead gets a chunk of my waist.


    Immediate, sharp, tearing pain like I''ve never felt before shoots up my side, and I can feel the pain signals trace around my entire body as though the pain is ricocheting within me. I go to scream, but all that comes out is a gasp, and a croak, as I try to both breath in and out at the same time. The act makes me cough, which causes the pain that was bouncing around in my body to pick up it''s pace. The jackrabbit-creature, having torn through my clothes and flesh fully, lands on the ground behind me, snarls, and leans down into its runner pose again. As I do my best to keep an eye on it''s position, I can feel the pain and fury and rage mix together inside me, and every muscle in my body screams at me to kill this thing that just took a bite out of me. "I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!" I roar, throwing my entire body onto the ground on top of the jackreature, with my jacket outstretched in front of me. I hadn''t consciously made the decision, but I knew that my goal was to get it wrapped up as best I could in my jacket, so that I could... pummel it with my fists? I guess?


    The jackreature clearly hadn''t expected me to effectively spin and fall on top of it, and it''s runner pose was only really mean to send it forward, which in this case, meant right into my arms and jacket. But any animal designed to do one thing, does that one thing exceptionally well, so even with my attempt to catch it off guard, it still reacted quickly. It bounded forward into my waiting arms, as I was still mid fall, causing me to try to wrap it up while at a 45 degree angle to the ground. Of course, my jacket is effectively a flat piece of cloth, and if you''ve ever tried to wrap something up in a blanket to catch it, you know how tricky it can be to keep all the sides closed in a way to keep your quarry contained. I hadn''t intended to wrap it up in the air like this; my goal was to have my jacket on top of the jackreature while I laid on top of my jacket, where I could hold all the sides down against the ground. But the position I found myself in was precarious, and even though I did manage to briefly have a hold of it, I knew it wouldn''t last for more than a second. I did my best to capitalize on the situation, as I instead shifted my grip on the jacket so I could slam it down onto the ground, using the jacket and my body as a sort of fulcrum to deal more damage to it.


    As my grip shifted and the jacket (and I) came down on the ground, the jackcreature managed to wriggle and squirm it''s way half out of the jacket, so unfortunately, I wasn''t able to bring the full force of the slam to bear. However, I''m 6 foot 1, and my arms were stretched out about another foot, and I was using literally every bit of muscle I had against an animal that couldn''t weigh more than 100 pounds at best, so it was with a bloodthirsty satisfaction when I heard a sharp crack and a screeching whine from the jackreature as it impacted the ground. Of course, this maneuver did leave me in a bit of a precarious position (on my face in the dirt), so I immediately resorted to trying to scramble back to my feet, so that I could prepare for the next attack from the jackreature. As I got to my hands and knees though, the pain that previously had taken a backseat in the priority of my mind shot right to the number one spot again. Tears came unbidden to my eyes, and I couldn''t free a hand to wipe them away, so everything became wobbly and wavy, as though I was trying to see through an improperly formed window pane. "Fuck fuck fuck you little shit I hate you god I hate you I want to tear your FFFFUCKING head OFFF AGHHHH," I screamed, the pain forcing the words out of the animalistic part of my brain and into the thick, moldy house like air between us. The jackcreature did not respond, and it wobbled as it made its way up onto its two legs. From my best guess through my funhouse mirror eyes, the crack had come from some part of it''s upper body, possibly it''s chest or one of its arms. But the wooziness it displayed likely came from some sort of concussion, as the front half of it''s body was what was sticking out of my jacket as it hit the ground.


    It looked at me, wary and unsteady, but no longer tried to hiss or snarl at me. Instead, it began to make it''s way into the underbrush around us; slowly limping off, as though deciding that I was no longer a meal worth fighting for. "Haaa... ha...! Bitch! That... is what... you get...," I panted, the exhaustion and pain from the wound making it difficult to speak. I do my best to get standing, but instead just end up falling on my back, my side gripped tight. "Woo... indomitable human spirit baby...," I mumble, my mind jumping between things too quickly for me to grasp on any one idea or subject. I know that I need to get to the water, to wash and tend the wound, but the 15 or so feet feel more like 15 miles, and as I''m coming down from the adrenaline, I can feel exhaustion creep up on me. "I can''t fall asleep...," I mutter, as an intake of breath from the pain instead becomes a yawn. "But I can probably close my eyes for a moment... to... gather my thoughts."

 Not In Kansas

    My eyes shoot open, my head spinning. "Did I just fall asleep? I can''t sleep here!", I think, my eyes scanning the sky for the current position of the sun. "Is it lower than it was before? I don''t remember what it looked like before I got jumped", I wonder, as I try to get a handle on what time it currently was. I take a moment to breathe deep, or as deep as I can while pain shoots through my side, then release it, and try to orient myself. I use the river, which I know was ''my northwest'', which means the sun should be behind me rather than in front of me, as I couldn''t have been walking for more than a couple hours from where I slept. I turn to look towards the east, and see that the sun is still quite low in the sky. "I probably didn''t fall asleep," I think in relief, but my exhalation sends another spike of pain through me, and I quickly refocus my attention on the missing chunk in my waist.


    My left hand (which had been pressed very aggressively over the wound) begins to pull away, but the blood that leaked through my fingers and around the edges of the hole that my hand didn''t cover had become sticky in the few minutes since I had started bleeding. The stickiness made it so when I pulled my hand away, it was like tearing off a weak bandage; the skin around the wound getting tugged, causing new waves of pain to burn through me. "Ssssshhhit!" I spit out through clenched teeth, as I do my best to avoid aggravating the wound any more than I need to. I need my left hand free to be able to tend to the wound, and to help maneuver myself closer to the water''s edge. Once my hand is entirely free, I do my best to avoid straining my side muscles as I bend my neck to look at the wound, but all I can see is torn cloth, a few bits of ragged flesh, and a copious amount of blood. "Let''s not go two for two on near death experiences", I think as I start pulling myself towards the water.


    The river itself isn''t very big, but it''s more than just a creek; with dirt around the edges, rather than rocks. So, while the process isn''t comfortable, it''s relatively easy to pull myself towards the edge of the water through the dark, loamy dirt until I''m within arms reach. Once there, I take my shirt off, and begin to rip at the bottom edge of it to tear off some strips. Unfortunately, the shirt was well made, since it was a work uniform for security, so I have to resort to using my keys to shred and fray the shirt so that I can start the tear from somewhere. As I go about the process of cleaning my wound with the strips of cloth and water from the river, my mind wanders to the encounter I had with the jackreature.


    "Everything about that was insane. The jackreature was unlike anything I''ve ever seen before, on the person or on the internet. I can''t say I''ve ever heard of any animals that have an odd number of limbs like that either, barring medical anomalies. It could be possible that it was just a mutation of some sort, but it didn''t look like some malformed useless limb. It looked like a limb that was meant to be used, and the arm was clearly strong enough to hold the weight of the rest of it''s body in that launch pose, for a few moments at least. Plus, those teeth?! Those were terrifying! They looked like something out of a horror movie. Teeth aren''t normally needle thin like that! What could teeth like that even be meant for? It tore through me like soft butter." I wince as I start trying to tie the cloth around my waist, binding it as tight as I can. I know long term it''s not good to have it bound so tight, but in the short term I need to apply pressure, or there''s a very good chance that I would just end up bleeding out.


    "The air, the trees, the jackreature... everything about this place feels wrong. I don''t feel ill or anything, but something in my body is telling me this isn''t right. I just thought it was ''I''ve been kidnapped and I''m worried'' energy, but now I''m starting to wonder if it''s something else. I... still think the maze runner experiment type situation is the most realistic option, even if it''s hard to believe. And with everything around, I wonder if maybe... this is some sort of exclusion zone? Like Chernobyl, or something. I don''t know any others, but I doubt this one would be on the map. Maybe it was intentionally made or something. I don''t really have a better explanation for this all this familiar-but-not plants and animals." I sigh, as I finally manage to tie the last knot in the bandages around my waist. My shirt is absolutely ruined, giving me at best, an immodest crop top, but at least I''m no longer losing blood. I do my best to scrub my hands clean with just the running water, then scrub a little bit more, and when it feel like they''re as clean as they''re going to be, I go to drink a few handfuls. It immediately quenches my thirst, and my tongue finally gets some relief. But I also notice something in the water; an odd, lingering aftertaste. I pause before going for a second handful.


    "Why does that taste familiar?" I wonder, looking at the liquid drip through the gaps between my fingers. I had expected the water to taste ''natural'', but instead, there was something about it... "Goddamn it," I mutter, a thought popping into my head. "It tastes like water left in a plastic bottle. And vinyl, like stagnant water from a hose. Is this just what water tastes like with pollution nowadays? Awful", I think, looking at the water as it flows over the nooks and crannies of the river. "I''m... probably not going to die from it, but maybe I should boil any water I drink from here on out", I figure, as I go to make my way to my feet for the first time in nearly an hour.


    My legs and arms aren''t harmed, but it doesn''t matter since the human body always tries to use it''s core muscles in one way or another. I can feel the bandage slip and slide a bit, and I pause to see if my handwork is going to hold for the moment. After waiting for a few seconds, I start to move again, but even slower, so that I can be absolutely positive that the bandage doesn''t fail, and so that I can be sure I don''t eat shit on the way up to my feet. The pace is excruciating, and I want to just rush through it, but I know that that would just be an incredibly easy way to fail spectacularly, so I grit my teeth and bear it as I wibble and wobble. Finally, once I''m in a crouched over quasimodo pose, I begin to straighten my legs and back, my side complaining every inch of the way. Arduous as it is, however, I finally make it fully upright, and besides the still very sharp ache in my side, I feel pretty steady on my feet.


    "Score one for Antimony, you little shit!" I shout into the forest, not particularly worried about attracting trouble. I had been loud all day yesterday and hadn''t encountered anything, and there was a good case to be made that the only reason the jackreature had attacked me was because I got uncomfortably close to it without it realizing that I was there. I figure the best thing to do in this instance might actually be to make noise rather than be quiet, since there was no way in hell I was in any state to try to fight for lunch. My eating schedule had always been a bit haphazard, so even though I could eat, I wasn''t actually feeling particularly hungry at the moment. I knew that once the hunger did come on though, it was going to come on strong. I resolve to keep an eye out for anything edible along the way that wasn''t likely to attack me, such as wild veggies or berries or something.


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    I begin walking along the side of the river, following the stream as it twists and winds through the forest. "You can''t... give.. up, your body''s tryin...", I half hum, half sing as the words to How Does It Feel as they come to mind. While I do my best to ward off any more animals with my voice, I think more about the situation I''m in, the blood loss leading to my thoughts feeling a little looser than usual. "Maybe I did end up dying. Maybe this is just a really tame hell. Like Dante, and I''m on a top level or something. Damn, guess I need to apologize to my mom if that''s the case. Or, maybe I got sent to hell for being gay?" A laugh sneaks up from my lungs in the middle of a word, and I start half laughing, half coughing at the absurdity. "God that would be so stupid! Or maybe I got isekai''d into a fantasy world. I could introduce basic technological advancements like hand washing and immediately have a harem! Or more realistically, get burned at the stake or something equally dumb. Depends on the series I guess." Each thought that passes through my mind causes me to chuckle a bit more, and I''ve fully stopped singing now to prevent any more choking incidents. "That might actually be the worst one, ''cause if it was a subversion I''d probably just get merc''d immediately." I look down at my side, which still has the remnants of my close encounter with the wildlife.


    "I almost got merc''d right here. If you threw magic or some shit into the mix I''d be probably be dead by episode 2. But if I was in hell I guess I wouldn''t have to worry about it." I think a bit more about some of the more fanciful situations I could find myself in, before doing my best to bring myself back down to earth. "It could always be worse. I mean, right now it could DEFINITELY be better, but my plan of ''find river, follow until I encounter people'' is going off with only a minor speed bump. All I have to do is stick to the path, and I''ll run into someone or something sooner rather than later. And if I find a giant wall, well, that will give me the final answer on where I am." My song is starting to wear a bit thin, so I switch to Around The World, since it''s easy to keep it going for as long as I want. And then, I walk.


    <hr>


    After walking for about 6 hours, I decide to take a break on a very comfortable looking rock. It looks almost as though it had been sheared clean through with something sharp, but since I''m no rock expert, I figure it''s most likely some sort of rock that has a low shear force. Not that I could name any. "Woah," I say, looking over the face of the rock. The cut is entirely smooth, and if I didn''t know any better I would say that it had been polished. "It''s so smooth! How does something like this happen?" I think, touching cool hard surface. It feels solid and unyielding, like one would expect, and the top half of the rock was propped up at an angle against it, sharp side down, so that it formed almost a chair like surface. "Ha, it''s even got lumbar support," I chuckle, as I lean against the round bulge of the lower rock. I place my hand over my eyes so I can get a bead on the sun between the leaves, and figure it''s roughly about midday, maybe a bit later. Since it''s winter, that would mean there''s probably 4 or 5 more hours of sunlight remaining. From the day previous, I knew roughly how long it would take to gather branches and leaves to form another lean-to, so I could safely walk for another two hours and still have enough daylight.


    "How far have I walked?" I wonder, trying to do some back of the napkin calculations. I''m not in great shape, but I''ve got okay endurance, and I knew that I had kept a pretty consistent pace the entire time. When I was younger, I could run an 8 minute mile, and now that I''m 26, I could probably do a mile in 12. A sedentary job will tend to do that to people. If my mile is 12 minutes, then with all of the obstructions and awkward terrain on the riverbank, my walking mile is probably close to double that. If I call if 25 minutes for ease of math, that would be 5 miles in 2 hours and 5 minutes, so I''ve walked roughly 15 miles so far. On one hand, that''s not great, but on the other hand, I''m surprised I''m not more winded. "I guess all of the foot patrols are good for something". I also found the ground an easy material to walk on; soft on the feet, but with enough springiness that I didn''t feel like I was trudging through something like sand. "Although I do feel a bit floaty, so I''m not sure how much harder I should push myself. If I had a destination in mind, then I would definitely keep at this pace, or maybe even move a bit faster, but as it is, doing this every day for 12 to 14 hours is going to burn me out." I watch the sunlight play through the leaves of a nearby brownwood, as I consider my options.


    "This will also get harder without food. Maybe I should spend my two hours today looking for something to eat, rather than continuing to hike." I look around at the area surrounding me, but don''t immediately see anything edible. In fact, I hadn''t seen anything at all in the last day and a half that I would consider edible. Not even the tree in a pinch, what with it''s treesap smelling all sorts of wrong. "Could I set a trap for something? I never learned any traps in Boy Scouts, but I vaguely remember a Youtube video. I''d need either rope or a basket though." I scooch off the end of the rock, and get to my feet, my side protesting at the movement. I make a quick scan of the area, trying to find any sort of plant that I could turn into a rope. As I round the back side of the rock however, I nearly trip over some sort of fabric covered metal object on the ground. "Shit!" I cry out, as I struggle to find my footing, accidentally stepping a second time onto the object. This nearly destabilizes me, and I do an awkward little hop to get my feet off of the thing and onto solid ground. Feeling less like a cartoon character flailing around, I make my way to my knees near the object to get a closer look at it.


    It''s immediately obvious why I didn''t notice the object; the entire thing is covered in militaristic camouflage, allowing it to blend in with the small bushes around the the rock. From first glance, it appears to be some sort of metal, but it has that cheap looking quality to it; the sort you would see in a dollar store plastic toy. If I didn''t know better, I would assume that it was injection molded. From touch however, it doesn''t feel cheap. It feels durable, like a material that''s meant to last, like old school military equipment. It''s got a curve to it like a half dome shape that had been pulled down on the sides. Not a lot, but just enough to be noticeable. The patterning on the object isn''t like any military that I can think of, but it is sparking something in the back my mind. Unfortunately though, I was never a military buff, so no matter how much I cast my mind about, I can''t determine what force would have such a swirly, organic design. I was pretty confident that it wasn''t American though; ours was more digital and blocky in nature, almost the exact opposite of this psychedelic pipe type pattern.


    Attempting to lift it up, I''m pleasantly surprised at the weight of the... shield? Metal plating? It''s likely meant to be some sort of defensive material, but as I lift it up, I notice a pretty egregious gash on one side of it. The material is warped and melted, and cut almost clean through. As I trace my finger along the side, I can''t help but imagine what would cause such a tear in a material seemingly as durable as this. "This must''ve been used for some sort of weapon''s testing. Maybe the melting came from some sort of really hot gun fire? Although it would have had to have been shot the short way to cause this sort of gash. Or maybe a really lucky glance?" I cast my eyes around the forest floor and the nearby trees, to see if I can find any other signs of conflict that would fill in the picture as to what happened with this piece of metal plating. Eventually, my eyes come to rest on the rock I was just sitting on, and it''s flat, almost glassy like surface. My eyes turn back down towards the held object, towards the warped and melted gash along it''s side.


    "Holy shit."

 Terrible Trip Sitter

    "Did something cut through the rock and this metal plate at the same time? What could do that and be so clean all the way through?" I think, as I stare at the surface of the rock I was previously sat on. My attention turns back to the metal plate, before I quickly try to recenter my focus. "Hold on, this is all crazy, and more confirmation of the military experiment theory, but I was looking for something to help catch food. I only have so much daylight." I look at the curve in the metal plate, and the gash that stretches almost fully across it''s length. "That''s... not big enough for any animal to get out, I don''t think. Definitely too small for the jackreature. And the curve... it might be deep enough to hold an animal within it." I theorize, flipping the metal plate over. There''s definitely a bend to it, and from a first look over, it does seem like it would be able to hold a rabbit, or possibly a really small fox or something. Ironically, anything that could fit comfortably inside it also likely would be able to sneak out the gash, so whatever I caught would have to be pressed up against it quite uncomfortably.


    "I think if this was pressed down on something, it could keep them there. At least for a minute or so, which should give me plenty of time to react, as long as I could get to it in time. I just need to figure out how to position it so that it will have that weight on top." As I scour the immediate area, I find a few sapling brown woods, and nearly 30 minutes of struggling and fighting later, I have the plating propped up, such that when a small branch was nudged, the whole thing snap down on top of it. The weight of the plating wasn''t that much though, and the pressure of the sapling didn''t fill me with confidence, so I spent the next 35 minutes looking for a perfectly sized rock; one that was heavy enough to provide some weight, but light enough that I could physically move it back to the trap. "No point in trapping it so successfully I can''t get to it after," I think to myself, as I half drag, half roll a small boulder over to the trap. I realize pretty quickly though, that the weight of the boulder would throw everything off, and I needed to redesign the trap from nearly scratch. "Shit," I mutter, and I set about trying to bend physics to my will.


    <hr>


    Another hour flies by, as I do my best to position all the pieces of my trap efficiently. I know that my chances of this are going to be few and far between, and I wanted to make sure I capitalized as much as possible on every one I was given. Feeling confident about my setup, I look into the sky, and realize that I needed to get moving on finding materials for my lean to. I do an awkward half stretch, as I try to avoid aggravating my side, and take a deep breath. For some reason, I''m still feeling floaty, which I thought would have passed after getting a chance to catch my breath on the rock. Instead, not only had it not gone away, it felt like it was a bit stronger. It wasn''t quite to the point of full on disassociation, but I didn''t know what exactly was causing it. If I had to guess, it was the exertion, along with blood loss, along with lack of food? I wasn''t really confident about the answer, but it was my current working theory, and regardless, I still had chores to do before I could lay down for the night. I make one last check of the trap, before heading a bit deeper into the forest to find the right sort of branches, leaves, and sticks I could use to form another lean-to. As I look around, I can feel my eyes struggling to adjust to the shade of the forest, as there were less trees near the river bank, and I could almost swear that some of the shadows were wobbling a bit. I rub my eyes, trying to get them to focus, and I start looking for material.


    The shadows are definitely shorter? Longer? Than they were before? But I''m not sure of the exact length the shadows were? Short long maybe. "Short long shadows is so weird," I mutter, under my breath where the muttering goes. I can hardly believe it myself. Luckily, I found the stick, the one stick to rule them all for my hut one-two. "Hike!" I say, but I already did, for like 6 miles.


    Something''s wrong.


    Some part of my brain can feel the other part of my brain isn''t correct. It''s space-y, a Voidtrip IPA, but I didn''t have anything to drink but water. I don''t know why I''m struggling to focus fully on the shitty present I got that wasn''t even on my birthday, but I have to put a little roof over my head like a floor hat or I would really regret it when I was dead. "Like the rock got dead! Or whoever had that metal plate. That thing got fucked up," I say, and then I chuckle. I know it''s not appropriate to laugh at tragedy like that, but you gotta take the BADBADNOTGOOD with the MF DOOM, ya know? I throw my stick into the pile where the sticks go, and I look around for another one, but as I spin around, the forest spins around me instead. I wasn''t even aware that it could do that.


    "I wasn''t aware you could do that," I say out loud, because it''s not good to think thoughts about people and not let them know the thoughts that you''re thinking. I didn''t want to be rude. "Is this cause I was rude maybe?" I ask the forest. I don''t know if there''s speakers, but maybe the invisible birds will use the camera''s to let my kidnappers know I''m really really sorry that I made a joke on the internet or something. "Which one was it? I''m really funny, so that doesn''t narrow it down," I claim, laughing at the idea of myself. Because I''m really funny, it said so. Wait, who said so?


    I make my way over to the pile of sticks on the ground, but all I can think is how I''m supposed to be under the sticks, not above them. I lay down on the ground and start covering my thicky body with the sticky sticks, and twiggy brits like the podcast I was listening to and ciggy fits like the Tik Tok I watched and I figure that''s enough. I just need to cover my face so the jackrabbit from hell doesn''t kill me, because I imagine he has a grudge. "I don''t see a TV though?" I ask, looking around. But I don''t see anything, except for what I see; a beautiful woman clad in purple, both turning away from me, and offering me her hand. I go to reach for it, but then it''s my hand, and I''m pumping it up and down with a rictus grin on my face. "You''ve got yourself a deal!" I say, and laugh like I just told the funniest joke in the world. I let myself go, and I fall backwards even though I''m already on the ground, and it''s like my Alice In Wonderland syndrome from when I was a kid has decided to make a reappearance, as I fall through the gray and green and blue and white and <em style="text-shadow: -1px 2px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4), 1px -3px 1px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.4), 3px -4px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2), -4px -3px 1px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.2), -6px 7px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2)">and black <em style="text-shadow: -1px 2px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6), 1px -3px 1px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.6), 3px -4px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.35), -4px -3px 1px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.35), -6px 7px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.35)">AND BLACK<em style="text-shadow: -1px 2px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8), 1px -3px 1px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.8), 3px -4px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.45), -4px -3px 1px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.45), -6px 7px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.45)"> AND BLACK


    The room is empty.


    There''s four walls and a floor, and a ceiling made of space only a few feet out of reach. I can see things in the ceiling, like glow in the dark stars for a child''s bedroom. Bone like spaceships; a flying ribcage orbiting in a million shattered pieces around a planet. I go to touch it and all the pieces slowly coalesce towards my hand, until it snaps together in perfect harmony, but I still can''t reach the ceiling.


    The walls have picture frames with faces I don''t recognize, like one with dour children with eyes that have shades that of color that don''t exist; they stand in perfect attendance barely smiling as though part of the world''s most depressing school graduation photo.


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    The walls have pictures frames with faces I don''t recognize, like one with a woman who has a scar that stretches across the bridge of her nose, and short dark purple hair; her shoulders telling me that she doesn''t want to be where she is.


    The walls have picture frames with faces I don''t recognize, like a man with a metal covering over his eyes, and a blue kevlar like jumpsuit; the smile on his mouth looking all the more sinister because I can''t see if there''s one in his eyes.


    The walls have nothing but windows, and I can see a beautiful and terrifying cityscape; a picture perfect cyberpunk city buried entirely underground, with screens for fake suns and ads for everything I never knew I wanted.


    The walls have nothing but windows, and I can see a grass plain at night, with the echoing roar of some sort of digital creature echo across it. The air tastes like rust, and although I can''t see them, I know there are a thousand thousand thousand dead bodies feeding the plants with their blood.


    The walls have nothing but windows, and I can see a rendering glitch in reality; a tear that is both black and blue and white, that is somehow visually on top all the things coming out of it. It stretches and twists and pulls like a fractal that is what it is, a self similar crack on the scale of the fabric of the universe.


    The wall has a door, and on the other side of the door is power. I know that if I cross the door, I can protect myself. I know that if I cross the door, I can survive whatever is attacking my central nervous system. I fear that when I cross the door, I won''t be able to cross back.


    I knock on the door, but I''m the one who answers. "Come on in, come on in! You''ve already got the job, I just need to make sure you''re fully equipped for everything we''re going to need from you," I say, looking at myself. "What are you talking about, what job? I didn''t apply to anything," I ask, confused. I don''t enter the room. "I had a lot of candidates, and a lot of positions to fill, but some have been open for a while now. You''re exactly what I''ve been waiting for," I answer, looking impatient, even with the grin splitting my face. "Why did you apply if you didn''t want the position? Don''t play coy," I say, the grin somehow getting even wider. I touch my jaw, the image itself causing a phantom pain in my cheeks. "I''m not playing coy, I promise. I just don''t remember applying. Can I look over some documentation or something? I need to think about it," I say, feeling somehow both more and less focused than I was immediately prior. I still don''t enter the room.


    "I already know you''ll accept," I say, looking pleased with myself. "You just aren''t there yet. But that''s okay, we''ve got nothing but time," I say, and before I get the chance to ask what that means, the door is slammed shut in my face. The force of it blows me backwards, and keeps blowing; blowing me into the ground even though I never fell over, my mind and thoughts getting blown away with it. I go to wipe my face, but only touch sticks instead. I knock the sticks away from my face and open my eyes, but something is wrong with the sky. The stars are brighter than I''ve ever seen them, but they shine with no competition. No matter where I cast my gaze, I see no moon. "I saw the moon last night!" I think to myself, frozen in fear of the power of those who''ve taken me from my home. "How could they have stolen the moon?"


    I close my eyes again, or open them, and see myself laying haphazardly beneath a bunch of sticks, half covered and looking like death was about to make a house call. The air speaks.


    "Who are you?" asks the air.


    "Antimony," I state. I don''t know how to make eye contact with the air, so I just keep looking at my prone form below. I don''t often get a chance to view myself from this angle, and it''s a bummer I''m looking so ill, because it''s very neat.


    "Who are you?" asks the air, again.


    "I feel like I was pretty clear the first time," I tell the air. "I''m Antimony. Nova. Security guard. Person who plays video games. Micro micro niche internet celebrity, and I can say that because I got recognized one time in public like 12 years ago. Do you need more?" I say, frustrated. I let out a puff of air, and wonder if that breath was now also going to start asking me questions.


    "You aren''t from here," says the air.


    "I could''ve told you that," I say. "I''m from Portland. Oregon. United States. Earth. Solar System. Milky Way. Arguably, we are also there. At least the Earth part, I''m not so confident on the Oregon. Maybe the US," I ramble, trying to think about the specific route I took to get me to this exact spot. Unfortunately there were a number of gaps in my memory, so I just couldn''t be 100% confident, and it''s rude to lie to people.


    "...", says the air. It was a normal thing for air to say, but it had been so inquisitive before, I wondered if something was wrong. "Is something wrong?" I ask, doing my best not to scare the air off. I needed it to breathe, after all.


    "You are old," says the air. Well, that''s not fair. I''m 26, I don''t feel old. Although I guess I''m a few generations behind now, depending on who you ask, so it''s all subjective. "I guess," I tell the air. "I don''t feel old though. I try to keep up with slang, ya know? Stay on top of the memes and what not. I don''t want people thinking I just fell out of a coconut tree," I joke, and pause for a response. "That was a good one", I think. "Very topical, and this air doesn''t taste like it''s been hanging out under a rock, so they''ll probably get it, unless they aren''t big into politics."


    "Beware your Desire," says the air, and I don''t know how to respond to that. I think maybe desire is one of the seven deadly sins? Or maybe I''m thinking of envy. I honestly can''t remember, but I don''t know why it would be giving me theology lessons right now. "What, like... don''t envy your neighbor or something? I don''t really know what you''re saying," I say to the air.


    "Beware Indifference," says the air, and I''m even more confused than I was before. "I''m... sorry, I really don''t know what you''re trying to tell me. Are you just letting me know to keep an eye on my vices? As in, be mindful, don''t want beyond your means, that sort of thing? I already try to do that sort of thing anyways, so... like, I appreciate the concern and all but I think I''m good," I say, giving a wave to no one in particular. Although, if I was talking to the air, then it was more like I was petting it? I might be sending mixed messages. I decide to stop waving/petting the air, and put my hand back down at my side.


    "Your mind is fractured. Less than it was, but more than it should be. You will not understand until the future. When we meet again, I will reach out to you," says the air, and then it leaves. I momentarily panic, but I can still breathe, so maybe this whole time I wasn''t talking to the air itself, but something in and around the air, or maybe I was just losing my mind. They did say my mind was fractured. "I should be more worried about this," I mutter out loud. Through a brief moment of lucidity, whether due to the out of body experience or something else, I can feel what is going inside my head, and I''m able to parse out the different feelings.


    The feeling of confusion, ever since my thoughts started slipping through my fingers and out of my direct control.


    The feeling of wonder, at all the strange and beautiful and terrifying and awesome things that had been happening to me and were still happening to me.


    The feeling of anger, at myself, for not making sure the water was clean. For not doing better in the fight. For every perceived moment of failure I''ve made since I woke up in the forest.


    The feeling of fear, of what has been happening and of what will happen. Of death, from my wounds, of things greater than myself, of failed understanding and incorrectly made choices.


    The feeling of recognition. I know that something about this entire situation is familiar. Not because I''ve experienced it before, but because the elements are ones I''ve encountered. By I can''t open my mind to pull out the words of whatever it is that I''ve remembered, and I know that after the poison had passed from my system (whenever that may be) that I will lose the memories I''ve made here tonight, like trying to recall a dream upon waking.


    But regardless of those feelings, I''m currently here, in the moment, thinking and knowing and seeing and feeling. So, I keep myself company and watch myself sleep, and when I get bored, I turn my eyes to the sky and enjoy the stars, doing my best to ignore our planet''s missing celestial companion.

 When It Rains

    The first thing I feel is rain.


    I go to wipe my face of the water, but find my hand obstructed by some sort of fibrous material. When I open my eyes, all I can see is darkness and bars, and for the briefest of moments, I''m convinced that my captors have decided to take a more direct hand in my imprisonment. But as I attempt to flail, I find that the force holding my limbs and body down is little more than an afterthought, as dozens and dozens of sticks and branches fall off of me. The sudden, jerking movement, however, sends a wave of nausea throughout my body, and I do my best to roll over the various shrubbery to get to a position where I can somewhat cleanly empty out my stomach. "What... what the fuck?" I think, utterly confused by my current turn of events. "I remember... wasn''t I building a trap? Did I take a nap? Why do I feel like shit?" I think, as I do my best to clear the cobwebbed corners of my mind. I turn my eyes around the muddy clearing, spotting the rock in the near distance, then do my best to trace a path back to where I thought the trap may have been. Eventually, I manage to find the half dome like metal plate, but the sapling based trigger mechanism is utterly destroyed. "Shit," I bemoan, as I look at the multiple hours of handiwork down the drain. "I needed that to work! I need food, or I''m just gonna get too tired to function, and then I''ll just end up starving to death."


    I do my best to make my way to my feet, but my body feels like a pool of disturbed water, with every minuscule movement sending waves of sensation ricocheting throughout. Between bouts of nausea, the entire process is leaving me overstimulated and off balance, but after an arduous 5 minutes, I find myself steady on my feet. "...ughh," I cough out, my mouth too dry to form coherent sentences, even in the rain. "...boil," I mutter, as I do my best to trudge through the muck over to the river. Even with the rain, the water isn''t flowing much faster, but the bank of the river is much wider, leaving my walk towards the shore blissfully short. Once I get there, I realize I don''t actually have a container to boil the water in, and I can feel my heart start to beat heavily. It''s clear that whatever experience I had while passed out wasn''t pleasant, and even though I''m unable to recall it, my body seems to have no issue. Just the thought of drinking more of this water sends spikes of anxiety along my neck and back; my shoulder''s subconsciously tightening at the mere idea. "Please...," I cry, tears forming at the corners of my eyes, in a desperate plea to my body. "I need water. I can''t not drink water," I croak out. I know that I''ll last a day or two, but whatever water I had had in my body I likely sweated or vomited out, and my thirst was just as powerful as the day before.


    My plea goes unanswered, however, and trying to fight my anxiety as well as my nausea is just too much all at once. "FUCK!" I cry out in the rain. "FINE, I''LL just... I won''t," my voice tapering off, as I try to acquiesce to my body''s request. I know, deep in my mind, that if it comes down to it I will absolutely drink more tainted water from the river rather than die of thirst, but right now, I''m fighting on too many fronts. As much as I would like to just be able to boil the water, trying to do so without a container is simply impossible, even ignoring the rain pouring through the canopy of the brownwoods. Instead, I rotate my body as slowly and deliberately as I can, and begin to forge my way towards the ruined remnants of the trap.


    After a brisk 3 minute walk 100 feet away, I reach the trap, and pick over it to determine what is and isn''t salvageable. From what I can immediately tell, it appears as though the trap may have actually caught something, from the various scratch marks on the inside of the metal plate. However, much like I expected, the plate was simply not heavy enough to hold anything for any length of time, and after the clawed creature managed to break free of the improvised cage, it proceeded to tear up the surrounding saplings and branches. Whether it was a moment of frustration by the animal, or it was something that was smart enough to understand what had happened wasn''t clear, but what was very clear was the fact that the trap was ruined, and I would need to redo it in it''s entirety in a different area. As I bend over to pick up the metal plate however, my body rejects the motion, and I quickly have to kneel down to avoid heaving up what little acid remained in my stomach. "I haaaate this...", I moan, the tears coming to my face unbidden. The pain and exhaustion and nausea are all conspiring, and the rain (which should feel refreshing and cool on my fevered forehead) feels subtly sharp, as though carbonated. I take a moment with my head resting against the cool metal surface of the plate, before arduously beginning the process of standing.


    Once on my feet again, I look past the immediate clearing, but can''t seem to find anything appropriate for a trap. "Probably because I tore up every viable branch and sapling in the area for my lean-to. Which I never even built," I think, looking at the pitiful collection of sticks and branches resting on the brownwood nearby. "I... I don''t like it, but I need to move on. If I stay here, I won''t be able to find a spot to set a trap, and even though moving means I''m going to need to rebuild the lean-to for a third time-", the thought itself forces a whine through my lips. I know in the logical part of my mind that this is only going to get worse before it gets better, but the logic is being overridden by the misery of the present. "Come on... Come on. Come ON. COME ON," I shout, doing my best to hype myself up, despite the situation. "You''re in the part of the show where it looks bad for the protag, but that''s just for tension! It gets better!" I say, the vibration of the words causing a headache to begin blooming. "Rising something... or... fuck," I say, the headache making me taper off, unable to focus on my thoughts.


    "But this isn''t a story, is it? In real life, people just die. You could just die here. You might die here," I think, as my mind rebels against me. I know that, I know it''s not a book, I know I need to take it seriously, but I also know that if I focus too much on the immediate now, if I don''t try to reframe the situation, then I might just crack and break. More than food, more than water, the thing that is the highest priority for me in this situation is hope. If I lose my optimism, if I start to think that there might be a chance that I won''t live through this, then I''ll spiral, and then I really will be fucked. "Mindset is everything," I think to myself, as though trying to reassure. I do my best to plaster a smile on my face, and even though it feels like a facade, and my body tells me to stop, I strain to keep it there. Then, feeling like a pile of flesh and muscle and a haphazard arrangement of bones that had been glued and taped together in the shape of a functional person, I start to make my way down the river.


    <hr>


    The walk is more difficult than expected. I had tried to account for everything, to steel my mind against the arduousness of the journey, but even then, found my imagination not up to par to the physical reality I was currently suffering through. The headache that had started to develop a few hours ago had exploded into a full on migraine, and while my nausea had mostly settled, I was instead now having to deal with the new aches and pains that had come on. "*It''ll pass"*, I think to myself, "I just need to keep moving. If I do, it''ll loosen up my muscles and they''ll ache less." I knew I was telling myself a lie; I had been moving for the last 4 hours, and it wasn''t helping. But I was doing my best to keep my mind off my current physical situation, through whatever means I had at my disposal, regardless of their effectiveness.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    "Tripped on... my steppin'' stone," I half mutter, half sing, doing anything I can to keep my mind distracted. "Got up, and kept on going. Just me, traveling alone." I know I haven''t made any real progress along the riverbank, not like I had managed to on the previous day. But there was enough distance between me and the previous clearing that I could start to set up a new trap. "Wake up, another day," I continue, as I trudge over to a promising looking area with a number of springy looking saplings. As I approach the (hopefully) new home of the animal trap, I do a sort of drop/toss of the metal plate, my side yelling at me in protest to stop straining the muscles around the wound. "Alright, that was one goal down. I just need to... I''ve gotta turn it into a trap now," I think, as my eyes tiredly scan the area. I was going to need some more saplings and branches, which meant I was going to have to spend some more time walking between various spots in the forest, bending and pulling and tugging and making all the sorts of movements that my body was absolutely finished with doing.


    "In desperation...," my voice barely audible, as my vision starts to blur. The rain continues to do it''s utmost best to drown me on dry land, and I can feel myself coming up on my limit. "This is irony, or something, isn''t it. I''ve always though that in some sudden, awful survival scenario, I could conquer nature. I''d be able to forage and trap and rescuers would show up, and I''d just be hanging out, thriving in a home away from home. But instead I''m here, soaked to the bone, limping along with a massive injury I got on the second day, and absolutely exhausted from vomiting because I forgot one of the basics of survival. And I haven''t had a goddamn bite to eat in nearly 4 days, because I didn''t eat when I got home." I could feel the rage and frustration building in my limbs; the aggression wanting to be vented through physicality. "And is this how I go out? Fucking... like a loser?" My breath was coming in heaves now, as I did my utmost best to keep myself steady against the rising flood of emotion. The dam that I had been trying to build all day had been overflowing sporadically, but now it was threatening to burst.


    "Is this it?" I ask, to no one in particular. I didn''t know if I was being watched by the kidnappers, but I felt confident they would let me die. There would be no savior swooping in to rescue me from my own ineptitude. I either succeeded or failed on my own merits. And what little confidence I had drummed up was quickly evaporating, leaving nothing but undirected anger. "I SAID, IS THIS IT?" I shout, my throat feeling raw from the multiple exposures with stomach acid. "YOU KIDNAP ME FROM MY HOUSE AND THEN... WHAT? WATCH ME EXPIRE IN YOUR RAT MAZE?" I cast my gaze around the copse of trees, hoping to find something, anything, that would indicate a human presence. But, like before, there was nothing but the dark brown bark of the redwood lookalikes, and the ever present yellow tinge of leaves on every piece of leafy flora. "WHAT, YOU DON''T HAVE TV? YOU COULDN''T JUST WATCH NAKED AND AFRAID? YOU HAD TO TORTURE A 20 SOMETHING? YOU FUCKING ASSHOLES!" I scream, my voice cracking on the final expletive. I listen to my voice rebound off the small amount of exposed stone in the area, until finally, there''s nothing but the quiet roar of the rain, drenching everything that dared be exposed to the elements.


    I scream until my throat is raw, until I can''t make any more sounds, until the only thing that comes from the abused muscles is a choking sob. Warm tears mix with the sharp sting of the lukewarm rain, running down my face and onto the ground below. I kneel there, my arms wrapped around my sides, partially to try to give myself some support, partially because the yelling was making my side hurt. Flashes of everyone I was leaving flew through my mind, as though to rub salt in the wound. Some part of my brain wanted to revel in it, to sit in the exhaustion and misery and soak it up like I was the rain; soak until I was fully drenched, and just stop trying to fight so damn hard. But a different part of my mind, the incessant part that would not shut up no matter the situation, refused to die with a whimper. "Really? This is the best you can do? Three days in a slimy forest and you''re an emotional, fractured wreck? This is pathetic. Why are you giving up so easily?" it said, although it didn''t feel as though it was trying to be unkind. It felt more like an honest examination of the situation.


    I did actually find it odd how quickly the circumstances were causing me to fall apart. I normally considered myself to be a bit more resilient than this; hell, when my house burned down in a wildfire, I laughed and filmed the entire thing on my phone as I drove through the blaze, and when I was safe, I made a meme out of the footage. I really didn''t like the idea of dying, but I wasn''t scared of dying. This was hardly the first time I had found myself in a life threatening situation, so why was it so hard? I took a few steadying breaths, and leaned back against a brownwood, taking a moment to let the catharsis clear my mind of the immediate emotions. "Phew, nearly lost my cool there," I said, a small smile gracing my lips. It was pretty obvious I had spiraled, but the moment of levity helped me move past it. "This is so weird though, I really don''t understand-" but my musing was cut off by a sudden wracking cough. I attempted to catch my breath in between the exhalations, but it was like my lungs were trying to eject themselves from my body.


    "Did I catch pneumonia or something? What a stupid way to go out that would be," I think, as the coughs finally get weaker and weaker. But as the coughs abate, it''s as though they are stealing my strength along with them. "Oops," I say, almost immediately recognizing my mistake. "I really shouldn''t have sat down." I reach my arms down to the roots of the brownwood and try to lift myself up, but the texture of the wood is now slippery like soap, and I can''t get enough leverage to pull myself back to a standing position. Just the minor action is enough to get me breathing heavily, and I stop before the cough decides to make a reappearance. "Welp, I''ve got some sort of bug. I don''t know what it is or why it''s so damn virulent, but this is probably how I get got. I fucking always knew it would be something stupid like this," I think sardonically. The one thing I always felt had a leg up on me was weird body issues. Stroke, disease, organ failure, etc. You could do your best to stave it off, but even the most physically fit people in the world would get randomly struck down, and I couldn''t really think my way out of a heart attack, or beat up cancer.


    "Damn, I listen to, like, all the music in the world, but I never thought of a cool song to go out on," I think, as my eyelids begin to feel heavy. I know I''m not dying immediately, but there was a good chance that once I went unconscious, I wasn''t going to wake up. A song title tickles the back of my mind, and I chuckle. "No One''s Around To Help. Not very epic, but...", I do my best to sit up a little higher, and take a deep breath to try to force my eyes to stay open a little longer. "fitting, maybe." I mumble. The song didn''t have lyrics, but I was a proficient enough whistler that I figured I could make a good enough approximation. I go to start whistling, but my first try leaves something to be desired. "Booo," I say, as though my own audience. "Sorry, you''ve been a great audience..." I murmur in response to myself. "Let me give this one more shot, something to send you off with." I breathe in through my nose, the taste of the air finally no longer bothering the back of my tongue, and I begin to whistle.


    I can hear the sound sharp, loud, and clear ring out through the forest. I hadn''t even noticed, but at some point my eyes had closed, so entirely focused I was on the sound coming from my lips. Behind my eyes, I can see the purple of the video that accompanies the song; the slightly detuned bass track playing in my mind, my whistle''s harmonizing perfectly with the memory. I know I''m going to fall asleep, because I''ve done this exact thing a million times before; closing my eyes and telling myself it was only for a moment, seeing a visual play out in my minds eye, and suddenly transitioning to a dream without any noticeable seam. But for a brief moment, I''m no longer aching, and I simply soak in the feeling along with the hum of the rain, and the gentle scuffle of footsteps.

 How To Train A Kubrow

    Ko-lee wasn''t supposed to spend time in the Lykka forests. Beyond the fact that the Grineer had explicit rules on how and where her people were allowed to roam, the various fauna that managed to eek out a living in the forest didn''t take kindly to human excursions. She knew that if spotted, whether by animal or by soldier, she''d be in a world of trouble. Her hand drifted to the zaw on her side; the serrated sword a gift from her father on their boaldak of nearly a decade prior. It was a clear sign of his care for her, and his desire for his only child to be safe. "And isn''t that just the problem," she muttered under her breath, as she stalked through the various bushes, being a little more aggressive with her trailblazing than was strictly necessary. She knew that her father not only cared for her safety, but for the safety of everyone in the Sharip settlement, but she was convinced that his attempt to protect them was only going to get them hurt in the end. As she continued to forge her way through the forest, her mind replayed the argument she had with her father only a few hours prior...


    <hr>


    "-is going get us killed! Why can''t you see that? You''re so confident that if we stay here, if we don''t interfere with the Grineer, that they''ll leave us alone!" yelled Ko-lee, staring her father in the eye. Sanza, on the other hand, standing with his back straight, and holding eye contact, spoke in a much more measured tone. "Because that is the way it has been for fifty years Ko-lee. You are just a child, but I was tasked with protecting and leading Sharip, and as you can see," as he gestured to the various buildings and infrastructure around them, "I have been quite successful." Even with the steady tone of his voice, his words held a presence that overshadowed Ko-lee, and she couldn''t stand how it made her feel like a child. "You were tasked, dad. But now I''m leading-" said Ko-lee, but she was cut off before she could finish. "You will lead, Ko-lee, but only when I am dead. I am still very much alive, thank you, and I have no plans on passing anytime soon," said Sanza, a small smile quirking his lips.


    "I know! I know, I''m not saying I want you dead, I''m just saying that I need to start making decisions before you die. I... I need practice, you know?" said Ko-lee, losing a little bit of steam at the thought of her father''s mortality. He was still fit, but age caught up with all in the end, and his face bore the wrinkles of his many years. "I just think it''s important for me to be able to make choices ''with'' you," she said, trying to impart what she felt to her father. "Why?" said Sanza, his head tilting slightly at the emphatic words of his daughter. He felt confident in her decision making, and he raised her to always consider as many angles as one could hold in their head when attempting to decide something. However, there was a look in her eyes that said she felt... unsure? Uncomfortable, possibly, at the thought of leadership. What Sanza didn''t know, what Ko-lee was struggling to explain, was that her choices had not affected others before, not on this scale. She had made decisions for ''her'' well being all the time, and she made decisions for her family when Sanza was unwilling or unable. But making decisions that could affect all of the residents of Sharip, well, she''d rather have her father''s well versed eyes looking over her choices. Just in case.


    That being said, his outright refusal of her current suggestion was infuriating. It wasn''t that he found a hole in her logic, or she had failed to consider some sort of possibility. Instead, it was simply that he did not agree with the best way to keep the settlement safe, and she felt- no, she knew in her bones that their survival long term needed to have a better plan than just ''hope that the Grineer don''t take too much notice of us''. "What if you''re wrong Dad? Why are you so afraid of just letting me try? It wouldn''t even take that long; a couple of weeks to Cetus, a quick conversation with Konzu, then I just wait for one of the Tenno to arrive." she said, doing her best to keep her previous frustration out of her voice. "And then what, lee-lee? How are you going to talk to a monster?" he said, his face softening when using his pet name for his daughter. "THEY''RE NOT MONSTERS," Ko-lee exploded, her emotions quickly getting the best of her. She knew in that moment that she had lost the argument. Her father used to call her lee-lee when she was a kid, and the soft spoken voice made her feel like she was being treated as such all over again.


    Still, that was no excuse for her to yell at her father, and her face immediately grew red from the embarrassment. Sanza, for his part, reacted very little from the outburst, simply losing the small smile that had been upon his lips. There was a brief moment of silence, as the two stared at each other, and Ko-lee, feeling tense, tried to speak up. "I''m s-", she began, but her father simply raised a finger, and Ko-lee immediately went quiet again. She did her best to hold her tongue, waiting, while she watched the gears spin in her father''s head. Finally, he spoke. "Ko-lee," he began, as he stared directly in her eyes. "Are you able to speak with a kubrow?" Ko-lee, caught off guard by the absurd question, let a laugh slip out between her lips, but she did her best to quickly school her expression. "No Dad," she said, unsure as to his line of questioning. Instead, he just stayed silent, with only the subtlest shift in his head to show that he was expecting something more from her. She only had to take a moment, before responding more formally, "No, I''m unable to speak to kubrow, Chief Sanza."


    "Not many are," he said, almost imperceptibly nodding, as though in confirmation of her more formalized mode of address. "In fact, I can pretty confidentially say that no one on this planet can speak with a kubrow. You may, however, speak to a kubrow. What would happen if you spoke to a kubrow, Ko-lee?" he said, continuing in the lesson like format she was so used to from her lessons from when she young. It did slightly irk her that she was once again being treated like a child, but she had made it clear that her emotions were going to get the better of her in an informal situation, so she did her best to weather it. "If I spoke to a trained kubrow? It would follow my commands," she said, before briefly thinking, and following up. "Well, if it was trained well, and if it was trained to take commands from those that weren''t it''s owner. But if I were to try and talk to a wild kubrow? It would just attack, ignoring any and all words I said. ...Sir." She knew the formal address wasn''t entirely necessary, but figured it was better safe than sorry, and she knew her father would appreciate her playing along.


    "Correct!" he said, the small smile returning to his lips. "A kubrow, like many wild animals, will viciously attack, and only if raised from birth by a competent handler will they listen to commands. Now, I have one more question for you, Ko-lee." Any levity that might have existed from the previous moment had quickly evaporated. "Imagine that the kubrow, instead of 3 or 4 feet tall, is 10 feet tall. Imagine that the hair on it''s body was instead finely woven threads of ferrite alloy, rather than a coarse fur. Imagine, if you will, that this kubrow, uncontent with just it''s nest, was rampaging through Ostron settlements, knocking down houses and savaging all who lived within them. What, then, would you call that kubrow?" She looked at him, and she knew immediately what he was asking.


    "I would call that kubrow a monster, Chief Sanza." Ko-lee said, solemnly.


    "But, the Tenno aren''t rampaging kubrow''s da-Chief Sanza," said Ko-lee, quickly correcting the slip into informal language. "We can converse with the Tenno. Hok does, Konzu does. Even Nakak does, and she''s a child." Her father nodded his head along with her words, as though he had already known what her objections would be. "While I do think that Nakak is a bit young to be talking to the Tenno, she is officially an adult. She engages in trade, just like her peers, and even if I were her parent, I would be unable to tell her to avoid trading with the Tenno," he said, thinking of the female mask seller in Cetus. "But you can tell me what to do..." Ko-lee quietly muttered. Sanza''s sharp glance however, let her know that she hadn''t been as quiet as she had meant to be. "You have responsibilities that Nakak does not, Ko-lee. I do not mean this as a slight to the young seller, but you will be running a settlement, which has a bit more weight than selling carpets and children''s masks. Hok, much like Nakak, may trade with whoever he likes. And when it comes to Konzu...," Sanza sighed, his eyes drifting to the north, where Cetus lay. "I don''t agree with Konzu on everything. I''ve made my stance on the Tenno clear to him, but he has bigger issues to deal with than we do. The Grineer actively encroach on Cetus, and the eidolons are too much to deal with on their own. He''s had to make some hard choices for the survival of Cetus and the Unum," said Sanza, as his eyes focused back on his daughter, "but we do not. We are not being encroached by an ancient Sentient, nor do the Grineer consider this land so important that they have deigned to crush us under their boot. You will need to make difficult choices, but you do not need to invite difficulty." Sanza looked at his daughter, trying to tell if his impassioned words made any impact on her stubborn mind.


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    Ko-lee, for her part, did take a moment to let her father''s words truly sink in. She knew that, just like her father, there would be times where she''d have to cut a deal or two with the Grineer, so that the settlers would be allowed to keep living on ''Grinner land''. But Ko-lee also saw the writing on the wall; the most recent discussion they had had with captain Jal Morgha was illuminating. The Grineer would push, and keep pushing, until the what little the settlement had was eroded away to nothing, and then the Grineer would use the corpses of her people as biomass for the cloning vats, or food for the ghouls. She didn''t want it to get that far, and she was confident that if they just kept rolling over, that eventually, that''s exactly what would happen. Her father, for the most part, seemed to think her fears were unfounded, but Jal was new. Her father had previously ''worked'' with a Grineer major named Ferrah, who was happy to leave well enough alone, as long as Sharip didn''t grow beyond it''s original boundaries. Ferrah had been promoted though, and was longer stationed on earth, so they got to deal with a new upstart who had got his hands on a small bit of power and was very eager to use it. "I... I understand Chief Sanza," said Ko-lee, nodding her head, as though agreeing to her father''s words. "I just want to make sure we''re safe. That Sharip is safe." She looked at her father, doing her best with her words to impress upon him the urgency she felt about this decision.


    "I worry that if we wait too long... then when, not if, the Grineer decide that they no longer want us here, that we will not be prepared. I''m not asking to station a Tenno beside every door. I simply want to get in touch with them, so that if it comes down to it, we have help that we can call. It would just be a measure of security," she said, feeling confident that he would understand. "I don''t understand why you believe that every solution needs to be solved with a sword in hand. Peace is not obtained by poking an ursa with a stick," Sanza said, his lips pursed. "I''m not trying to poke the ursa, I''m trying to be prepared for when the damn thing wakes up!" Ko-lee responded, her voice nearly raised to a shout. "Things will change! And you won''t be here. If something goes wrong, I''m the one who has to live with the consequences," she sighed, her voice lowering so much so that the last sentence was barely audible. "I don''t think I could live with myself if I didn''t do anything."


    Sanza looked at his daughter, looked at the stress that she carried in her shoulders, and closed the distance so that he could place a hand on her shoulder. "I know, lee-lee. I''ve made mistakes, and some of those mistakes still haunt me. I''m not trying to hold you back because I''m an old man who doesn''t know how to grow with the times, I''m simply trying to prevent you from making the same mistakes as I did. You might not see it as an aggressive act, but the Grineer will. Jal will use it, use you and Sharip, as a stepping stone, if you let him. You need to play it carefully, and dropping a Tenno into the situation would be akin to letting a bomb go off in the settlement." He mused for a moment, before continuing, "maybe literally. Even if you had a Tenno that you could call, what would happen if you did? We would likely be caught between the crossfire of an overwhelming military force and a one man army." His eyes flickered down to the zaw at her waist, her right hand unconsciously playing with the handle. "Once you have a weapon as an option, it will be incredibly tempting to use it as a solution for every problem. The Tenno will feel like a gun you can fire at anything. Need a tireless worker? A bodyguard? A soldier? A leader?" Ko-lee''s eyebrows scrunched in confusion at the last one, and she glanced up at her father. In response, he continued, "The Tenno may not speak, but their handler, the Lotus, does. It''s how you would communicate with them. She speaks through them. For them." Ko-lee was clearly shocked at the information.


    "I wasn''t aware of that," she said to her father. "But I guess it makes sense. If they don''t speak, they still have to be able to answer your questions somehow." Sanza nodded his head, then picked up from where he had left off. "The Tenno may be silent, but the Lotus is not, and she can be very charismatic, when she wants to be. She speaks in a soft manner, but with a quality that makes it very clear she will be listened to. And you have to remember, this voice comes from the body of a Tenno. That combination is very powerful, and ''very'' hard to say no to." Sanza took a moment to look at his daughter, and he knew that he needed to be explicit with his next words. "Ko-lee. I have heard your request as Chief in training of the Sharip settlement. As the current Chief, I am declining your request. You may not request the assistance of a Tenno, nor have any correspondence with a Tenno in any capacity for, or in regards to, this settlement." It was never easy to tell your kid no, no matter how old they got. However, he was the Chief of Sharip first, and a father second. She would live.


    Ko-lee, for all the emotion she had previously displayed in the argument, took her father''s words with grace. "I understand, Chief Sanza. I... I need to think on what you''ve said. I won''t be long," she said formally, and with all of the poise of a chief in training, left her father''s presence. And for a brief moment, Chief Sanza really did believe that she wasn''t bothered by his declaration. That is, until flavorful expletives echoed across the cobbled roads of Sharip, until finally fading in the distance, to the beginning sounds of rain.


    <hr>


    "I just don''t understand why he''s so damn stubborn," said Ko-lee, her boots stomping through the muck and underbrush. "I know he knows what I''m talking about, but it''s like he thinks I''m just gonna go power crazy once I can get in touch with the Tenno. But how would he know that? He''s not the damn Unum." Ko-lee''s muttering continued, as she wandered her way though the forest, without any particular destination in mind. But suddenly, she came to a stop, her hand quickly reaching towards the handle of her zaw. She could hear something echoing through the rain and the forest, like some sort of spirit trying to lure her in. She made sure not to move a muscle, and strained to hear the sound over the roar of the rain. "Whistling?" she muttered, her lips barely moving to make the sound. The Grineer didn''t whistle, but everyone in the settlement knew not to come out in to the forest. That technically included her, but as chief in training, the rules lay a little less heavily upon her.


    She did her best to creep forward towards where she believed she heard the sound from, as it occasionally wavered in and out. The situation was odd enough that she truly began to wonder if this was some sort of spirit; the intentionally discordant tones of the song enough to put her on edge. Eventually though, she made her way close enough to spot from a distance what was making the noise. "Who... what?" she said to herself, utterly confused at the sight. It was... a person? In really rough shape, from the look of it. But they looked odd, unlike anyone she had seen before. They were soft and vaguely round, as though they had never really seen hard labor, and their skin pale, as though rarely touched by the sun. Their skin was incredibly clear; none of the blemishes of early childhood adorning their face, arms, or any other exposed bit of skin that she could see.


    Speaking of exposed skin, they had a piece of cloth wrapped around their waist, and some sort of half fabric covering the top part of their chest. It was... pretty immodest actually, nearly showing off this person''s well endowed chest, and Ko-lee could feel heat rise in her cheeks. But it was clear that the clothing wasn''t designed like that, and had been repurposed for the wound. They also had a lower covering for both legs, with sewed on pockets near their thighs, like Grineer armoring would sometimes have for carrying ammo. However, she didn''t think that it was meant to be armor at all, just clothing. The style was strange, and nearly all black, save for a few colorful icons and markings on her clothes. Some sort of insignia, perhaps? She was leaning towards Corpus, although she saw nothing recognizable that would mark them as such, and none of the mechanical affects that were generally part of a Corpus member''s body. Their face was odd as well, having a more masculine jaw line, and overall, she couldn''t even tell the person''s gender, much less their allegiances. What was clear though, was that they were much too put together to be Grineer. And there was no chance she was going to leave them out in the forest to suffer.


    "Dad''s going to hate this," Ko-lee said with a smirk.

 The First Dream

    I was lucid, but I wasn''t awake.


    I could tell that much. I think most people have had a time in their lives where their dreams and wakefulness blend together into a collage of partially formed snapshots; your mind doing it''s best to commit to memory the various firing of your neurons with the same level of importance as any other experience. Sometimes it would happen during a period of severe exhaustion; a student, perhaps, that had stayed up too late doing their best to cram only a few more minutes of frantic study before an important final. Sometimes, it would strike during the middle of the night; a mom waking up at three in the morning to take care of a baby, her mind blending the care of the child with the whimsy of the dream. And sometimes, it would be because of a sickness; the body doing it''s best to going through it''s regular daily motions of wakefulness, but shackled by the exhaustion brought on by the disease coursing through the sufferer''s body. It was definitely the second one, in my case.


    Due to my headspace, it was hard to tell if what I was seeing and experiencing was real or just the product of a fevered mind. I was somewhat confident that the woman who was approaching me in the forest was real, since I could have been wrong in the belief that my kidnappers were going to let me die. However, she could have just been there to take a blood sample, or to dispose of my dead body as I passed away. Optimistically though, it may also be a rescue. One of the many things that didn''t make sense though was the outfit that I think she was wearing. It truly looked like bandaged clipped together with loose cloth hung haphazardly around, as though someone was going to an AU Grecian costume party. The snapshots of being upside down were probably not me getting waterboarded by the CIA, and were more likely my brain failing to understand that I was being carried somewhere, while it raining, and likely in some sort of fireman''s carry.


    What I was less confident on, however, was where I was brought to. It seemed like a village that you''d see in a history book, but with random innovations from a 100 different cultures. A hut with patterned plastic, or possibly metal walls, that looked vaguely like a bronze age British roundhouse, but smaller and taller. A road, or more likely a footpath, that looked sort of like the Roman Appian Way, with eastern Asian styled lanterns strung up across it. It was as though my brain was just creating a place out of elements from every Wikipedia deep dive I had ever done. On top of all that, it also couldn''t decide whether it wanted the village? town? to be in the future, or the past, so it was just using modern materials along with old building practices. For example, the lanterns were clearly solar and/or battery powered since they seemed to be fully encased, and they were glowing a bright neon blue color, likely with LEDs I couldn''t see. Beyond just the walls, there was a ton of clearly machined metal contraptions dotted about the place, enacting functions I couldn''t immediately tell the purpose of.


    But the most confusing thing of all were the people. There was just... too many. At least for my current running theory of having been kidnapped. These couldn''t be them, and it seemed unlikely that they were all also victims. Not that it would be impossible for that many people to have been kidnapped, but for them to all survive and build a community just outside the forest''s edge? How would you hide something like that on satellite footage? So, assuming that they weren''t the kidnappers or kidnapped, that left this being a genuine settlement of people just... living out here. Again, not totally impossible, but it did poke holes in my kidnap theory. These people would know if someone was just airdropping civilians into the forest. They''d also be able to get in touch with... Homeland Security? Something or someone like that, and shut down the operation. I could probably force the theory to work, like a round peg in a square hole, but the whole point of that theory was that it was the most physically likely scenario with the least amount of assumptions.


    Also, who the hell were these people? Beyond the obvious confusion of people being... wherever we were, they were all sub 5 and a half feet, although I wouldn''t be sure how short until I was back on my feet. As well, they were all skinny and muscly, like a bunch of malnourished Olympic swimmers or something. My mind was struggling to latch on to any of their faces as well, but there were too many unrelated racial features that didn''t make sense. If I had only seen a few faces, I would''ve assumed they were all related, but there was too many people for that explanation to make a lot of sense. It was obvious my brain was running a find and replace on the various people I had seen, because otherwise I had somehow been sent to another country that I had never heard of, nor had met anyone from.


    There was yelling now, with at least two voices. I strained to turn my head to look at where the sound was coming from, but every part of my body rejected the movement. I couldn''t understand the words, but they sounded somewhat familiar. Almost like listening to Prisencolinensinainciusol, that one song by the Italian guy. I wasn''t sure if it was an entirely foreign language that I knew a few words from, or if it was just English that my brain was refusing to comprehend as having meaning. I feel a shift from the person carrying me, immediately followed by a more feminine voice. Then I hear another voice, deeper and masculine, likely in their 50s or 60s, respond to the first voice. My rescuer arguing with someone in charge? I can''t tell if it''s going well or going poorly, and I''m in no position to try and state my piece.


    My eyes open, but I''m staring at a ceiling. It looks like it''s made out of a dark wood of some variety, giving (at least the ceiling) a vague 70s impression. "How long have I been laying down?" I wonder, as I try to place a timeline on the events I had just experienced. "Or did I?", I think to myself. It''s unclear if anything - the people, the place, the forest - was real. I go to close my eyes, to try to straighten out my thoughts, but I just open my eyes again to see myself laying in a hospital bed. My mom is sitting next to my bed, but she''s not looking at me, and my wife is at the foot, staring at a phone in her hand. "So she got T-boned, it''s not a big deal. People die. Stop being so dramatic about it," said my wife, looking utterly bored with the situation. "That''s... my wife wouldn''t say that?", I think, but I''m unable to voice the words. My mouth is covered by some sort of gauze, and my hands are chained to the bed I''m lying in. "At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it," my mom says, reading from the book in her lap. "That does sound like my mom though," I think, exasperated at her diving into scripture while I was a captive audience. "And the one who sat there had the appearance of marble and gold. A rainbow of blue and white light encircled the throne. In the center, around the throne, were four creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. Day and night they never stop saying: KU NOMA ELU RA KAH, MARA LOHK?" "Wait, what the fuck? What chapter is she reading?", I think, as I can feel my heart begin to pump heavily. Something was clearly very wrong.


    The monitor next to my bed starts beeping incessantly, and my wife looks up from her phone, her face wet with tears of blood. She sighs, and gets up from the plastic lawn chair she was sat on, and walks over to the monitor, unplugging it. "Don''t! Don''t do that!", my mind yells, but they can''t hear me. I do my best to speak, but all that comes out is a muffled grunt, easily mistaken for the normal sounds of distressed sleep. My wife sits back down, and our boyfriend enters the room, his face exuberant. "It went through!" He says, looking at my wife. "The life insurance cleared! That''s money in the bank!", he nearly yells, doing an awkward little dance. His cheeks are also wet with dried tears of blood. "Finally!", says my wife, standing up from the plastic chair, "so we can just leave her here then? The doctor will take care of the rest of this?" She''s already making her way towards the door. Our boyfriend follows quickly after, giving noises of affirmation. "That driver was the best thing that''s every happened to us, no doubt," he says, exiting the room, leaving me with only my mom. She continues to read passages from the book, but I can''t understand a word from her mouth.


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    The doctor walks in, and she looks identical to me, and she places her hand on the IV bag next to me, fiddling with the dials. "We don''t need another dreamer," she says in my voice. "I''m going to need you to stop lazing around." Her voice sounds like mine, but it''s off in subtle ways, as though an AI recreation of my voice.


    "Wake up."


    My eyes flutter open, and for the first time in what feels like forever, I''ve got full, genuine control of my faculties. I''m exhausted and sore, and my head is spinning and my mouth is dry, but I can tell from the all the little signals that my nerve endings are sending me that I''m completely and utterly present. I go to speak, to call out, but my throat is dust, and instead all I do is cough. I briefly flinch in anticipation of the pain that would no doubt shoot through my side, but while it does ache, it''s not nearly the sharp, anxiety inducing pain it was prior. My hand moves down to my side, and under the blankets I... wait, what? I stop focusing on the sensation of my body, and instead start really ''looking'' at the place I was currently in. It was a room of some design; possibly a bedroom, or guest room, by the looks of it. The walls were dark brown, similar to the color of the brownwood trees, and the floor and ceiling were much the same. There was a rough yellow fabric covering over what I assumed was the window, and a door to my right that was currently shut. The bed I was on was soft, but slightly lumpy. I couldn''t be sure, but it felt sort of like it was stuffed with down? The bed frame was made out of a softer, greener wood, and had an astringent oak smell to it. Lastly, the covers were soft, but on closer examination, appeared to be of a similar makeup to the curtain. My guess was that it was just a different technique applied to the same material.


    "This is maybe the weirdest thing that''s happened since I got dropped in the forest. What... the fuck is going on?" I think, unable to even begin formulating a theory. "Did I get rescued by a commune or something?" I make an attempt to get out of the bed, but my arms aren''t able to hold my weight like expected. I do a half shimmy, half pull up using the headboard, and make my way to a seated position, and from there, I swing my legs out of the bed. I''m breathing heavily, much more than would be expected for the minimal amount of exertion I participated in. "Yikes, how long was I out? I feel like a baby faun," I think, as I scan the room for convenient hand hold locations so as to avoid a sudden and violent meeting with the floor. I don''t find anything conveniently placed, so I decide to just use the wall, and I do my best to make my way to my feet. It''s an odd experience; I''m clearly lighter than I was before, lending credence to the idea that I may have been unconscious for more than just a few days. On the other hand, my muscles have atrophied enough that they don''t hold up the weight with the same level of efficiency, and so I also sort of feel heavier. I go to shake out my legs; first my left, then my right, all the while one hand planted on the wall. Feeling somewhat confident, I take another look around the room from this new perspective.


    From my new height, I can actually see that there is a small table in the corner of the room that was obscured by the foot of the bed. On the table, there appears to be something between a cup and a bowl made out of ceramic, that has what was likely water within it. I very confidentially begin to make my way over to the table, but half way across the room, I can feel my legs begin to give out beneath me. "Shit," I think, as the fabled meeting between face and floor gets the express pass to the top of my schedule. I try to move quicker, so that I can use the wall to steady myself and prevent the fall, but my leg doesn''t lift as high as I want, and I start to tip over. I reach forward, trying to use the table as an improvised crutch, but all that happens is the table gets roped into the floor/face zoom meeting. The bowl/cup that was sitting on the table, unhappy to be left out, decides to soak my head, then clatters loudly on the floor in protest. I''m unable to respond to it''s childish behavior however, because my face is smooshed up against the fine grain wood of the floor.


    The three stooges reenactment doesn''t take more than a moment, but I just lay there, feeling stupid and embarrassed for having tried to take a jaunt around the room after having just established how odd I felt on my feet. I can hear footsteps below me, and muffled voices echo through the walls, so I awkwardly roll over as to at least not be face down on the ground, so that when whoever it was that was that was currently rushing up the stairs burst into the room, I''d at least be able to face them. I listen to the sound as it traces throughout the house, but instead of a frantic burst like expected, I hear a quick knock. One-two, one-two, it goes, and I wonder why it is that they''re knocking on a door in their own house, before realizing my shirt is gone. "...!" I try to make a sound, but my voice is still dry, and all I manage to do is vibrate some air in my lungs. Of course, that immediately makes me start coughing, and in between my breaths, I try to let out a ''sorry, not decent, give me a moment!'', but I can''t seem to catch my breath. And as my lung tries to make an expedient exit from my body, I can''t help but notice I don''t even know where my shirt is, and the bandages have been changed as well, so it''s probably not even a big deal because whoever changed them had already seen me without a shirt on, and it''s at this moment the door begins to creak open.


    By this point I was no longer face down, but I was still very much on my back, so with a strength that I didn''t know I had, likely fueled entirely by how embarrassing it would be to be found on the ground sopping wet, I manage to scramble my way to a seated position against the wall, facing the door. The door finishes it''s slow open, and I come face to face (or rather, face to knee) with a very pretty girl. "Yea, that''s par for the course," I think to myself, as I feel my face slowly get red. I do my utmost best to play it cool though, as I get a look at someone who either took care of me or rescued me. Or maybe both. She was roughly my age, maybe a bit younger, around 25 or 26. She had short dark purple hair, clearly dyed as I could seem the brown roots underneath. Her eyes were a sharp, striking green, with long dark lashes that would make a mascara company furious. There was a scar on the right side of her nose that almost stretched across the bridge, and a spattering of dark freckles on her upper cheeks. Her face was... not quite sallow, but underfed, possibly? There was very little body fat, and while she didn''t look like she was starving, she also didn''t look like she had been getting the best nutrition her whole life.


    She looks like she could be third generation Asian American, but with a more pale skin tone of someone of European descent. It didn''t clarify where we were located, but did lend credence to the idea that we were still somewhere in the states; it was very ''melting pot''. She was also whipcord strong; she looked like someone who was used to manual labor, and it lent credence to the idea that she might''ve been the one to have carried me from the forest. I smile, and I reach out a hand for support, which she readily accepts. I go to carefully make my way to my feet, but she nearly pulls my arm out of my socket as I shoot straight up. There''s a smirk on her face that says that she knows what happened, as well as a dash of red on her cheeks. Feeling a smidge self conscious, I let go of her hand to cross my arms in front of my chest, and go to introduce myself. It takes a few moments for my vocal chords to begrudgingly cooperate, but I finally manage to stutter out a "Haha, hey, yea... sorry about the table. I''m Antimony."


    She just looks at me, her smile shrinking, and for a moment I''m worried that I''ve horribly misread the situation or something, until finally, she speaks.


    "Korhum to dap sei?"

 Dè´¸nde Estè°© El Ba?o

    "I''m... I''m sorry?" I say, to my rescuer. "Do you speak English?" She just looks at me with that same expression of confusion and subtle shock, before saying "Korhum, ay yamma gino?", slightly slower. "No, I still don''t know what you''re saying. English? You speak English?" I ask, but it''s clear I''m not getting through. Although the language is something I''m pretty confident I''ve heard before, I wasn''t sure what it was, or if I knew any words in it. "Parlez vous anglais? ?Habla ingl¨¦s? Uhh... Sprechen sie Englisch?" I ran through what few languages I knew how to say ''do you speak English'' in, but clearly none of them sparked anything. I''m at a bit of a loss as to how to communicate, and the unnamed person just keeps standing in the doorway, entirely silent. I have a brief moment wracking my mind on other ways we could talk; my brain considers sign language, and even toki pona (even though I only confidentially know 20 or so words of the minimalist language) before remembering that I have my phone in my front left pocket, and it should still have battery. I pull my phone out, and the woman''s eyes lock onto the bit of tech, clearly curious as to what I was planning on. However, now I only had one arm covering my chest, my other hand holding on to my phone, and I was feeling a bit ridiculous standing there with my tits out.


    "Uhm, shirt?" I ask with my phone hand, gesturing at the top half of my body. There''s a moment where she looks at my hand waving, clearly trying to decipher the movements, before her eyes roam over my chest again. She quickly spins around and walks away from the door and down a short hallway, the tips of her ears a bright red. "Not much I can do about that, you''re the one who took my shirt in the first place," I think, my face getting red anyways. It''s funny, when I was younger I didn''t need to worry about being topless, for obvious reasons. Early on in my transition, I still had that behavior, but at some point, my brain started getting uncomfortable about the idea. I had never been sure when exactly that had started happening, but brains can be funny like that. Eventually, around 10 or 20 seconds after she had left, the woman comes back with a version of thing that she was wearing. It was shirt adjacent, that''s for sure, but one that had had a fling with a poncho? I wasn''t entirely sure what to call it, but I was very sure that trying to put it on would be confusing and awkward. I take the poncho shirt from her, then make a gentle shooing motion my hand. She hands me the cloth, rolling her eyes, but plays along, and allows me to shut the door.


    "Everybody needs a thneed," I mumble under my breath, doing my best to understand how I''m supposed to apply the object to my body. After a few moments of fumbling, I finally get the thing to rest in a way that feels somewhat appropriate, and open the door. The woman is still standing there, and she takes a look at me for a moment, before saying "Ah pheer bay nil chik." I look at her, feeling a bit exasperated. "Yea, I don''t... whatever," I mutter, before focusing my attention back on my phone. She''s curious too, and once my phone turns on, I can see a bit of excitement in her eyes. "What is this? Is she too poor to have a phone? It didn''t really look like that sort of excitement though. I can''t get a bead on what she wants at all," I think to myself, speeding through the lock screen the moment my phone turns on. I wait for a moment for it to go through all of it''s startup shenanigans, keeping an eye at the signal icon at the top of the phone, but after 30 or 40 seconds, it''s clear that I''m not going to pick anything up. "Oh come the hell on," I think. "I''m literally in someone''s house! How is there no signal here?" I put my phone away for the moment, but leave it on, with the plan to check it periodically throughout the day just in case. I had also planned on using Google Translate to try to get some sort of dialog between me and the woman, but staring at my phone reminded me that I needed signal for that feature to work.


    Eventually, I turn my attention back to the woman, her eyes still glued to my phone. It looks like she is expecting something to happen, but eventually she realizes I''m not going to do anything more and her face falls slightly. "Wonder what that''s about," but I quickly brush past it, and go to introduce myself. I make sure I''ve got her eye contact, then point at my face, and say my name. "Antimony." I wait a moment, then repeat my name. Then I hold my hand out for a handshake, hoping that it''s a part of whatever culture I stumbled into, and quirk my head. I figure the less words I say, the smoother the conversation will go, and that body language will get us farther in these early stages. She looks at my hand for a moment, then looks at me, and before I go to drop it, she reaches out and grasps it firmly, shaking it up and down. Then, after letting go, she points at her face, and says clearly, "Ko-lee." I nod my head up and down, pointing at her face, and saying her name, before pointing at my face, and saying my name. She nods back, and I feel a surge of relief and excitement.


    "Alright, we''re getting somewhere! We''ve got names, people! Next up, world domination," as I watch her go through the same action. I go to make an eating motion, gnashing my teeth on the air, then follow up with ''eat'', and she responds with "bet". My mind briefly assumes that she just dropped some gen z slang on me, before I quickly file the word under ''eat/eating''. "At least, I hope what that means. Sure would be awkward if she really was hitting me with slang, or just saying some variation on ''yes'' or ''okay''." We make our way down the stairs, but my eyes cant help but roam over the construction of the building. It''s old, but not like 100s of years old. Old like it was built in the last 40 or 50 years, and had clearly been cared for and upkept in that time. But the house itself was strange, looking like nothing I had ever seen. The same design decisions from the bedroom extended out into the rest of the house, and the furniture was an eclectic mix of materials; mostly wood, clay, and metal. As well, the various different materials also had different designs to them, as though they had been built for wildly different purposes. It was like seeing a modern ikea table, with a historic jerry can right next to it. It was a bit confusing, but who was I to judge someone''s aesthetic taste? Mostly, I focused on staying upright, and eventually, we find ourselves in the kitchen.


    In the kitchen is an older gentleman around maybe 65, looking very distinguished. He has on a similar outfit to Ko-lee, but there were adornments on it that felt like badges or something. It was pretty clear he was in a position of some sort of power, but I wasn''t exactly sure what, or where I stood in the hierarchy. He had darker green eyes than his daughter, and the family resemblance was noticeable. He looks at Ko-lee, his expression tight, before looking at me, his eyes peering into my soul. He speaks, his voice more gravely than I expected. "Ah pheer bay nil chik." "Oh, it must be some sort of greeting then," I think, and repeat the phrase back to the gentleman. A look of surprise, or possibly confusion crosses his face, and Ko-lee quickly follows up with some words that are too quick for me to parse. "Yea baby, I''m a fast learner," I think, feeling pretty excited that I''m already picking up the language. I repeat the whole face pointing process with the gentleman, and learn that his name is Sanza. Ko-lee says another quick phrase, and Sanza gestures to some cut fruit that is sitting on the table in front of him. I thank him in English, and sit down at the table, my stomach deciding now was the best time to do it''s Jurassic Park expression. With an embarrassed smile, I reach out to the... fruit... in front of me, and take a moment to examine it.


    The fruit has been pre-cut, and it was very obvious as to why; the exterior of it was incredibly hard, somewhere between a coconut and a cantaloupe. Inside, it was a bright yellow pulp, with small black seeds in what would''ve been the center. As I bite into it, the texture sort of reminds me of a mango, but the taste is brighter, like a lemon. However, it is much more mellow and sweet than a lemon, with a bit of an aftertaste that makes me think of grapefruit. Overall, I am a big fan, even though I have no idea what it is, and I absolutely dive in to the rest that are in the bowl. While I eat, Ko-lee talks to Sanza, and occasionally I can hear my name being bandied about. "If I had to guess at the situation, Sanza and Ko-lee are probably father and daughter, and I don''t think daughter dearest asked permission before laying a stranger in one of their beds for an unspecified amount of time. She definitely saved my life, but I can assume that he probably knows that. So, this is likely the ''what do we do with her'' conversation, but since I can''t even understand what they''re saying, they don''t want to turn me out on the street. They''ve already made a claim of responsibility by saving my life, they just don''t know what to do with me," I think, as I finish up the pulpy fruit. "I need to do something to show my gratefulness, and try to explain to them what my next steps are. Someone around here has to have a laptop, or maybe they can point me towards the nearest city."


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    The fruit was a bit messy, and I don''t immediately see any paper towels or anything, so I go to wipe my hand on the top that Ko-lee provided me. "Ah! Antimony, khanung, khanung!", Sanza yells, his head whipping over to me. I freeze, my hands frozen over the front of the top I was about to wipe on. He reaches over behind him and grabs a cloth rag I hadn''t seen, and tosses it towards me. "Kruna metta!", he says, gesturing towards the cloth. I reach out for it, and proceed to clean my hands, Sanza looking... well, not vein pulsingly mad, but mildly miffed. I wasn''t actually sure how expressive he was in his day to day though, and since he was pretty level the entire time he had been having a back and forth with Ko-lee, I figure he just might not be a very expressive person. I finish wiping my hands and face and place the towel on the table, still not entirely sure how I was going to explain to them what I wanted. Sanza looks at me, then gives the smallest sigh I''d ever heard from someone, before speaking once more to Ko-lee. Ko-lee for her part, seems pretty happy with the declaration, and goes to pull me out the kitchen and then out of the house.


    As we exit the house, I am able to get a look at the place that I was in. I wasn''t entirely sure what I was expecting, but it wasn''t this. The place feels historical, in a way, but it was very clearly being used as a living place for all of these people. The roads were scuffed, the houses had clothes drying, and I could even see a few kids running around, although once they noticed me they ended up hiding behind the houses and various machinery dotted about. The houses have some sort of cladding on them, and I can''t help but put my hands on the wall of the one we just left. It feels hard, but also organic? The closest approximation I can immediately think of is bone, but it feels stronger than bone, and it was in big flat panels. It was clear that the cladding wasn''t meant for the houses in particular; it was likely some sort of scavenge. That being said, it looks appropriate wrapped around the various dwellings I can see.


    There was a number of things that I also assume are important, but their purpose is escaping me. For example, there is a jug of some sort of liquid in front of nearly every house I could see, almost as though they got milk deliveries (although I''m pretty confident it''s not milk). There is also little rocks with things carved into them, but the writing system is just as familiar to me as the language is. Which is to say, it does look familiar, but I don''t have a single clue what it means. There is also some level of commerce about, but I can''t tell what is being traded, nor what the money looks like. Overall, I feel incredibly out of my depth, so I figure I should stick to the single phrase that I know, but otherwise should just stay as close as possible to Ko-lee. For her part, it''s clear she''s on a mission to bring me... somewhere, but I don''t know how close or far that thing is, so I just keep my eyes peeled and my mouth shut.


    <hr>


    Ko-lee was incredibly excited that her father decided to go along with the plan. He did need to tweak it slightly, because apparently ''kidnapping a Corpus member is likely to get us vaporized from space'', but the tweaks would work just fine for her. Sanza had explained that as long as it was framed as a transaction, that the Corpus would be happy to acquiesce. Not everyone''s life was worth much, but it was quite likely that this Corpus member was high up in the hierarchy (if going by their general physique), and thus, were worth many credits. "Or equivalent," she thought to herself. Since she was forbidden to work with the Tenno, she figured the next best thing was getting someone as powerful as possible to stand on their side. In this case, the Corpus were powerful, but according to her father, were seen as less of a threat, because it was very clear where their allegiances lie. The Ostron were relatively neutral, so being able to call on the Corpus wasn''t out of the ordinary, and they were also generally more defense than offensive, with their extensive shield tech. Ko-lee wasn''t exactly sure how the rans- the mutal transaction was going to occur, so she knew she''d have to play it a bit by ear, but she figured that something was always better than nothing.


    "Hey Ko-lee! Hope all is well?" said Nathom, looking over at her curiously. He was supposed to be checking the lorrid''s, making sure that the lakewater was clean, but his attention had clearly been wandering from the gourds. "Oh Nathom, you''ve no idea. You see this lady right here?", Ko-lee gestured at the woman staring at nearly every object within 50 feet of them. "This is a high ranking Corpus member, I''m almost 100% sure. I saved her life in the forest, and I''m going to trade her off back to wherever she came from for some favors," she said, looking vaguely pleased with herself. "Oh, uh... that seems a bit dangerous Ko-lee. Have you talked to Sanza about it?" said Nathom, doubt clearly written across his face. "I have, in fact! This venture was Sanza approved! It was either that, or turn her out of the house after nursing her to health over the last 10 days. This was the compromise we reached." Ko-lee took another look at Antimony, hoping she was reaching out to a supervisor or something, but the woman seemed a bit lost, and hadn''t pulled out her communicator since she had first seen it. She figured that Antimony was waiting for a response, but Ko-lee was surprised that no one had gotten in touch over the last hour or so.


    "What favors were you expecting, Ko-lee?" asked Nathom, occasionally turning over a gourd in a facsimile of productivity. "I''ll be honest, I''m not entirely sure. I was sort of planning on playing it by ear," she said, feeling a little sheepish at the small hole in her plan. "Aren''t the Corpus really good at deals? Seems like you would want to do some research or something, before trying to get in touch with them.." Ko-lee felt her face grow red at Nathom''s line of questioning. "Obviously the Corpus are good at making deals, what was I thinking going in blind! I need to talk to Antimony first before anything, or I''m going to scammed out of my windfall!", she thought to herself, her mind quickly reordering her priorities. "Yea, that''s a good point. She... uh, her name is Antimony, by the way. Antimony doesn''t speak any Origin, oddly enough, so I figured I''d teach her a bit of that, see I can''t get a dialogue going. Maybe once she understands the situation, she''d be willing to argue on my side, or at least tell me some tips and tricks so I avoid making a fool of myself in front of her supervisor," Ko-lee said, nodding her head at her newly revised plan.


    "Seems like a good call. If you saved her life, there''s going to be some gratitude there that she''ll have that, unlike whoever is in charge of her. Just... don''t spend too long or they might think you''ve really kidnapped her," said Nathom, smiling at Ko-lee''s enthusiasm. His attention turned to Antimony, and confusion crossed his face. "Your top is inside out." Antimony''s attention locked onto Nathom, and with a small, satisfied grin on her face, she responded.


    "Your top is inside out."

 Welcome To Earth

    "Nailed the pronunciation and everything," I think to myself, and I can tell that the guy Ko-lee is talking to feels the same, because his eyes grow wide in shock. I do the whole face pointing thing, and he recovers, and repeats back "Nathom". So that''s at least three names under my belt, which I''m sure will eventually translate into finding a laptop or a payphone, or literally anything that would let me get in touch with the wider world. I know it''s only been maybe an hour or so since I last checked my phone, but I''m feeling impatient, so I go to take another look at it. Ko-lee sees me pull my phone out, and I can see some deliberation in her eyes, before she reaches out and snags the phone from my hands. I didn''t have a particularly strong grip on it at the time, because I wasn''t aware that she had a klepto streak, so the metal back slips easily out of my grip, and she stuffs it away in a pocket. "Hey, what the fuck?" I exclaim, absolutely confused by the turn of events. Ko-lee gives me a placating gesture, so I do my best to keep a level head while she explains the situation.


    I can tell she doesn''t know how to use the three words I know to form a functional sentence, so she hems and haws for a moment, before finally pointing at the sky, and making a ''no''. Then she points at the sun, and makes gestures across the sky, then follows it up with some short words I don''t understand. She''s holding up fingers as she does it, saying a word, then placing another finger up. "Is she counting something? Telling me to wait for something? What does that have to do with the sky and my phone?" The entire situation has me lost, and while I want to fight for my phone back, it wasn''t actually being particularly helpful, nor do I want to start shit with the person who saved my life. I hold out my hand, in hopes that she might just give it back to me anyways, but she makes the no gesture again, then repeats the whole sequence of events. It''s about as clear as mud, so I just throw my hands up in the air, and put them in my pockets, waiting for her to finish her conversation with Nathom, and hope that she ends up handing me my phone back at some point later in the day.


    There''s a brief look on her face, sort of apologetic and frustrated all mixed together, before she turns back to Nathom. She says a few more words, he responds, and they wrap up the conversation, both saying "Sho-lah" to each other. "Sho long and thanks for all the fish," I mumble, intuiting that the phrase is a goodbye. Ko-lee and I walk away from Nathom, and she turns to me at my mumbling, her expression lightening up. "chik, Antimony! Sho-lah ess sho-lah!" She gives me a wave, and pretends to walk off. I play along, and say "Sho-lah, Ko-lee!" giving her a wave back. She nods her head in affirmation, before adjusting my pronunciation slightly. Once she''s confident in my pronunciation, she takes a few steps away, then turns to face me, and walks back, waving.


    "Swazdo-lah, Antimony!"


    It clicks immediately. I mean, how could it not? Every time you go to Cetus, Konzu hits you with the ''Swazdo-lah, surrah!''. I freeze fully, every thought from the last 3 or 4 days being reexamined through this new lens. I can feel the adrenaline start rushing through my system, as though my fight or flight has been activated. "There''s no fucking way I''m in Warframe. There''s NO FUCKING WAY. This can''t have happened, that''s impossible, getting isekai''d is impossible," but even as I think it, my brain is filling in gaps and clarifying everything I had been struggling to understand since I woke up in the forest.


    The forest was toxic.


    The people are Ostron.


    The houses have the walls of the Unum.


    I can feel my legs wobble underneath me, and I decide that sitting is a better solution than collapsing, so I make my way down to my butt with an undignified thump. "Wow, that''s... this sucks. This... I mean... Warframe? Of all the places? Of every piece of media I''ve consumed, it''s fucking the one with the crazy space children and warcrimes?" My leg starts to bounce up and down, and I''m doing my best to keep my self level, but every thought, every plan I thought I had has just come tumbling down around me. "Oh my fucking god," I exclaim with a sudden realization, my brain having finally traced all the way back to the inciting incident. "THE BEER WAS CALLED VOIDTRIP? That''s a little on the nose!" and I can''t help but start laughing. It''s nervous laughter, my body expelling the energy it''s generated in whatever way it can, but I also can''t help but just feel so ridiculous. "*Am I just cooked? Maybe I can throw myself back in the void and hopefully end up back on eart- well, regular earth, I guess? Just... hope I don''t get my shit rocked by Wally? God, this is so stupid,"* I think to myself, and I can see Ko-lee making her way over to me, a frown marking her face.


    "Antimony?" she says as she approaches, with a look of concern. I just give her a thumbs up. "Swazdo-lah, surrah," I say somewhat quietly, and Ko-lee brightens immediately. "Surrah! Chik Antimony, surrah!" she says, followed quickly by something I don''t understand. I give her a shrug, and her face falls a bit, but it''s obvious that my untaught Ostron had excited her. I reach out for a hand, and she pulls me to my feet for the second time today, and I give her a "dah-dap," this time causing confusion. "Probably because I know like, 7 words and nothing else, and she doesn''t understand how or why," I think to myself, giving her a sheepish smile in return. Overall... I find that I''m not actually emotional about this. Obviously, of all the places to be stuck, the Warframe universe is pretty low on the list, but everyone (or at least everyone interesting) has thought about an isekai scenario. ''What would you do if'' or ''how long would you survive'', they''re fun little ice breakers that generally have little to no stakes because, well, this is the real world. That sort of thing doesn''t happen.


    Except it did, obviously, and so now I need to play it out. Warframe had never been one on the list, mainly because, at the end of the day, it''s a looter shooter. After 13 or so years of the game existing, a lot of content had come out for it, and thus a lot of lore, but most of it was disconnected random tidbits. There was never any deep exploration into why there''s only like 12 people in Cetus, or what the Tenno do when they''re not slaughtering their way through the infested, or in general what life was like for a regular person. There were some high level story beats that were fun to explore, but as far as boots on the ground for living in the world? It was a bit sparse. It''s probably why I didn''t immediately grok the Unum walls, or the now very obvious Grineer tech scattered about. "The Grineer armor I was using for a trap," I suddenly think to myself. "That''s actually really embarrassing that I didn''t catch that one."


    I realize that I''ve just been standing in the road with a slightly dazed look on my face for upwards of about five minutes now. Ko-lee has, for her part, been an absolute saint of patience, as she stands there watching me without a word. I do my best to gather all my scattered thoughts, and pull myself out of my head and back into the... real... world. "Sorry, sorry," I say, as I give her a smile and two thumbs up. I figure the best thing to do is to ''get some learnin'' in me'' so we can have a genuine conversation, so I gesture back to her house, and she nods her head in affirmation. We make our way inside, and I walk into the kitchen, which thankfully is empty. Sanza didn''t seem like a bad guy, but he did come off as a bit intense, and I wanted to focus on getting me and Ko-lee on the same page. I sit down at the chair, and make a writing gesture at Ko-lee. She hits me with a "Chik", and steps out of the room for a moment, and I put my head on the table. I''m not particularly tired, but getting hit with that bombshell was... like getting hit with a bombshell, I guess. "Woof. Alright, so, new plan then. Get in touch with the Tenno? Talk to the Lotus? Is ''get thrown into the void'' actually really the best solution? That seems crazy; I''m basically an adult. There''s no reason why I wouldn''t just go feral like with what happened on the Zaramin. Ughh, okay, forget long term. Short term, I probably want to make my way off planet? Actually, that seems like a bad idea too. I don''t have a space ship. Ughh, shit, they make the whole thing look so easy, but I guess players are sort of rich in Warframe. Okay, broader plans then. I need credits. Someway to get them that doesn''t involve the Index because Ha Ha No. My basic needs are currently being met, but that might not be a long term thing. Maybe-" my musing gets interrupted by the re-entrance of Ko-lee.


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    "Dah-dap," I say, as she hands me some paper and some sort of pencil. It''s wrapped in string, but the operation is straight forward enough. I test it a few times, then write my name at the top of the page. "Antimony," I point at it. She looks at me with intense curiosity, and I hand the pencil and paper over to her. My game plan for the immediate now it to try to assimilate my knowledge as best I can. I want to learn the written versions of the few words I know, and hopefully, by the end of the day, have one functional sentence that I can use and understand. Then, by next week, I can start interrogating Ko-lee for questions. Because as many hours as I had in the game, the one assumption I was not going to make was that this was a 1 to 1 recreation of everything I knew. It was already pretty clear that I was out of my depths. I wanted to know what was real, and what wasn''t. I wanted to know if I ended up in an AU. I wanted to know where in the timeline I was (and make some hard decisions if I was Pre-New War). Ko-lee, for her part, seemed happy enough to follow along, and took the pencil from me, writing what I assumed was her name on the other side of the page.


    This was going to take a while.


    <hr>


    Ko-lee was a little lost by the sudden turn around in behavior from Antimony, but she was utterly fascinated by the script that the woman was using to apparently write her name. "It looks nothing like anything I''ve seen before," Ko-lee thought to herself. "Definitely not Corpus." She was starting to wonder if her assumption was going to hold water, but she''d move forward regardless. She took the offered pencil, and wrote her name down on the paper next to Antimony''s. There had been a look of frustration and resolve in Antimony''s eyes since about 20 minutes prior that had seem to come out of nowhere, and simply from Ko-lee writing her name down, she saw that look grow. Antimony took the pencil, and for a brief moment hesitated; the tip hovering above the page. "Cetus", said the woman, before writing some more script down. She continued, jotting down script after each word. "Corpus. een fess tid. Grineer. Tenno. Alad V. Nef Anyo. Orb Vallis. Eidolon. sehn ti ent. Lotus." Most of the words Ko-lee knew, but occasionally Antimony would say a word that wasn''t one Ko-lee recognized. Each word she spoke was followed by writing in that same strange script as before. Eventually, after about 30 or so words, Antimony finished, although it appeared to be mainly because she ran out of room. There was a brief moment where she grabbed the paper, and Ko-lee assumed she''d start writing on the back, but instead Antimony slid the paper and pencil over.


    "I guess she''s trying to get a handle on the language. I should probably be teaching her Origin as well," thought Ko-lee, and she used some extra space between her writing and Antimony''s writing to fill in the Origin word for things. When Ko-lee started writing the second word, Antimony stopped her, with a inquisitive look on her face. Ko-lee pointed to her name, then spoke, "Ostron." Then she moved the pencil over to the Origin language, and spoke "Origin," although she said it in Ostron. She figured it would be best to label the two sides as well, so she wrote the respective names in their respective languages, and said out loud each word, so that Antimony could follow along. "Aw strahn. Aw strahn. Or ik en. Or ik en." Then she went down the list, tapping each word and speaking both the Ostron and Origin versions of each, as well as writing them down. Antimony, for her part, had an intense in her eyes, as Ko-lee ran down the list. Finally, when Ko-lee was done, Antimony took the pencil back, and once more went through the list, clarifying the pronunciation on various words, and using her script to write in what were likely notes in the margins around and between the words.


    The whole process took about three hours, and she did end up writing more words on the back, but they managed to get through the entire paper. In some cases, Antimony had to describe the word she was saying, such as infested. In other cases, the things mentioned seemed to be proper nouns that Ko-lee wasn''t aware of, so she couldn''t do anything to help for translations. Ko-lee was confused and a bit surprised at Antimony''s eclectic collection of knowledge. It was like she somehow managed to know a little bit about everything. She knew random bits of history, she at least knew of both powerful people and local people, and her knowledge didn''t seem to be limited to the planet. There was a good chance that some of the untranslatable words were people in various positions of power, but Ko-lee was unsure how Antimony was connected to them, if at all. However, they had gone through enough words that Ko-lee figured it was time to get some answers.


    Ko-lee pointed to the Origin word for Corpus. "Corpus," said Antimony, nodding her head. "Yes. Corpus. you?" said Ko-lee, pointing at the woman. Antimony looked confused, and shook her head no. "No?" said Ko-lee, mimicking the motion. "No," said Antimony, making a small note on the paper. Ko-lee had made sure to teach her a few words in Origin and in Ostron that would hopefully help her function a little more autonomously; yes, no, thank you, help, and so on. Antimony had been making small notes on the margins after every correction, likely to help her remember during the impromptu cram session. "No? You''re not Corpus? Well shit. What are you then?", thought Ko-lee. She was convinced, due to the softness of Antimony''s body, that she had to be some important person. You didn''t get that tall and smooth unless you had powerful resources, but she wasn''t sure who else Antimony could be working for (or with) if not the capitalist syndicate. "Tenno?" said Ko-lee, taking a stab in the dark. "No," said Antimony, but there was calculation in her eye.


    "*She might not be part of the Tenno, but maybe she''s worked with them before. There''s something more there, but I don''t know how to get it out of here with the words ''Tenno'', ''help'', ''food'', and ''bathroom''" thought Ko-lee, semi-sarcastically. Antimony was picking up on words rather quickly, but they barely had enough to string together a full sentence, and it would likely be that way for a while. There was no way that they''d be having a full interrogation anytime soon. Ko-lee decided she could make one more stab at it, with a word that they didn''t have on their vocabulary list. "Where?" she said, looking Antimony in the eye. Antimony looked confused, and her eyes drifted to the page, but Ko-lee grabbed her chin to force her to make eye contact. The brief moment added some color to Antimony''s cheeks, which then caused Ko-lee''s face to react in kind, but she did her best to ignore it. "No, Antimony. Where?" she said again, and this time flung her arms out, as if gesturing at the world around them. "You, Antimony. Where?"


    Antimony looked at Ko-lee waving her arms briefly, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration. "Where?" she repeated, waving her arms about alongside Ko-lee. "Yes," Ko-lee said, in confirmation. "Ko-lee Ostron where. Sanza Ostron where. uhhhh..." Ko-lee took a quick peek at a proper name that was written down that she could use, finding one near the bottom of the page. "Lotus Tenno where," she said, glad for her father''s recently provided knowledge. "Antimony..." she paused, to indicate the missing word that she was looking for, and finished, "where?" Antimony''s face lit up with the same expression she would get when she realized she understood a word, but it was quickly followed by confusion, and... sadness? She looked at her words for a moment, then looked Ko-lee in the face, and made sure to speak very slowly and clearly, as she said, "Antimony no where."

 I Know A Guy

    It''s been a week. I know logically that I''ve been here longer than that; after some back and forth charades with Ko-lee I was able to learn that I had been in a coma for 10 days. However, since I didn''t end up remembering anything from it, I figured it didn''t really count. Now though, I could actually count a week of wakefulness in the Warframe universe. That is 7 whole days of sleeping and waking in a house in the Warframe universe. 7 days of eating food in the Warframe universe. 7 days of completely normal, mundane activities, taking place in a universe that had flesh robots and magic void powers and corruption monsters floating around in it. Honestly, if I didn''t know those facts, from where I was standing, I could have just been hanging out in some sort of odd recreation village, or new age hippie commune. Other than the fact that I was still struggling to understand what people were saying, this entire setup could''ve been transplanted to somewhere in California or Oregon and I wouldn''t have really batted an eye. But the fact of the matter was that even if I hadn''t seen any of it, it all still existed in the same place I did.


    It was a weird thing to think about, and I kept getting hit with flashes of it as I was doing my best to focus on chores, or while I was eating, or hell, even while using the restroom. My brain would just drop in with a ''hey, you''re taking a shit within Warframe'', and I''d just be sat there like, yea, that is a true fact, even though it doesn''t seem entirely relevant to the toilet. And then I''d just have to keep trucking along. I''d leave the bathroom, and I''d walk outside and start working on my words, or I''d grab a bite to eat, and no matter how much my brain kept bombarding me with the fact, I still had to participate in general everyday activities. As well as the not so general activities. For example, the day immediately following the realization, we were eating some jerky, and I was enjoying it a lot, so I tried get some information from Ko-lee about what animal it came from. Ko-lee just looked at me strangely, and told me it wasn''t animal meat. Then I remembered, "oh yea, there''s a flesh building that people eat. I''m eating tower jerky". It was a strange moment, as my brain tried to reconcile the seemingly impossible fact with the very clear reality of the meat in my mouth.


    It wasn''t bad either! The meat was well preserved, and salted, and while it wasn''t something I''d want to eat every single day, that''s only because I''d get bored, not because it tasted weird. It did make me curious as to what non-jerky tower flesh tasted like, but I found out from Ko-lee during one of our language lessons that Cetus was some distance away on foot; about two weeks of solid journeying. While I did ultimately plan to go there, I wasn''t prepared to make that journey as of yet. Plus, I knew I would need to get someone to accompany me, since there was no way I''d be able to make that trip on my own. Beyond getting lost, I had no plans to get in another fight with a ''jackreature'', more commonly known as a jakir-et. When I explained to Ko-lee that that was the thing that had attacked me, and given me my wound, she had grimaced, and nodded her head in acknowledgment, pointing at the scar on her nose. She had had a run in with one when she was much younger, and much like the one I fought, it had gone straight for the face and neck.


    All that is to say, I''d need a chaperone to get there. While I was starting to get to know some people, like Nathom, it was likely going to be Ko-lee who got me there. She was the one I could hold the best conversation with, mainly because she was getting used to us needing to communicate half with words and half with hand signs. Plus, I''d be less likely to end up in another ''inside out shirt'' debacle. It took a while for her to explain that not only was I wearing the shirt/top wrong, but I had spent that entire day responding to people and telling them that their top was on inside out. To be fair, the only reason it took a long time to explain, was because she had to stop every 5 seconds to start laughing again. I could see the humor though, so I took it in good stride. As of this moment though, I was no longer working on my words with Ko-lee. I was actually with Nathom, checking the lorrids. They were an incredibly neat piece of flora, although I couldn''t get any answers on whether they were created intentionally, or if they were simply a product of their environment.


    A lorrid was a round, nearly gray colored gourd that was totally inedible for humans. It could range from 5 pounds, all the way up to 50, and generally looked like a summer squash with a wider, flatter base. It was mostly used by the Ostron settlers as a method to filter chemicals and other undesirables out of their water sources. The process was pretty simple, and just involved plopping the lorrid into some water, and then leaving it be for a while. It had to be in the dark to mimic it''s growth pattern, but that was easy enough to do by simply covering it with a heavy cloth. After about a week, it would have filtered out all of the chemicals, and nearly all the microorganisms, leaving almost entirely pure water. You''d still need to boil it if you were going to consume it directly, but it was a passive process that got the water 95% of the way to potability.


    A single lorrid can purify up to 10 gallons of water in a week, depending on the size of the gourd, and can usually be used up to three times before needing to be discarded. As it gets used up, it starts to turn yellow, although the color would be different depending on the chemicals it absorbs. In our use case though, it would have the same tinge as the the leaves of the various flora in Lyka forest, which was the name of the chunk of forest I had woke up in. Having done this process for a few days, I was starting to get an understanding for why Nathom was so lassiez-faire about the whole process. While it was super important to get it done, you only needed to check the water for any container every 30 minutes or so. At maximum efficiency, that''s exactly the amount of time it takes to check every container once. Alternatively, you could check each one every 2 to 3 hours, and not really notice a dip in water production. What''s an hour or two compared to a week of marinating?


    That being said, I had no plans to laze about like my mentor. If I wanted to convince Ko-lee to lead me to Cetus, I had to first convince her that it was worth her time and effort, and showing that I was actually trying when it came to the few assigned chores I had helped. "You are inakgm me look bad, Antimony," says Nathom, as I finish my final round for the day. "You tndo nede ot try os hard." I look at the brown haired man, whose eyes have the clear wrinkle of a suppressed joke. There were still words here and there that I wasn''t able to understand, but I had enough context from what I did know that I could generally piece together the meaning of sentences. "Work hard, Ko-lee likes," I say, shrugging. Nathom just looked at me, a small smirk on his face. He''s very clearly trying to goad me; my fragmented Origin missing the definite articles and prepositions needed to specify exactly what I''m trying to convey. "Ha. Ha. You''re not gonna get me to fall for it. Again," I think, as I finish setting all my tools down and start making my way towards the house.


    It wasn''t that I didn''t like Ko-lee... it was mainly that even considering the possibility felt like getting comfortable with being here. I had no intentions of staying in this universe, if I could help it, and so even if Ko-lee felt the same way, what would happen if I succeeded in going back home? "Oh, hello partners of mine. Sorry I''ve been gone for so long, I was sucked into an interdimensional portal that sent me to a video game universe. By the way, I know we''re supposed to clear it with each other before we start seeing new people, but I had no service, so I hope you don''t mind I hooked up with a Chief In Training from a village in said universe," I think to myself sarcastically. Plus, I had consumed enough media to know that getting entangled with the people in whatever new place just made it all that much harder to go home when presented with the option. "No, it''s definitely better for me to keep my head straight and hands to myself. I''m literally asking for trouble otherwise."


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    I open the door to Ko-lee''s place, and make my way towards the stairs, with the intent to get more practice in on my Origin with the flash cards I had been making. I don''t really have a lot to do otherwise; Ko-lee had given me my phone back but the battery was at 37% percent and I really didn''t want to spend time draining it until I could find a way to charge it. On top of that, while Ko-lee and Sanza do have a few books, it was all stuff that was too dense for me to parse through, and it was in Ostron on top of that. While I am technically learning Ostron and Origin at the same time, Origin is my main focus, and so I want to make sure to keep my focus there as much as possible. Luckily, Sanza was able to procure a children''s book for me to read that''s written in Origin, so I did have something with pictures and reference text side by side.


    As I pass by the kitchen though, I see Ko-lee sitting at one of the tables. She waves me over, and I pivot into the room, taking a seat across from her. "Hey," I greet, trying to get a feel for why she might''ve been waiting for me. "Probably not my chores; I''ve been pretty anal about doing those to a T. Maybe she''s got another children''s book for me?" I think, as I look into her eyes. There''s a focus there that I''ve grown to expect from Ko-lee; she has a one track mind, both positively and negatively. When she had her mind set on a task, it was like trying to redirect a moving train, which could either be very helpful or very frustrating depending on if you were in front of or behind the locomotive. "You want me?" She just looks at me, with an expression I can''t entirely parse.


    "Hey, Antimony. I want to ask semo questions. Aubt eoth future," she says, making sure to enunciate each word clearly and slowly, so that I can follow along. I just nod in response, and she continues, "We can understand cahe oethr better, so I want to ask you ainag. Where rae you from?" I take a moment as my brain chew on her words, trying to figure out how to explain the situation in it''s entirety. It''s tricky, because not only do I not have the vocabulary necessary to explain the nuances of where I''m from, but also because I still hadn''t decided if it was something I wanted to explain fully. I had been thinking about the situation over the past few days, because I knew Ko-lee would want more information about me, and how I ended up in the forest, but just telling her the facts from start to finish (putting aside the difficulty of such an endeavor) was a cognito-hazard. Once she knew, she wouldn''t be able to unknow, and I had no idea how she''d handle an idea like ''my entire universe is a fabrication, designed as a free-to-play video game in a higher reality''.


    Of course, I''m not sure how much, if any of that is true. It could be that this entire universe is actually the spasms of a dying human mind, or it is real and the original game director actually has a portal in his house that he uses to pop in and out of for some creative inspiration. Overall, it just seems like a mess to get into, so my plan was to just stick with a refined version of my original statement from when she first asked me. "I do not know. I do not remember," I lie, leaning hard on my 6 years of theater training. "My memory is..." I try to think of a word like missing, or fragmented, but eventually land on "...broken." Ko-lee looks at me, seemingly unsurprised by my words. "That is okay, Antimony. Ubt awht rea your panls for the future? Where wlil ouy go?" she says to me, scanning my eyes as though trying to read my mind directly.


    This is a much easier question for me to answer, because although I didn''t have every step laid out on getting home, I knew that it would (in one way or another) need to involve the Tenno. Since we were out in the middle of effectively bum fuck nowhere, I would need to make my way to the closest place I can could get in touch with one (Cetus). From there though, my planning gets incredibly hazy. What I would actually say to a Tenno wasn''t clear, especially since we were still pre-Second Dream, which I can easily tell from the fact that the moon is still missing. Success is 90% being in the right place at the right time though, so I know that ultimately I want to position myself so that I can strike when an opportunity is presented. "Cetus," I state to Ko-lee, nodding my head up and down. Ko-lee, for her part, remains silent, clearly wanting me to elaborate, so I continue, "Cetus. I want talk to Tenno."


    Ko-lee''s look sharpens even more somehow, and she prompts me to explain, but I know that explaining why I want to talk to the Tenno has all the same pitfalls as trying to explain my origin, if only shuffled around a bit. "Can not explain. Important." I say, doing my best to impress upon her my intention with the limited amount of words that I had at my disposal. "Important." Ko-lee just looks at me, clearly dying for more specifics. After nearly 10 seconds of silence between the two of us, Ko-lee simply sighs, and says, "I ma sorry, Antimony. Sanza seod not want Sharip ot hvae hiagyntn ot od thiw the Tenno. Ta estb, I cudol help you whit eth journey to Cetus-" but it''s at this point I have to cut her off, overwhelmed by the flood of language. I do my best to wrap my head around everything I had heard up to that moment, and repeat it back to her to confirm. "Sanza not want Tenno? Sharip? I talk Tenno, I Cetus?" I ask, my brain feeling like it was in the middle of it''s tenth set of pull-ups. "Yes Antimony. Fi you talk to the Tenno, you iwll eedn ot stay ni Cetus." Ko-lee just looks at me, with an expression that says that she doesn''t think I''d last a week by myself.


    For my part, I do think she''s right. I have maybe 10% of the language down, and it''s even less when I''m the one who has to speak it. Total immersion has been fantastic for my learning rate - "so much faster than French class" - but it can only speed me up so fast. If I were to try to make it on my own in Cetus, without someone there to lean on, I''d just end up as a bum in the market, relying on the generosity of people I could barely converse with. "Why Sanza no Tenno?" I ask Ko-lee, curious as to why he''d have an issue with them. I knew Konzu, and by extension, Cetus, worked with the Tenno. Sharip was an Ostron settlement, so it seemed like there wouldn''t be any conflict there. But it was possible that it was a Sanza specific issue, and I was hoping that it was something I could solve. "He thinks tath htye rea dangerous. He thinks ew wlli eb tgiininv danger, if we dise with them. The Grineer lilw nokw fi Sharip eritesnds talk to the Tenno," says Ko-lee, with barely constrained frustration written on her face.


    "Hmm, so this a Sanza specific thing. It''s classic old people stuff; if it ain''t broke, don''t fix it. But it seems like the sticking point here is that the Grineer would know if one of the Sharip people talks to the Tenno. Which I guess makes sense, it''s a two week journey on foot. They could probably just spot them during a fly-by or something. But I''m not part of Sharip, not really. I don''t look like an Ostron member, and I literally just showed up out of nowhere. There''s no way they''d connect me to Sharip if I went to converse with the Tenno. Even Ko-lee thought I was Corpus originally. Maybe I could convince him that it''s safe having Ko-lee ferry me back and forth," I think to myself, musing over the possibilities that were laid out in front of me. "Ko-lee," I say, looking at her from across the table. "I talk to Sanza."

 Round Two

    Ko-lee looked at Antimony. The woman was clearly still struggling with Origin, but was willing to try to argue with Sanza anyways. Ko-lee would''ve thought it was cute, if she didn''t find it so incredibly pointless. "There''s no way that Antimony is going to be able to do what I couldn''t. ...but I guess there''s no point in not at least trying. Plus, Sanza was very clear when he made his formal declaration. I may not request the assistance of a Tenno, or talk to them for or about Sharip. But I wouldn''t be the one talking, and technically it wouldn''t be for or about Sharip, it would be about whatever it is Antimony wants. And if Sharip gets brought up... well that''s just coincidence." Ko-lee smiled to herself, pieces of a plan forming the more she thought about it. "I could talk to Antimony on the journey, explain my position, and how Sanza is stuck in his ways, and as long as I don''t explicitly tell her to do anything on my behalf, I''m not really breaking the rules. It''s just the generosity of a friend at that point."


    "And why wouldn''t she be generous?" Ko-lee continued in her mind. "I did save her life in the forest. Most people would want to do something to pay it back, and a handful of days of yard work doesn''t really match up. Pretty much anyone would agree with me on that point." Ko-lee nodded her head, outwardly appearing to Antimony to agree with her request. She had begun to feel very confident of her plan she had just concocted, and was eager to get the ball rolling. "Okay, Antimony. You will talk to Sanza. He is at the lake," she said, being careful to enunciate each word, and avoid contractions wherever possible. The only sticking point in this plan was Antimony''s ability to communicate, but she figured that an earnest expression, along with Ko-lee in the corner, would do a lot to bolster the argument. "Also, how are you supposed to form an elegant argument when your opponent can only understand 30% of what you''re saying?" She thought to herself with a chuckle.


    As far as Ko-lee was concerned, it was already a done deal.


    <hr>


    I have this in the bag. The biggest issue is being unable to fully articulate to Sanza what it was I''m trying to say to him, but Ko-lee had let me know that she''d be willing to play interpreter between the two of us. My main goal is really to just convince him to let Ko-lee ferry me to Cetus, and then back again. Ko-lee seemed pretty sure that he didn''t want anything to do with the Tenno, but I wasn''t planning to bring them back for tea, I just needed an opportunity to chat. Once I did, I could set up some long term method of communication with the Lotus, and then we''d make our way back, simple as. I knew that, at least in the games, people could chat with the Tenno over long distances, but from what I can remember, it''s never explained. Everyone just has these floating head zoom calls whenever you''re in a mission, seemingly whether you''re a good guy or a bad guy.


    I''m not sure if it''s a Tenno specific device, but I was sure I''d have more information once we got to Cetus. Then, all I had to do was spend my time in Sharip, conversing with the Lotus and determining our next course of action while doing chores and what not, and I''d only need to bounce when I was actually ready to make a move. The Lotus (and the Tenno) would never come anywhere near Sharip, and so there''d be no reason to worry about them causing tension with the Grineer. "All I have to do is explain all of that to Sanza with 16 words under my belt," I think to myself, somewhat self-deprecatingly. Like most things in life, this was definitely a case of easier said than done, but I wasn''t planning on letting a little thing like ''feasability'' stop me. I get up from the table, and follow Ko-lee to the front door, and we head out in to the perfectly pleasant midday weather of Sharip.


    She starts her way down the road, and I make sure to keep pace with her, even as she is powerwalking to our destination. I have about a foot of height on her, which makes it easy for me to keep up with her eagerness. As we walk towards Sanza''s whereabouts, I look around the settlement, still somewhat caught up by the simple beauty of the place. "I know it''s not nice here, like in the Origin system, but it''s nice ''here''. The weather is great, everyone''s friendly, and I''m not really worried about keeping a roof over my head or food in my belly. I wish I could just transplant this little town with me when I make my way back home. Don''t get me wrong, it''s not nice enough to get me to want to stay, but I think everyone has at one point or another dreamed of having a little plot of land where you and 25 of your closest friends live. This feels like that, even if there''s quite a few more than 25 people here."


    As my eyes wander over the various houses and people in and around them, I realize that we are headed out of town. "Sanza... uhm. Sanza at lake?" I ask Ko-lee, stumbling over the preposition. I hadn''t had a chance to actually visit the lake yet, but Ko-lee had described it to me during the tour of the city. Apparently the river that wound it''s way through the trees of Lyka forest terminated at the lake, also named Lyka. So while I had nearly ate it in an attempt to make my way along the riverside, my initial thoughts of following the water had actually been correct. I just wasn''t able to enact the plan as successfully as I hoped. I can actually see the river from our current position, and my eyes follow it''s path to where I assume the lake is, hidden by the bulge of the road.


    My eyes scan the lakeside, and eventually, I spot Sanza standing beside a woman I haven''t met. The two are animatedly talking, and I while I can''t see his expression from this distance, I can hear him laugh out loud. It doesn''t appear that he''s working, and his good spirits bode well for making the request. I look to my left, but Ko-lee''s face is neutral, giving away very little about the woman, or the situation. "Not relevant then," I think to myself, as we get within range of a comfortable greeting. I take a breath, and just below a yell, saying "Hello there, Sanza! Great weather we''re having!" It''s a generic enough phrase, one of those nothing-burger sentences that you tend to learn early on, and use very little. In this case though, it''s a perfect greeting, and it allows me to close the distance so his response doesn''t need to be nearly as boisterous.


    "Ahh, hello there friend! And Ko-lee, erawht you two nigdo rhee?" he says in response, his eyes still shining from his exchange with the woman. He quickly says a phrase to the woman that I can''t understand, but it seems to be some sort of dismissal, and the woman gives a wave to Sanza as she walks off. Ko-lee make eye contact with the woman and nods her head once, but otherwise doesn''t interact with her. I just give her a wave, not really knowing who she is, or what the protocol is in this situation. "Sorry we... we here. You talking." I apologize, to the best of my ability. "Ohh, ahh, dtno worry tobua ti," he says, giving a dismissal with his hand. He says another statement I don''t quite catch, and this time, Ko-lee jumps in as response. I don''t catch all of what she says either, as it''s quite quick, but I do catch Antimony, Cetus, and Tenno as keywords in the sentence.


    Sanza immediately focuses up, looking sharply at Ko-lee, before softening slightly while looking at me. In this case though, it''s like a rock that''s been polished slightly, and the look is still incredibly firm. "Mi sorry, Antimony, but eewr not tctienringa with the Tenno, iinhtw Sharip. Tsi a safety ssieu, I''m reus you can understand," he says, locking his eyes with mine. I take a moment to chew on his words and my response, before saying, "I am no Sharip. Antimony... different-" "Separate," Ko-lee corrects me, and I continue with a nod, "yes, separate. Grineer no know Antimony. Antimony safe talk to Tenno. Antimony know Tenno...," but I am struggling to find a word that explains that I want to do an information exchange with them. My pause is too long, and Ko-lee starts to look at me strangely, my sentence''s meaning having been warped by the pause. "Ahh, no. Uhm. Antimony talk to Tenno, Tenno talk to Antimony. Same," I say, before deciding to sidestep the issue and get to the heart of the matter.


    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    "Ko-lee bring Antimony to Cetus. Safe with Ko-lee. No safe with no Ko-lee. Please," I implore, finishing up on the only politeness word I have in the toolbelt. After a moment of silence, Ko-lee steps up, and I assume, fills in some of the gaps of my request, although her speech is a bit fast for me to follow. The day isn''t over, but the work portion of the day is, and my brain is exhausted from having to try so hard for every single word. "This is more talking then I think I''ve done in the last three days combined. I''ve mostly been sticking to my flash cards and listening. I''m glad Ko-lee''s here and we''re on the same page, otherwise this would''ve been a nightmare to explain," I think to myself, as I wait for Ko-lee and Sanza to finish going back and forth. I do keep picking up words here and there, although they''ve switched to Ostron by this point, which I''m definitely weaker in, so I mostly am just hanging out and watching their faces.


    After what feels like 10 minutes of back and forth between the two, Sanza nods his head once, and Ko-lee smiles brightly. Sanza turns to look at me, and says in Origin, "Ko-lee and I eahv moce ot a decision. She iwll njueryo whti you to Cetus, where you two iwll ayst orf two weeks. You yam vncorese twih the Tenno, and econ you ehav enod os, you lwil eb alwleod ot nruert here. Hevewro, ti si important taht you understand atht I od nto aehv yna resedi orf ftccilno tiinwh teh settlement. Any nrecosdcneepro you heva wiht the Tenno lliw pahnep whntii Cetus, and lwil nto eb boghtur kbac here. You lwli ton rnbgi the Tenno ackb hree, onr ask htme ot whos pu rehe artfe eth caft. Si tath clear?" says Sanza, his eyes searching mine for understanding.


    "As mud," I think to myself, but I''m sure that Ko-lee will walk me through all the specific do''s and don''t later down the line. Broadly, I knew he didn''t want Sharip and the Tenno to have any interactions, so I figured he was just being more specific about that, and since I didn''t have any issue with it, I nodded my head. "Clear, friend!" I lie, hitting him with the double thumbs up. Sanza takes a moment more to look me in the eyes, before he softens up and starts smiling again like I had seen when we first approached. "Man, it''s like Sanza the Chief versus Sanza the dad. That would''ve been intense to grow up with," I think, as I lock eyes with Ko-lee. She seems super happy about the outcome, more than I would''ve expected, since she was going to have to hand hold me through the forest for two weeks. But regardless, I was glad to have her on my side.


    <hr>


    The following day, Ko-lee pulls me aside before I get a chance to step out for some more lorrid fondling. "Antimony," she starts, her eyes twinkling with a mischievous flare. "you are soft," and pokes me in the stomach. "Umfh," is all I manage to say in response, as her poke nailed me in the solar plexus, immediately taking my breath away. "I know," I say, rubbing the spot she poked me. "Why?" I ask, assuming that the metaphorical and literal jab at my weight had a purpose behind it. "You oamlst died in Lyka forest. Next time, you imhtg really die. So, practice," she says, holding up the zaw she always keeps strapped to her side, and continues, "I wlil kema you strong. More strong, more safe."


    I found myself nodding my head along with her statement, not having an issue with what she was saying, in theory. "I''ve always wanted to lose weight, but it''s hard to find the motivation. But not getting merc''d by another one of the jackrabbits from hell is a pretty good reason for motivation. Plus, I''ve never had a personal trainer before. I probably won''t even be able to slack off if I want to, since she knows where I sleep. I just wonder what she has in mind for training," I think to myself, looking at the viscous weapon at her side. "How practice?" I ask, as I tear my eyes away from the zaw, and look back towards her face. She looks at me, and with a malicious grin, says one easy to understand word. "Run."


    I knew immediately, it was a time for action, not questions, so without a single stretch under my belt, I take off in a dead sprint, headed towards the lake, since it''s the only waypoint I can think of that is away from Ko-lee. Within moments, I''m huffing from the exertion. "Yea, two weeks of traipsing through the jungle would''ve had me laid out on my back, let''s be honest. I wonder how much training we''re actually gonna do before we leave though, because I already hate this," I think to myself, my mind wandering from the task at hand. I start to slow slightly, wanting to pace myself since I had taken off at full speed, but the moment I start to, I feel a sharp sting in my thigh, "Ow!" I exclaim, as I go to slap off the bug that had just stung me, but instead my hand touches the cold of metal, and my eyes shoot sharply down and to my left.


    I was under the assumption that Ko-lee had still been standing near the front door of the house, as I didn''t hear her follow after me, but I was very clearly wrong. Not only was she keeping pace with me with little to no effort, but she had been doing so so quietly, that even as I was staring at her I couldn''t hear her footsteps on the cobbles below. "Well that''s kind of insane, how is she running so quietly?" I think to myself, but the second my mind strays from the run, I immediately get smacked again. "Why!?" I half yell, half puff out towards her, the sting of the the flat side of the blade having struck the exact same spot that was still prickling from before. "When you think, you slow! No thinking! Jstu running!" she says with ease, and I can''t find the words to formulate a response. "No think", I think to myself. "Only run. Only running. I imagine it''s probably because if I get in my own head, I star-" "OW OKAY FUCK," I yell in English, having immediately been caught again. "I can''t really not think! I''ve got fucking ADHD, not that you would know what that is, for fucks sake! You wouldn''t happen to have so addy on you? No? Then please stop smacking me!" I rant in English, my chest heaving in between every word or two.


    The few times I had exercised before, I had done so with music. It was one of the few ways I could somewhat turn my brain off, but even if I had brought my phone with me, it would only end up dying after an hour or so of playing from the music I had downloaded. I would need something else to focus on, something that could keep my mind busy, but also not be so engaging that my pace began to flag. My feet continue to hit the cobblestones in front of me, and I keep my eyes glued on my target''s rough position, doing my best to avoid my mind wandering into unrelated tangents. I can hear my huffs and puffs, my chest already feeling tight from the small distance traveled, and I feel every thud as my feet hit the well laid stonework beneath.


    ''One-two-three-four'', my feet go, and I start to adjust my length slightly so that each step is a little more even. I can hear the pace better than I can feel it, and I push just a little harder to get my feet sounding more like the beat to some sort of song. I do my best to focus on breathing in through my nose, out through my mouth, and I can hear the different cadence between the two forms of air movement. I stagger my breath so that it sounds like a polyrhythm along with the sounds of my foot, making sure that my breath is still even as I do so. I simply let the sounds intertwine with each other, and I can feel my arms start to pump in syncopation with the vibes that are forming. It''s as though each movement of my body, in and out, is hitting a beat on a drum set, creating a rhythmic pattern that I''m finding hypnotic to listen to. I''m so focused on my body, that I barely notice Ko-lee''s voice trying to reach my mind. "Antimony!" I hear her yell, and for a moment, I''m entirely aware again. "What?" I say, turning my head to look at the smaller woman behind me a ways. "Water," she says, and then I trip and fall face first into the lake.

 An Even Fight

    I can still feel the slap from when I smashed into the surface of the lake two weeks prior. When I went under the water, I definitely had a moment of panic, since I had assumed that the toxicity I encountered in the river that fed the lake would hurt me, but after Ko-lee finished laughing at me, she let me know that the momentary dip wasn''t going to cause an issues. "We dpmu old lorrids in lake. Each one deos a little tbi fo cleaning. Do not drink the water, and you lwil eb okay," she had said, in between her bouts of mirth. My impromptu swimming excursion however, was no excuse to stop exercising, and so I had to finish out the day with an extra ten pounds of water soaking me to my bones.


    Since then, Ko-lee has been a relentless task master, pushing me harder than I was prepared for. She was still letting me have a rest day (a single one!), but otherwise I was either building my endurance, or learning the various weapons that she was planning on bringing with us on the trip. In this case, it was a wooden representation of her zaw, as well as a Kraken pistol. The zaw I had seen a few times before, but she was teaching me how to wield it more intelligently, and not just "flail around like a kuaka in the rain". The Kraken, on the other hand, was a little bit more familiar to me, because while I hadn''t ever really needed to swing around a weapon back home, I did have a modicum of firearm experience under my belt.


    I''ve been to a range a few times, and I''m also American, so... pretty self explanatory, I think. In any case, I didn''t immediately do something stupid like look down the barrel. That being said, when Ko-lee handed me the weapon for the first time, I did feel a little out of my depth. It was the same as the weapon from the video game, but so incredibly solid and real. There''s a world of difference between knowing about something, or seeing it on a screen, and having a physical version of it in your hand, and all the little details that I hadn''t noticed when playing Warframe were suddenly wildly apparent to me.


    The weapon was heavy, like the bigger Smith & Wesson handgun, but also had a chunkiness to it that made me think I could throw the thing off a skyscraper without issue. The gun was top loaded, and there were a number of vents on the side of the weapon that helped with offgassing, as well as battery packs near the bottom of the gun that powered a chunky flashlight near the front of the barrel. At first I thought that the balance of the weapon would be thrown off, but I found that the weight of the light helped offset the weight from the batteries, and the entire thing relatively comfortable to hold, if a bit heavy.


    When I had asked Ko-lee about replacements for the batteries, she got an odd look in her eye, and let me know that the batteries didn''t need to be replaced. Apparently nearly all Grineer tech is powered by radioisotope thermoelectric generator batteries, or RTG for short. That''s why so much of the Grineer tech was so bulky; it was shielding to encase the radioactive devices. When I learned that, I was understandably reluctant to hold on to the gun longer than necessary, but she let me know that even if the shielding broke, I wasn''t going to just melt away instantly. "Whatever ti asw ttah destroyed the weapon si the bigger issue, in that case. No ende ot worry toaub the gun," she said with a smirk.


    All of that was about two weeks ago though. Now, her and I were traipsing through the woods looking for trouble. "How we find jakir-et?" I ask Ko-lee, doing my best to keep my voice level. I''m understandably apprehensive about coming face to face with the creature that took a chunk out of my side, but unlike last time, I actually have something to fight back with. Also, Ko-lee. Still, the nerves are making it hard for me to not speak really loudly, and the slow deliberate movements are taking more out of me than I was expecting. "Take long?" I ask, after nearly 20 seconds of silence.


    "Longer fi you keep talking," Ko-lee whispers to me, her eyes scanning the forest floor. "Well we''ve been out here for an hour and you''ve said 10 words to me in total since we got here, so excuse me if I want to have some sort of plan other than ''wander around and hope we stumble into the damn thing''" I think to myself, but I make sure to keep my mouth shut. Ko-lee was sometimes a bit hotheaded and a bit stubborn, but she also grew up near these forests and was a lot more comfortable out here than I was. If she said ''wander around until we see a jakir-et'' was the best way to find one, well, I didn''t really have a leg to stand on.


    I turn my eyes around the forest as well, doing my best to scan behind us, just in case one wandered behind our backs, or to make sure we weren''t being stalked by something. Because of that, I don''t notice that Ko-lee had stopped in front of me, and I end up bumping into her in the worlds slowest collision. I''m able to keep my balance though, rather than collapsing to the forest floor, and I peek around her shoulder to see why it is that we''ve stopped. At first, I can''t tell what we''re looking at, but just in front of Ko-lee, and off to the left, half behind a tree, is a jakir-et.


    I try my utmost to focus my eyes, to see if I can see a scar on it''s face or it''s head, hoping against hope that I can get some revenge against the one that nearly ended my life, but while I do have a clear look at it, it''s turned in such a way that I can''t get a good view of it''s front. What''s more, it''s far enough out that even if it was standing right out in the open, my eyes would likely fail to pick up the fine detail. "Still, would love to imagine that it''s round two between me and that son of a bitch. You might have freaky vampire teeth but we''ve got human ingenuity, bitch!", I think to myself, as I lower my body to a more stable position. Ko-lee starts to back up slightly, and she reaches into the holster to hand me the Kraken that she was carrying on her right side.


    I take the gun with my left hand, and toggle the switch that changes the weapon from a burst fire mode to a single fire mode. When I was first shown that functionality, I was actually sort of shocked, because the Kraken was one of the first guns I had used in Warframe, after I moved away from the Mk. 1 Tenno gear. I remember having difficulty with the two bullet burst that the handgun fired, and missing nearly half of my shots because of it. It took me a while to get a handle on the recoil, before I had found that there was a mod that actually reduced recoil, and I ended up slapping that on the gun instead. All that is to say, I''m very confident that the gun did ''not'' have non-burst functionality, and was pleasantly surprised when Ko-lee showed it to me, if a bit confused.


    "I don''t really know what that means, as far as Warframe lore versus here. But I guess it shows that the two aren''t perfectly exactly identical, which... I guess that''s pretty obvious. There''d have to be differences; the game didn''t realize dive into the minutia of every little thing. Hell, I can''t even see a way to mod the gun, and that is a big portion of how the game works. Whatever, it is what it is," I think, as I focus on the jakir-et in front of me. "Relax, friend," Ko-lee said, leaning in close to whisper in my ear. Her breath is warm, and I can feel the tips of my ears burning, but I do my utmost best to keep my mind on the murder rabbit, and not how nice her arm feels resting on my back. "Yup, literally so relaxed right now," I think sarcastically, trying to prevent the adrenaline from making my hand shake.


    I take a deep, slow breath, hold it for a moment, then let it out equally slowly, and I can feel my heart rate slow down slightly. I gently rub my left hand index finger on the switch to make sure that the handgun is out of safety, then check the one below it to see if it''s in single fire, and finally, I slowly begin to squeeze the trigger. Just as the gun fires, the jakir-et sniffs, and it''s head perks straight up, but my focus isn''t broken, and I follow through on the trigger pull. The gun kicks in my hand, the recoil strong but not unexpected (as I had fired the weapon before), and the crack rings out through the forest. I can see the central arm of the jakir reaching towards the ground, as it no doubt was going to launch itself in a direction to escape the sound, but the bullet crossed the distance before it was able moved an inch.


    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    The jakir-et is thrown by the impact of the round, and it''s body immediately tries to get up to scramble away. But my shot was center mass, and all the core muscles it would use to maneuver itself to a standing position are malfunctioning. I stand up, and reposition myself so that I can continue to have a clear shot on the jakir-et, but as I go to fire, it manages to spaz away. The bullet strikes the ground within 6 inches of it''s face, causing the jakir-et to panic, and it finally regains its stance on it''s feet, no doubt powered by adrenaline. "Antimony, it is okay! You eahv hit the jakir-et, Ti lwii die. You od not need to rush," said Ko-lee, her voice louder to compensate for the ringing we both had in our ears.


    I take a moment, and watch as the jakir-et struggles through the underbrush, doing it''s best to stumble away from me and Ko-lee. However, it''s clear she''s right; the jakir-et is quickly losing blood, and it''s movements are slowing as it half hops, half drags itself away. The jakir-et is already dead, it just isn''t aware of it yet. I move closer, and the jakir-et looks at me, giving a half hearted snarl. I don''t feel particularly bad for the thing; it''s an ugly, vicious creature, and it would happily tear my throat out if given half a chance. I have no intention of letting it suffer though, and once I''m close enough to guarantee a shot, I put one right between it''s eyes. I take a moment, looking down at the immediately lifeless creature, and feel...


    nothing.


    "I mean, I guess. I''m not sure what I was expecting, but I kind of thought I would''ve felt something. This is the first time I''ve ever killed something and all I''ve got is that it kind of smells. I never did get the chance to go hunting with my wife''s aunt, but all in all, this was pretty easy. I''d even hazard to say it was fun. Child of the internet I guess; you get inured to death when you see a dude get decapitated when you''re 12," I think, and I place the weapon in my holster, switching on the safety. I turn to look at Ko-lee, and she''s got a smile on her face, but as she approaches me, the smile begins to drop. I''m about to ask her what''s wrong, but she moves from a walk to a sprint, and as she passes me she reaches out and grabs my arm, nearly ripping it out of my socket as she pulls me along.


    I can feel my heart start to race, and it''s pretty clear that ''something'' is wrong, but I can''t tell what. My eyes are flitting from tree to bush, trying to figure out what it is she''s pulling us away from, and I don''t find an answer before she bodies me into a bush, nearly crushing me as she jumps in after. I do my best not to thrash around, since I know that whatever we''re running from would likely come investigating the shaking bush, so I just breathe with my mouth open as wide as possible, to get as much air in as quietly as I can. I look at Ko-lee, whose eyes are wide open, but her mouth is pressed firmly shut, and I figure now''s not the time for 20 questions.


    We both wait there in this awkward position, the leaves and sticks of the bush jabbing into every part of my body, and my eyes scan the little bit of the forest I can see from my upside down position, until I notice a peculiar shuffling sound. I focus all my attention on my ears instead, trying to pick apart the sound in my mind, and the shuffling slowly gets clearer as it gets louder, until finally, I can determine it''s origin. "That''s... footsteps. And metal? It sounds like someone walking in heavy gear of some sort. Ko-lee told me that no one was supposed to come into the forest, except for like 5 people, but this sounds like 50 people. Who the hell-" my thoughts are immediately cut off as I hear the unmistakable sounds of voices.


    Of the Grineer.


    "Holy shit, that can''t be good. Are they going to fucking kill us? How ''not allowed'' in the forest are we? Ko-lee has mentioned that they have somewhat of a truce with the Grineer, but her throwing me into the bush isn''t really filling me with confidence that we can talk out way out of this," I think, my heart beginning to pound heavily. I know it''s an absurd thought, but my heart is trying so hard to jump out my chest that I even start to worry that the Grineer are going to find us just from it''s sound. In an attempt to separate myself from the situation, I close my eyes, and instead just focus on the sounds I hear, as though I''m listening to a livestream of someone playing the game as I fall asleep. "It''s fine, it''s no big deal. Words, words, Tenno skoom, et cetera, et cetera," I think to myself, but then my eyes shoot open at a phrase.


    Sharip.


    I keep listening, and within moments, I hear another.


    Sanza.


    "Maybe it''s totally normal. It''s just like... a power play or something, but, they don''t actually need the entire force, it''s just so they can appear strong or whatever during negotiations," I knowingly lie to myself. If it was just meant to be a power play, Ko-lee''s face wouldn''t be turning ash in front of me, and she wouldn''t be shaking with anger. But I tell myself what I need to hear, and after an excruciating 15 minutes, she finally lets me up. I pull myself out of the bush, and look around, half expecting to see the Grineer troops off in the distance, but I had spent the entire time listening to them march, and I knew that they were long gone by this point. "What... what the fuck was that?" I say to Ko-lee, before quickly correcting myself in Origin. "What Grineer? Why?"


    Ko-lee just looks at me, her hand unconsciously handling the grip of her zaw. "His name si Jar. Colonel Jar. He si het head of hte Grineer mcanpoy that eoseervs Lyka forest. He si a lot worse tahn teh last one. He si wyh I worry about Sharip. He slohdu not eb here," she says, a look of intense concentration and focus on her face. "What we do?" I ask, unsure of the protocol. It''s clear from what I picked up, and from her body language, that she''s debating within herself the next best course of action, but I''m fully out of my depth and am unable to help. "I don''t know what Sharip normally does in this situation. Surely they''re not supposed to be here. Are we supposed to try to fight them?" I think, trying to remember if Sanza ever gave me a "what to do in case of sudden Grineer forces" rundown.


    Ko-lee just looks at me, her eyes still sharp. "Jar comes in pprsdioh," she says, giving me hand motions to explain the missing word. "Normally only 5 Grineer. Not 50, and not ormf the forest. This is very bad. If he seus a dropship sa lelw, then Sharip iwll eb surrounded. They wton eb abel ot escape. We need ot egt ni front fo eth soldiers, but tyeh tacn know thta we are here. Lwle need ot atek hte long way uradon," she says, half speaking to me. I do my best to keep up with her words, but it''s clear from the increased rate of speech and the use of contractions that she''s not really focused on my ability to understand in this moment. Still, the gist of the meaning was clear from her ever moving hands that Sharip was likely going to end up surrounded here in the next couple of hours.


    I wasn''t entirely sure how we were going to sneak around the entire platoon of men that had a headstart on us, reach the village, and evacuate nearly 2,500 people before anyone noticed, but I didn''t really have a better idea, and so, me and Ko-lee began sprinting though the forest, somewhat perpendicular to the path we had initially come in on. I was doing my best to stay focused on a best case scenario; we''d reach the village, and maybe extract the children and/or elderly, and have everyone else armed, or barricaded, whatever was safer. But no matter how much I tried, I couldn''t help but think that we weren''t going to get the best case scenario.


    Not even close.

 The Gods Are Bastards

    Ko-lee and I make our way through the underbrush towards Sharip as quickly as we can. If we were allowed to sprint straight from our original position to the settlement, we could''ve been there in an hour, but we had to make an awkward L shaped path to avoid running into the Grineer troop that had passed by our position. We didn''t want them to get even a hint that we were nearby, so we made sure to circle roughly around where we thought they were, before we cut back in towards Sharip. What''s more, as we moved, we''re still being vaguely quiet, because neither of us knew if that was the only troop that we would run into. No words were spoken, even though we didn''t really have a plan once we got back.


    I was entirely on board though. Even though I didn''t grow up in this universe, I had put enough hours into the game to know that the Grineer were almost always unequivocally evil. There were groups like Steel Meridian, and guys like Kahl-175, but they were literally grown to be instruments of war. They would absolutely shoot first and maybe never ask questions, so I wasn''t planning on trying to do the diplomacy route. If I needed to take some shots at some rolly-polly soldiers, I was absolutely willing to pull the trigger. "I just, don''t think that we''ll win if that happens," the thought coming unbidden to my mind. "As much as I''d like to solo the entire platoon, I''m not a warframe. I''m literally wearing a bundle of cloth; a single stray round would put me in the dirt, and I feel pretty confident in saying I don''t have respawns here. Whatever our strat, it needs to be smart and quick, not dumb and brave."


    I look at Ko-lee, but her face still has the exact same expression it''s held for the last hour and a half. It''s one of single minded focus; a look that says "I''ve got a goal to accomplish, and I''m going to accomplish it, full stop." It''s hardly the time for idle chatter, but I desperately want to have something to say, to let her know that we can and will pull off our as of yet unstated plan. But we both know it would just be empty platitudes. Still, the silence between us is driving me crazy, and I open my mouth to speak. "Ko-lee, Kraken? You better shot, maybe." Her eyes dart over to my waist where the weapon is bouncing around in the shoddily constructed holster, before refocusing back on the path before us. There''s a pause, and it takes so long for her to respond that I begin to think that I imagined her look, but before I repeat my question, she answers with a curt, "No."


    I''m desperately hoping for some follow up, but after nearly 30 seconds, it''s clear that none is coming. My light list of topics fully extinguished, I turn my mind back to the the situation before us, my eyes glancing around in the quickly dimming forest. We had planned to be back before the sun had gone down, but the detour added quite a bit of time to our journey, and even with us sneak-jogging through the forest, the sun''s rays are now coming in from behind us, rather than from overhead. The light being cast through the trunks of the trees and leaves above us lend an incredibly warm touch to the forest floor, and if we weren''t desperately trying to get through the forest, I would have loved to stop and take a moment to admire it. As my eyes wander around the forests tops though, I see a trail of fire from a small brown object, coming from in front of us and to our left.


    I immediately stop running, grabbing Ko-lee''s waist and pulling her entire frame behind a tree along with me. The little bit of exercise that I had been getting didn''t increase my muscle mass in any noticeable capacity, but Ko-lee was still a foot shorter than me, so I was able to somewhat maneuver her around without difficulty. "What!" Ko-lee whisper screams at me, shoving me away from her the second we are near the tree. I point at the sky, the flaming object slightly clearer than before, and her eyes trace my finger into the sky. There''s a moment of silence, the only sound the heavy breathing between the two of us, before she says a word I don''t quite pick up on. "Again?" I ask, straining my ears to hear the different syllables.


    "Tusk. Bolkor. Grineer gunship," she says, a subtle sheen of sweat on her upper brow. "lyaUlus hyte eus a Tusk Firbolg, a dropship. The gunship is..." but she doesn''t finish her sentence, nor do I need her too. All the pieces of the puzzle are falling into place, and it''s pretty clear why they would send in a gunship rather than a dropship like usual. We watch a moment more, and it becomes clear that the ship isn''t coming towards us, but rather our destination. What''s more, it is likely to get there before we are. We both look at each other, but no words need to be said. We immediately start moving through the forest again, knowing that every moment we delay could be the difference between saving a life or not.


    Roughly 10 minutes later, I can see the edge of the forest, as well as Sharip only a few minutes walk past that. As we get closer to the dividing line, and thus the end of our cover, both of our eyes are peeled, looking for signs of the Grineer. It''s not immediately clear whether we had managed to beat them or not, and after a moment of hesitation, Ko-lee gestures me to follow her out into the clearing towards the nearest house. We both sprint over to the facade of the building, keeping as low of a profile as we can, to avoid catching any stray glances from an unseen soldier, but we manage to make it over without incident. My body is screaming at me to take a break, not being used to pushing this hard for this long, but the adrenaline pumping through my system makes it easy enough for me to ignore.


    Me and Ko-lee both make our way to opposite sides of the building, and from my position, I can just about see between some houses towards the main road. I look around, and for a moment I start to think that maybe we really did manage to beat the Grineer here, before I catch the side profile of one of the men coming out of the house next to this one. I quickly yank my head back, heart pumping, and strain my ears to alert me to the sounds of the soldier making his way over to me. After 10 or so seconds, I don''t hear anything, so I take a few steps back from the house, trying my best to slice the pie, so that I can get a glimpse of him before he does.


    As I rotate around the rounded corner of the building, I move steadily and slowly, my eyes burning from my refusal to even blink. Eventually, I see a glimpse of a swinging arm, and before I get a chance to rotate back around, the rest of the body comes into my view. The soldier is facing away from us, moving away from the houses and down towards the main street. I quickly make my way back up to the wall of the building, and think about what I had just seen.


    While I knew logically that the Grineer were clones, and even got a chance to see some without their masks on, that had always been in the game. They looked rough, but there was a level of separation that made it easy to ignore. But the glimpses I got of the mans face were... hard to process. He wasn''t completely and utterly messed up, like I had imagined he would be, but the corrupted genetic code that all Grineer suffered from was incredibly clear on his face. He had these growths and sores, and his skin was a pallid sickly color, giving the appearance of someone on their death bed. However, his movements were strong, if slightly off kilter. His walk gave the impression that one of his legs was shorter than the other, leading to a bit of a limp.


    I could only imagine how rough he''d look from up close, since I was able to get all of that from nearly 30 feet away. But regardless of the man''s looks, what was more important was the fact that we hadn''t beat the Grineer to the settlement. What little pieces of a plan that we had were now just dust in the wind, and I wasn''t really sure what we were going to do from here on out. I took a look at Ko-lee, who was also just finishing up with reconnaissance, and I could tell that she was breathing rather heavy, although I was pretty sure it wasn''t from the run in the forest. "Ko-lee?" I ask, touching her arm to get her attention, since my voice was so low. "What do we do?" Ko-lee just looks at me, her mind clearly racing a million miles a minute.


    I feel useless. I had known from the attack with the jakir-et that this was never going to be a case of me becoming some superhero always-win chick, just breezing through every conflict. But I want to be able to do something, anything, to help. I want to be more than just the dead weight that Ko-lee is dragging around, but I have so little information to work off of, and lives are at stake.


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    Real, genuine lives. People could... people might-


    People are going to die. My fight or flight had always been fight, but in this instance, it felt like trying to fight a hurricane. "What the fuck are we gonna do with just the two of us?" I think, my eyes keeping peeled for any Grineer stragglers. "We... uhm," Ko-lee starts, and immediately stops. "We look rfo people nhiet  houses. Hiding. We rescue them." The plan sounds flimsy at best, and I can tell that even Ko-lee feels so, but I have nothing better to provide, and so I just nod my head. "Okay. Okay," I say in agreement. "I follow. Go," and I gesture for her to lead me to the various houses.


    I might have been able to actually take the lead on this one; I''ve broken into a house or two in my hooligan years (teenage years). But I know that Ko-lee needs to feel in control of the situation, much more than I do, and while I would have had to scan each house top to bottom, Ko-lee has lived here her whole life. If a house had a hiding spot, she would actually know where they are. So I do my best to stay as close as possible, lowering my body to have as little of a silhouette as I could in the last few rays of light.


    We make our way to the first house, and the front door is unlocked. "In fact, I don''t think I''ve ever seen Ko-lee lock her front door. Maybe none of the houses have locks? I guess why would you when you live out in the middle of nowhere and know every single person in the town by name?" I think, as we creep our way through the wooden building. It''s laid out very similarly to Ko-lee and Sanza''s place; there are pieces of furniture that are laid out differently, as well as knick knacks and projects that gives the entire place a feeling of liveliness. Or... it would, if the pressure of the situation wasn''t making it feel like the walls were closing in on us. Ko-lee, for her part, had her game face on, and was beelining towards a specific closet. I wasn''t sure why, until she reached it, and in the closet beneath some rugs and some odd piece of abandoned Grineer tech was a latch attached to the floor.


    She pulls on the latch, and the entire floor of the closet swings upwards, causing everything on it to tumble slightly up against the wall. I take a step back, and head to the closest window, on the off chance that a solider might have caught wind of the sound. It wasn''t particularly loud, but I really don''t want to get caught with our backs against the wall. I find the window, and look through it, and can see what I assume is the same soldier from before, entering a house a few spots down from us. Other than him though, I don''t see anyone else, and somehow that has me more on edge than anything.


    "Where the fuck are they?!" I think to myself in frustration. It''s one thing to see a dangerous animal, it''s another to know it''s there, but be unable to find it. I was terrified and angry in equal measure at the thought of them having a net that we somehow slipped through and got caught in ourselves. But there''s nothing to do with the emotion, so I just tear my eyes away from the window and head back to Ko-lee, to see if she found anyone. As I make my way into the hallway, she is coming out, and I reach for my gun at the same time she reaches for her zaw. We both have hands on our weapons before we realize we''re looking at each other, and she spits some sort of curse word at me.


    "Why rea you sneaking onrdau?!" She says in a half whisper, half yell. I don''t bother answering as it''s a waste of breath; we both know why we are trying to be sneaky, so I just ask, "you find people?" She just stares at me, eyebrows furrowed and with a frown on her face, and she shakes her head no. I let her know that I saw the Grineer soldier enter the house a few spots down from ours, and that I''ve not seen a single Sharip towns person, ''nor'' any of the Grineer, barring the one. She mutters to herself in Ostron, too quick for me to catch, and I wait for her to clarify. After a few moments, she speaks up again, this time slow enough for me to understand. "They aer ni the town square. Everyone is."


    Sharip doesn''t really have a town square, but I know what she''s trying to tell me. The crossroads of the town is the most open area, and she seems to think that for one reason or another, everyone was there, likely with the Grineer. "All 2000+ people? That''s... fuck," is all I end up thinking, before Ko-lee follows up with, "we need ot egt ot ereth. We need ot og ot the town square." Part of me wants to argue that ''go into the trap'' is not a plan, but it feels productive, and I desperately want to feel like we''re doing something to help, so I just swallow, and nod.


    She leads me out the back door, and we make our way along the sides of the houses, doing our best to stay in stealth as we leapfrog from house to house. As we do, I can see the solider that had been checking places finish up with the house that he was in, and, with nobody in tow, start making his way towards the square, same as us. We make sure to keep a good distance between us and and him, and after a painstaking amount of minutes, we finally find ourselves sat in the shadow of a house, with a clear line to the center of town. It''s as bad as we were expecting.


    Every. Single. Person. They''re all gathered in a huge mass of people, wearing whatever they had on when they were dragged out of their houses. They''re huddling next to each other; mothers, sons, daughters. The children and the elderly holding each other tightly, while encircled by over 100 Grineer soldiers, all whom are pointing their weapons inward. From our position, we can also see Sanza, face to face with a lanky Grineer man, whose face I can''t see. Even though we are quite a distance away, both men are projecting; Sanza likely for Sharip, attempting to instill confidence and bravery, and the other man, likely to drum up fervor in his men.


    I hear Ko-lee growl next to me, an brutal sound that rips from her throat, and I instinctively reach over to grab her arm before she runs in. When she whips her head over to look at me, there is rage and fury in her eyes. Her pupils are dilated, I can feel every muscle in her body straining against my grip. My hand is so slippery from the nervous sweat that I have to reach out with a second hand and pull her back into the shadow. "What the FUCK do you think you''re doing?! Are you just gonna sprint in? You''re just going to get fucking domed!" I say in English, before quickly correcting myself. "NO. DIE. YOU. NO. DIE. ...STAY," I whisper as loudly as possible, incensed by my lack of usable vocabulary.


    Before Ko-lee gets a moment to say a word, I hear a deep resounding whirr sound, like an engine from hell starting up. My grip immediately tightens on Ko-lee''s wrist, and before I can even start to explain what I think I just heard, the sounds of a truck crashing assaults our ear drums, before a shock wave knocks us on our ass, and into the dirt and mud beneath us. I whip my head around, terrified of finding confirmation of what I believed had just made the sound, but then... I see it.


    A Tusk Thumper.


    The sound was from this 100+ ton machine of war throwing itself into the air, and landing on the ground nearly 300 yards away. I just watch, petrified, and it''s slide my mind is slowing the entire sequence down to a slideshow; each moment of terror stretched out into excruciating minutes. My eyes are locked to the quadrupedic death machine as each arduous step brings it closer towards the town. I can hear ringing in my ears, and I go to bring my hand up to try to clear them, but my hand is crushing Ko-lee''s wrist, and I can see tears in her eyes. "I''m sorry," I want to say, but I can''t remember the words in Origin. "We need to go," I think, but I can''t form my mouth to make the sounds. The ringing in my ears is warbling, and I realize that it''s the after effects of a gunshot, and I look around to find who got shot, but Ko-lee is pulling me away, and yelling something at me.


    I look back, but I can''t see Sanza, just a dead body in front of the laughing Grineer man.


    The Thumper is rotating its cannon, and it''s pointing it at the townspeople.


    We are leaving the settlement, we have left the settlement, and we are in the trees, and my ears are still ringing, so loudly, maybe from the sound of the cannon firing on hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of children and parents and Nathom and Sanza and that lady I never learned the name of.


    I can''t see the settlement, but I can, because the buildings are on fire, and it''s casting shadows through the trees, and I can still hear the ringing.


    My hand is cramping from holding onto Ko-lee so tightly, from trying to stop her from running in, from getting herself killed, but she''s been pulling me this whole time, and I peel my hand off of her wrist as she collapses on to the forest floor.


    The ringing in my ears rises, and lowers, and it sounds like sobbing, it is sobbing and crying and fury and the sound of heart string snapping as Ko-lee curses the heavens in words I do not know.


    All I can do, all we can do, is watch as the remnants of her whole life, of the people who took me in and saved mine when I was about to die in the forest, drift away as ash under the moonless sky.

 How Easy It Is To Take

    Ko-lee and I are making our way through the forest as quickly as we can, only partially relying on stealth. My head is spinning, and I have no idea if we''re being chased or not, but I don''t dare slow down to check for even a moment. My mouth tastes burnt, and the smoke from the fires of the settlement have drifted their way into the forest, being held there by the thick covering of trees around us. "How long have we been running?" I think to myself, but I can''t see the moon to try to- "Oh right, there is no moon." My eyes scan the sky for stars I might recognize, but then I realize that even if I did find the Big Dipper or the North Star, I wouldn''t actually know how to tell time from that. I reach into my pocket for my phone-


    "Fuck, my phone!" I think, and immediately feel guilty. "Oh no, not the phone! Somebody call the whambulance because this FUCKING LOSER IS UPSET ABOUT HER PHONE LIKE A LITTLE BITCH" my mind screams at me, as the self recriminating thoughts spiral and spiral and spiral. I know logically it''s a stress response, that it''s not intentional, that I''m not really that upset at myself, but trying to stop a thought is like the pink elephant thing. Instead, I just do my best to ground myself, and focus on the immediate now. "Food, water," I mutter, desperately trying to ignore my train thought by speaking out loud. "Obviously we don''t want to to starve or die of thirst, and we don''t really have lorrids, but maybe we can find some? Oh, but a week is too long, we can''t wait... unless maybe they grow in the water naturally? I know they grow underground, but maybe... like.... some grow in the river or something, or maybe Ko-lee has a device or she knows a trick, and then for eating uhmmm.... for uhhh... fuck...," I mumble, as I fail to immediately determine a source of food.


    "Hunting, maybe? Is the jakir-et edible? I don''t really know, but again, Ko-lee probably knows something because like, otherwise the trip would be super dangerous to go to Cetus because when you''re going and like, an animal or something screws with your stuff and then, like, you have to have a backup plan, right?" My voice is strained, and I can feel my skin tingling, likely from hyperventilating at some point, although I don''t remember having done it. I''m barely keeping pace with Ko-lee, and although I can''t see her face, I know she''s still crying because every once in a while I hear a hiccup from her. I''m almost 100% sure that anything I might say is going to hurt rather than help, but I also don''t want her to focus too heavily on what just happened, since we are still ostensibly in danger. "You don''t know that though, you don''t, you DON''T REALLY KNOW ANYTHING BECAUSE YOU WERE TOO BUSY LOOKING AT TH-" "Not helpful, not helpful, let''s hmmmm.... trees, dirt, bush, smoke, Ko-lee," I say, in a desperate attempt to ground myself. "Shirt, wedding ring, Kraken, fucking.... also trees."


    I''m not confident that it''s helping, but I continue going through the motions anyways. "Rustling leaves, running water, Grineer soldiers. -OH FUCK, GRINEER," I shout, putting on a burst of speed to reach Ko-lee. I''m not entirely sure of the direction, but I am confident that they are close, and somewhere in front of us rather than behind. I reach for the Kraken in it''s holster, my fingers slipping along the side of it as I fail to find the toggle for the safety. "KO-LEE, STOP," I yell, not really knowing the word for ''hide''. Her head whips over to me, and her face is a rictus of pain and misery, as she watches me fumble with the Kraken. "Grineer!" I shout, my free hand waving vaguely in the direction we were both headed. Her hand is on her zaw instantly, but rather than making her way over to my position like I had initially assumed, she instead takes off in the direction of my flailing.


    I give up trying to find the switch by feel, and just look at the damn thing, using my eyes to scan the side of the weapon. I find the switch, and then for good measure, hit the one to change it back into it''s burst fire mode as well. "Twice the bullets, twice the chance to hit," I think to myself, as I do my utmost to catch up with Ko-lee''s rapidly disappearing body. While before her pace was just barely enough for me to keep up with, now she was going at full tilt, and I just wasn''t in shape enough to match her rate of movement. Luckily, I didn''t need to, since I was the one with the ranged weapon. I just had to be sure that I could get eyes on the soldier before she got locked in a melee with them. As I round the next tree, it''s as though the gods had heard me, because not only do I see the Grineer soldier standing still, with his back turned to me, but I also see that he''s armed only with a melee weapon, and Ko-lee hasn''t yet engaged with him.


    I bring my arm up, and


    You can''t headshot him from the back


    you''re going to take a human life


    is this going to be enough to kill him? The jakir almost walked it off!


    you''re about to kill a person


    don''tmissdon''tmissdon''tmiss


    MAG DUMP THAT ON THAT MOTHERFUCKER


    I pull the trigger once; two shots ring out into the night. I pull again, and two more shots. I have both hands on the gun now, doing my best to keep it steady, and I pull the trigger again and again and again and again and again and again but all I''m hearing is a click on that final pull. I look over at Ko-lee, whose face is still twisted in rage, and I feel the beginnings of a small smile cross my face, because I''m alive, we''re alive! Ko-lee is crossing over to me and I go to share my joy and instead she hauls her right arm back and breaks my nose, knocking me into the dirt. "MIIINE," she screams, the words barely understandable through the pain in her voice. "I KILL! NOT YOU! MY DAD, NOT YOU! MY VILLAGE, NOT YOU! YOU UNDERSTAND? DO? YOU? UNDERSTAND?!" Each word is met with a successive kick into my side, and I know she''s not trying to kill me, because she could use her zaw for that if she wanted to, but every strike hurts so much.


    "Y-yes," I cough out, my back and legs crying out in agony from the repeated strikes from the Ostron woman. She wasn''t aiming for vital spots, and I was curled as tight as I could to take the blows, but every single one was an IV of pain straight into my nerves. "You can just shoot her," I think, but it''s just an impulsive thought, because I don''t want to kill her, why would I? She saved my life, and she''s going to save it again when she gets me to Cetus, and I know she''s attacking me, but she''s in pain, and she''s taking it out on me. Thing is, I''m confident the Warframe universe doesn''t have therapists, plus also her dad just got obliterated eliminated destroyed removed executed killed Killed KILLED


    It''s a lot. For both of us. I want to hate her, and in this moment, I think I really do, but I don''t do anything reckless, as much as my mind is rebelling against me. "We''re going to make it through together. I need her, and she will fall apart without me," I think, as I slowly peek my head out of the fetal position I was curled in. I look over to Ko-lee, whose just slamming her zaw into the body of the dead Grineer over and over and I just cough, once. Not to get her attention, but because of the smoke that had been irritating my lungs for the past however long. She stops mutilating the corpse, her chest heaving from the exertion, but she doesn''t look at me. "Ko-lee," I whisper, my chest in agony. I hold out a hand from on the ground, reaching out to the fractured woman. "Help?"


    She looks over to me, and there''s a moment where I think she might turn the zaw on me, but instead she places the weapon back into the sheathe on her side, and she makes her way over to my prone body, and yanks me to my feet. I stumble, slightly, feeling lightheaded, and look towards her. She just stares at me, and I give her a small nod, and apparently that was all that needed to be said, as she turns around, and immediately begins marching off, her steps taking her right past the fallen soldier. As she passes by him, she spits on the corpse, the ashy liquid landing squarely on the gaping wound from her weapon. I just jog past the body, not particularly interested in examining my traveling companion''s artistic endeavors.


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    I manage to catch up with Ko-lee, but I know better than to say anything. She''s keeping up a good pace; not quite a run, but a little bit more than a jog, and if it weren''t for my longer legs, I''d probably have to really push to stay alongside her. I just keep my eyes peeled, and my ears open, knowing that if there was one Grineer, there were almost definitely more, lurking about somewhere within the forest. "Why was he alone?" I wonder, thinking of the few moments I saw before I killed him. "He kind of looked lost. Maybe he was? How rigorous is the Grineer military structure? I know they hold rank, but could one slip out of formation without others knowing? Or maybe... maybe they do know and just don''t care. Like, they assumed he got ate up by a kubrow and they were like ''oh damn, there goes Johnny-69420, he was the best of us, he was the worst of us'' and then they just keep truckin'' along or something. ...or something."


    I know my mind is just wandering, coming up with random theories, too tired to hold any sort of logical coherence. But as it''s staying off the darker topics, and isn''t screaming at me or calling me names, it feels like a win. As my mind continues to chatter about inane subjects, I focus on Ko-lee, and the path before us. It''s unclear if there''s actually a route here, or if Ko-lee is navigating by memory, or vibes, or something else, but she seems confident in our direction, and I don''t bother worrying about it. Instead, I look at the sky, between the branches of the trees and the ever thinning smoke. It''s solidly night now; has been for at least a bit, and I''m unsure if Ko-lee is going to just keep pushing us through into the morning. My mouth starts to form the question, but then I shut it again, not really looking to draw attention to myself. Ever lucky though, Ko-lee speaks up, her voice sounded raspy and strained. "We need sleep. We will hide in ???," but the last word she says is entirely unfamiliar to me.


    It vaguely sounded like "ground", but I assume she wasn''t saying we were going to cover ourselves in dirt and leaves. That was the sort of strat I''d pull off, and Ko-lee was absolutely more competent in a survival scenario, from the few weeks I had spent with her. I consider asking for clarification, to try to determine what we''re hiding in, but in the end I figure it doesn''t matter. I also think to ask her about how close or how far this hiding spot is, but again choose not to. "We all get there in the end," I think, but quickly do my best to redirect my thoughts from the morose double meaning. And so, for the next hour and change, me and Ko-lee move in relative silence, until finally we reach what appears to be a completely random spot in the woods. She says the word again, looking around, but I don''t know what it is she''s looking for, so I just stand there awkwardly.


    She wanders around the small clearing, occasionally kicking up stones, and pushing aside bushes, and it dawns on me that she''s looking for something on the ground. "A sign maybe? Maybe a small cache of food? Although, it seemed like sleep was a more important factor when she mentioned the thing, so... probably some sort of marker to orient us?" I muse. I consider trying to help, but since I didn''t know what to look for, I figure I''d just be in the way, and resolve to be as unobstructive as possible, standing completely still. She continues making her way about the area, getting closer to me, and even though I knew I hadn''t done anything to cause any issues, I was starting to feel a bit nervous. "Should I have been helping?" I think in a momentary panic, my previous determination for statue mimicry having completely left me. But before I do anything, she stops, about three feet away from me, and kneels down into the leaves.


    She wipes away the detritus of the forest floor, and grabs onto what appears to be a branch of some sort, but as she goes to lift it, I feel the ground shift beneath me feet. I take a few steps to the side, and Ko-lee finishes lifting what I can now see is a handle, which is attached to a door that hinges up from the forest floor. "Oh, it''s like a little... hideout... thing," I think, my mind not quite firing on all cylinders. I just watch, as Ko-lee steps into the little dugout, before she briefly pops her head up to the surface, and glares at me. I quickly make my way into the hole, and Ko-lee gestures at the latch on the inside of the door. "Close," she says, making a pulling motion with her arm. I go to pull, and at first the resistance seems like it''s too much for me to overcome. "Yikes, this is gonna be really embarrassing if she has to stand up and do it for me," I think, and I put both hands on the latch, tugging as hard as I can.


    Ko-lee watches me for a second or two, then tells me to stop, gesturing at the corner between the hinges. I look down, and can see what appears to be bolt holding the door in it''s upright position, which is also preventing me from being able to close the door. "Ah," I murmur, and I move towards the bolt to slide it out of the way. The second I do though, the trapdoor begins to swing shut on top of me, and I throw both my hands over my head to prevent it from slamming down, and possibly shattering something. I catch the door, and finish closing it, sealing us in, and casting us in near complete darkness. I sit there for a moment, just feeling utterly drained, before Ko-lee''s voice pierces the darkness. "Antimony, come here," she says, and I feel a brush of a hand on my knee. I stick my hand out in front of me, doing my best to avoid running into something, but just end up placing my hand directly into Ko-lee''s face.


    For her part, she doesn''t find it particularly entertaining, and she grabs the rest of my forearm, pulling me farther into the dugout. I stumble slightly, my left arm still held in her grip, and smash my face into the dirt wall directly behind her. The dirt is soft, rather than hard packed, so the only thing bruised is my ego, and I spit out the mud and dirt that had done it''s best to find it''s way into my mouth. Ko-lee, thankfully, lets go of my arm, and I can feel the air shifting around as she maneuvers past me. "Sit," she says, and every muscle in my body is more than grateful to acquiesce. As I make my way to a seated position, I can feel some sort of stuffed cloth material below me; I pat the thing, and it has a level of firmness that makes me think it''s some sort of camping mat to keep our bodies off the cold forest floor.


    "Tomorrow, weer iggon ot wait here. Then wree ggnio ot Cetus. Do you understand?" Ko-lee said, her voice deep and quiet. I give her an affirmative, and she says, "Good. Rthsee some food ni het hideout with us. You aym eat some fo ti, but save the rest-", but the rest of her sentence is cut off. I can intuit what she was likely going to say though, and don''t press her on the slip up. After a moment of silence, she continues, "Fi you need ot use the bathroom, ndot." There''s a moment where I try to understand that final word, and once I manage to get a handle on it''s constituent pieces I let out a small chuckle, but Ko-lee''s sharp reprimand stops me from making any further noise. "No. tsI not a joke. We dnee ot stay hidden, and taht otwn work fi you keep stepping out eryve 3 hours to piss. Stay. In. The hideout." I just give her a small "okay", and silence falls in the darkness.


    I consider if there''s anything I can say, anything else that needs to be done, but realize that we''re both stretched to our limits; her emotionally and me physically. So instead, I just pat the mattress beneath me, and look for some sort of blanket to cover me. My hands maneuver around the space in the dark, but I don''t manage to find anything except our food stores. I figure that there just might not be one, and so I lay my head down on my arms and close my eyes, feeling slightly silly as I do so.


    I''m asleep in moments.

 What We Used To Have

    The following day in the dugout is rough. The pitch black space that we''re confined to makes each moment feel like it drags on and on and on. As well, we can''t really do anything to keep ourselves occupied since we can''t see anything. And the one or two times I try to speak up to Ko-lee, maybe get some sort of dialogue going between us (if only for both our sanity), she shuts it down quick with a one to two word answer. Eventually, I just stop making the attempt, and lay back down onto the mattress beneath me, my eyes desperately trying to form information out of the nothing. "This is exactly par for the course," I think, not having anything else to do. "Of course the Grineer were going to wipe out the damn settlement. We tried to play it safe, and all we ended up doing is getting traumatized. Maybe we really should''ve just... tried to duo the entire platoon." The self recriminations aren''t helpful, but I can''t help but think ''what if, what if, what if''.


    "Could we have fought them? We didn''t even really try. And that one soldier we bodied absolutely bit the curb. Not that-", my mind stutters at the thought of having ended the man''s life. "It''s weird how little I''m bothered by that. Why don''t I care more?" I know that logically, the adrenaline of the situation had pushed away my immediate feelings on the situation, but now I was just sitting in the dark, with nothing to do but examine my mind. And no matter how much I seemed to poke and prod I just... didn''t really care. "He was a threat, he was going to kill us, so I killed him. Should I feel bad about that?" I hate the fact that there''s no one for me to bounce idea''s off of; my wife is incredibly intelligent and would''ve been a perfect sounding board for this sort of ethical dilemma. But instead all I had was someone I could barely communicate with on a good day, and probably wasn''t interested in diving into the shades of morality I was currently trying to differentiate between.


    The problem is, at the core of myself, I''m a talker. I want to talk about a situation; determine a course of action and, if feasible, act on said plan as soon as possible. So sitting in the dark doing nothing felt like an inefficient use of our time. I wanted to talk to Ko-lee; I wanted her to be less miserable about the situation, as insane as that might be. "Time is what heals all wounds. Eventually she''ll be ready to talk, but it''s hardly even been 48 hours. Just, chill the fuck out," I think to myself, doing my utmost to avoid futilely attempting to start another conversation. I end up rolling over on the barely-softer-than-ground mattress, and close my eyes, trying in vain to just shut my brain off until it''s time for us to leave.


    <hr>


    Ko-lee and I have been trekking our way towards Cetus for 5 days now. After that first 24 hours spent in the dugout, Ko-lee was relatively confident that the Grineer wouldn''t be chasing us, as we weren''t considered high priority targets. And so, our day-to-day had become a bit more routine. We would leave a dugout with a small amount of food; just enough to keep us going, but not enough to be a major detriment during the hike. Then, we''d start moving, and barring breaks for food and water and the restroom, we never stopped. We would head towards the next closest dugout, meaning that our actual route wasn''t straight towards Cetus, but most of the cache''s were built with travelers in mind, so there were plenty in the direction we were headed. Plenty is, of course, a relative term. The 16 hours of hiking a day wasn''t just because we had nothing better to do, but because we actually needed to push pretty hard to make sure we''d be able to get to the next cache in time. The first day after hiding, we actually weren''t able to make it because I was lagging behind a bit, and we ended up having to forge our way through the forest during the night.


    Ko-lee was understandably frustrated about that. Ko-lee''s been understandably frustrated this entire trip, actually, as well as sad, and occasionally furious (although not quite as furious since that instance with the soldier). I attribute that half to the fact that she wants to be amicable, and half to the fact that I''ve done my best to avoid ticking her off. We''d been off and on chatting during the trip, and most of the dialog between us has literally just been me practicing Ostron and Origin, a fact that I''ve been immensely grateful for. More often than not, she seemed to be lost in thought, but I was glad for any opportunity to try to distract her from her misery, plus I really wanted to be able to hold some level of conversation once we actually reached Cetus. At the rate I was learning, I felt confident I''d be able to hold rudimentary conversations with strangers without needing to resort to interpretive dance.


    In any case, we were in another of of the impromptu learning sessions; I was rambling on about nothing in particular, while Ko-lee was occasionally jumping in to correct my pronunciation, or to provide a word that I was missing. The day was late, and so I was exhausted; my tongue feeling a bit looser as a result of the constant physical exertion. "...get to Cetus, we will be okay. We can talk to Konzu, and once we talk to Konzu, he will talk to conclave, and conclave will send out force!" I say, not particularly listening to the words. It was mostly flow of thought; words just spilling out of my mouth and into the air, as we keep our eyes peeled for various dangerous wildlife within the forest. "I wonder who Konzu talk to. Maybe he send Tenno? That would-" but my words are cut off by an interjection from Ko-lee. "No," she said, and I take a moment to try to figure out if she is telling me that I''m forming the word wrong, or if she''s actually responding to the content of the sentence. "No?" I ask, looking over to Ko-lee on my left.


    Ko-lee, for her part, doesn''t make eye contact, instead continuing to look resolutely forward. "No Tenno," she says. I give her a moment to elaborate, but nearly 30 seconds go by, with only the sound of bird call to fill the space between us. "Why not Tenno? They kill really good, they kill Grineer with no problem," I state, confident of my assessment from my nearly 2 thousand hours of gameplay. "Can. They CAN kill really good. But they won''t," she says, quickly responding to my statement of the Tenno''s combat prowess. "Why they won''t?" I ask, genuinely confused. This seemed like the exact sort of mission I''d encounter in-game; literally an exterminate mission, or possibly an assassination mission on Colonel Jar or something. I didn''t see any reason as to why they would choose ''not'' to engage in a little bit of vengeance, assuming that they were paid. "Why won''t they?" Ko-lee repeats my phrase back at me, the grammar corrected. "Ecsueba Konzu won''t ask them to."


    The surety of the statement makes me stop, and there''s a moment before Ko-lee notices that I''m no longer by her side. She looks at me for a moment, and I can see all of the pain and stress held in the lines on her face. I''m at a loss for words for a moment, doing my best to wrack my mind on why Ko-lee is so confident that he''d just let an entire Ostron colony be vaporized without any recourse. "Konzu will ask the Tenno," I say, intending to phrase it as a question, but faltering and forming what sounds like an unsure statement. Ko-lees face darkens, and she takes a few steps between us, closing the distance. "No. Konzu will not," she said, her voice dangerously low. I knew I was treading on thin ice, but I couldn''t tell what ice was and wasn''t safe without putting my weight on it, so I just kept trucking forward, bracing for the inevitable fallout. "Why Konzu won''t ask?"


    "Because he''s a ???!" she says, her voice echoing out amongst the treetops and off into the forest. I can''t tell what her last word is, so I just repeat it back to her, and she enunciates the word, slowly, mockingly. "Cow. ward. Like scared, afraid. He is a coward. The conclave era cowards. My dad is a coward!" Ko-lee shouts, each word punctuated by a step towards me. She was so close that I was backpedaling so that she wasn''t literally pushing me over, but it was clear that she wanted some sort of physical confrontation, because she begins poking me in the chest as if to physically drive home her point. "YOU ARE A COWARD. My Dad is-" her explosive tirade is briefly halted by a stumble and crack in the voice, but picks up again with, "You killed my father. YOU killed Sanza."


    Like previously mentioned, I''m more fight than flight, so without thinking I immediately snap back, "you stupid? How I killed Sanza?" I know the second the words are out of my mouth that it''s the wrong energy to bring; I''m escalating rather than deescalating. But the insinuation that I had a hand in her father''s death seriously pisses me off. "I liked Sanza! I wanted to save him! I went along with the plan to save him, right up until we encountered over a 100 heavily armored soldiers, a gunship, and a tank! Then, I very LOGICALLY made the choice not to engage, because it ''would have killed us''." I think to myself, my mind forming the words to the argument before she''s even had a chance to respond. Ko-lee, for her part, matches me, and snaps back "WE COULD AVHE SAVED HIM. We didn''t eevn try! All I had to do was run in and grab him! He was 25 fete away! We didn''t try! We didn''t try, Antimony. We didn''t try..." Ko-lee says, her voice trailing off. Tears are welling in her eyes, and I can tell that she is fighting the emotion that her body has been dealing with for nearly a week, doing everything she can to avoid falling apart in front of me.


    "Ko-lee..." I start, not knowing what was going to come out of my mouth. "you know it not worked. It was numbers game. There so many of them, and only two us. It is not fault that Grineer attacked. You know that, right? Nothing you could do, no words... no action to stop them." I do my best to pick my words carefully, trying to impress upon her the sincerity of my words through the fractured language I was wielding. "It was not you fault." Tears are streaming down her face, but every one of Ko-lee''s muscles is marble; a statue with a water feature. I take a moment, before repeating it to her again. "It. was not. you. fault. I was there, I know. It was not." I watch her, and the only thing I can see is the subtlest of head shakes from Ko-lee; shakes so small I wasn''t sure if it was from her trying to hold in a sob, or from rejection of my words. "Antimony... if I didn''t rescue you, then I would be wiht my father right now."


    I feel sick to my stomach. With trepidation, I open my mouth to ask for clarification I''m not entirely sure I want. "Dead or alive?"


    "Does it really matter?" she says, the ghost of a self deprecating grin on her lips.


    I don''t know how to respond. Eventually, she turns away from me, and continues blazing a path forward. I move to catch up with her, but she''s pushing faster than she has this entire time, as though she''s trying to outrun me, or the conversation, or her feelings. After nearly face planting due to a unseen tree root, I stop trying to catch up, and focus more on keeping her within eyesight, and once she''s put nearly 100 yards between us, she slows to a more manageable pace. It''s pretty clear that she just wants some space between us, so rather than pushing it, I just think about her words, pulling apart the conversation in my head, trying to hear everything that wasn''t said. "I can sort of understand calling Sanza a coward, he didn''t want to involve the Tenno because he didn''t want to escalate. And I can kind of see why she called me a coward, although again, I''m not confident stupidity equals bravery. We absolutely, 100%, without a doubt would have died had we just ran in. But what I don''t get is why she called Konzu and the conclave cowards. They work with the Tenno to fight the Grineer all the time... in the game. Is it different here maybe? Although, I swear I remember Sanza saying something about him and Konzu having different thoughts on working with the Tenno," I think, doing my best to find answers while also avoiding any unpleasant forest falls.


    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    I notice that the tree line is thinning, and part of me wonders if our next hideaway is going to be outside of the forest. Ultimately it doesn''t change much; it would still be a pitch black hole in the ground no matter what was outside of it, but I liked the cover that the forest gave as a secondary level of concealment from the few Grineer flyovers we had seen from a distance. But instead of making her way entirely out of the forest, Ko-lee stops just on the edge of the thinning woods, allowing me to finally catch back up. However, the second I''m within range of talking to Ko-lee without needing to raise my voice, she immediately ducks into the dugout to begin prepping ourselves for the night. The process doesn''t take long, as it''s mostly just clearing out old food, and dusting off the mats that we were going to end up sleeping on; busy work that definitely didn''t need to be done right that instant. It''s pretty clear that she''s using it more as an opportunity to look busy and avoid interaction.


    Still, I had questions I needed (or at least wanted) answered, so as Ko-lee came out of the dugout, I spoke her name softly, as to not startle her. "Ko-lee, I need know. Why Konzu and conclave cowards?" Ko-lee just sighed, and I could tell from the way her shoulders drooped that she was hoping that the conversation was done. Still, she was willing to entertain the question, so she spoke up in response. "Konzu, and the conclave as a whole are... they don''t ocsuf on vengeance. They aren''t ustj the leaders of Cetus, but of the Ostron people as a whole. The dosnicies they make are..." she trails off, and I do my best to practice patience while she forms the next portion of her explanation. "Did you know htat Sharip is the olde- was. Was the oldest Ostron settlement?" I can feel the whiplash, not only from the abrupt change in subject, but also because Sharip didn''t appear to be that old. "It was definitely oldish, but the oldest? That seems... unlikely, from what I could tell of the construction and stuff. Unless I''m drastically confused as far as timeline stuff goes," I think, but I do my best to hold my tongue until she finishes.


    "Sharip was the oldest settlement. But they weren''t the first. Not by a olng shot. Do you know what happened to the first settlement?" I just shake my head, throwing out a random guess. "First settlement is Cetus now?" I ask, even though I''m confident this isn''t going to be a history lesson on Ostron settlement name changes. "The Grineer burned it down. I''ll give you three sugsese on what happened to the second settlement." I know immediately, and don''t bother answering the posed hypothetical. "Not every failed settlement has eebn destroyed by the Grineer. But the longer they stick around, the higher the echacn grows that those pobber faced sasbdtar will be the settlements downfall. And what do you think has eneb the conclave''s rnesesop to this?" I shrug, still not entirely sure why the answer wouldn''t be "immediate, overwhelming retaliation using void magic child soldiers piloting war machines". "Mostly, nothing. Sometimes, if it''s dreaalfofb, or if the settlement was close enough, they might hire some Tenno to swing back, but generally, they don''t do anything. Not anymore than they already do. They''re already fighting the Grineer on a few fronts. They can''t aoffdr to avenge corpses," she says, her eyes shining with unshed tears.


    I can feel the light shining on my mind from the clarification of her words. "Right, it''s... a whole planet. The Grineer are clones of clones, and they get spit out like watermelon seeds. Even if one Tenno can kill like 1000 in an hour, what sort of dent are they making, really? It''s an issue of scale. I''m still stuck thinking about the video game, but this is real life now. How many kids could there have been on the Zaramain, feasibly? And spread out amongst an entire solar system?" I think, feeling the shift in perception. "Then... what we doing? To go in Cetus?" I ask, confused. I was operating under the idea that the whole point was to push back against the Grineer with the Tenno, using the Cetus conclave''s resources. If we weren''t doing that...


    "We''ll let Konzu know, for the records, and then... be bums, I ugsse. Eat the floor. That''s what we call the flesh of the Unum they feel isn''t up to standard for bgnie sold. It''s generally used to feed peictva animals and such, but we could probably keep ourselves alive with it," she says. "Wait, really?" I ask, not entirely sure if she''s being sarcastic. "Is it that bad? We can''t do better anything?" Anxiety begins to tickle the back of mind; the thought of trying to pull myself up by the bootstraps in the Warframe universe seemed exponentially harder than doing it back home, and it was already supposed to be a metaphor for impossibility. "No, no," she says, "it''s not that bad. I''ve heard prswhesi of some places in the system that are... much worse." Her eyes turn to the sky, as though she can focus the hundreds of billions of miles needed to spot the places referenced. "She''s probably thinking of Fortuna. Or I am, anyways," I think, my eyes following hers into the sky. We sit there for a moment, looking at the various stars, until she half mumbles under her breath, "we should turn in for the night."


    Instead, I realize I have an opportunity to get Ko-lee to open up a bit more. Even though the topics we were conversing about were a bit dark, it was genuinely more back and forth than we had had in the entire few days prior. "Hold on!" I exclaim, ducking my head into the dugout. I keep the top open, and my eyes quickly adjust to the shadowed pit. I grab what little food is remaining, as well as one of the mats, and quickly head back out into the nighttime, my arms full of supplies. Ko-lee just looks at me, eyebrows furrowed as she tries to piece together my plan from what little information she has. Once I reach the top of the dugout, I throw the mat down onto the dirt; a small cloud of dust spawning from the drier ground near the edge of the forest. "It''s uh..." I start to say, but realize I don''t know the word for picnic.


    "Word for sit and eat? Outside?" I ask, but Ko-lee just shakes her head, seemingly unable to provide me a word for the action. "No word?" I say, and she just nods. "Oh, okay. In my language, word is ''picnic''." "Pik... nik?" she asks, her mouth chewing on the syllables of the word. "Yea, picnic. It when go outside and eat food, instead of eating inside." My description isn''t immediately making her jump onto the mat, so I just plonk myself down, gesturing for her to follow. "Trust me," I say, looking into her eyes. There''s hesitation there; it''s clear she just wants to climb into bed, move past the conversation, and likely close off again, but her curiosity is making her waver. I just smirk, and say "You know, I took all food. You want to eat, then sit." The ghost of a smirk crosses her face, and she responds, "I could easily take it back from you."


    "Not if I eat all first," I say, reaching for the first piece of jerky in my lap, as though prepared for a race. It gets an actual, if brief, smile out of her, and she ends up capitulating, sitting down on the other end of the mat. The fabric is barely big enough for the both of us, but we have enough space to place down the food without needing to put any of it into the dirt. "Alright. Now what?" she says, clearly unsure about what we are actually ''doing''. "We eat. We talk. Maybe we look at stars. It pretty." I say, as I take a bite out of some of the preserved food. Like most of the dugouts, it''s more tower jerky and lirra, which is some sort of really solid bread. It was closer to a cracker than bread, but Ko-lee was adamant that crackers were a totally different thing, and in any case, the protein and carbs hit the spot after a long day of hiking, so I wasn''t incredibly bothered by the nomenclature. "Do I have to talk?" she asks, reaching for a piece of the lirra, water in the other hand. I just shake my head. "No, I''ll talk for both of us."


    There''s a moment of silence, since while I was enthusiastic about the idea of conversation, I didn''t actually have any topics to talk about that weren''t emotional landmines. I can feel my brain grasping and discarding topics quickly while I stare at the stars, the sight clearer than anything I had ever seen back home. "I love sky out here. It is..." I start, not entirely sure of where I''m taking the conversation. "It is busy. Uhm. Lots of stars, more than I see. But there is no moon, which is so odd. It should be there, and big. It is so white, and... holes," I say, my hand motion miming an asteroid crashing into the surface of the moon. I can see from the corner of my eye that Ko-lee''s attention is captured, and various emotions keep popping up on her face; enthusiasm, confusion, interest, sometimes suspicion. It''s a complex tapestry, but my mind is so focused on finding all the words needed to continue that I barely have a moment to comprehend it. "It is far, normal. Normally, I mean. Like planet, but not as far as planets. But even still, it always looks like you can just grab it. It is right there, you think, but it''s not. It feeled... felt... felt like magic. Our magic."


    Ko-lee is silent for a moment, digesting my words, then says, "You know, I''ve heard mseo tell stories about the moon. What it used to look like. But there was a story ulqatiy to them. It never quite felt... real, I guess. The way you talk about it though... you talk like you''ve seen it." "I have," I say, the words slipping out of my mouth before I can think about what I''m saying. "No you haven''t," says Ko-lee, the look in her eyes clearly expressing her doubt. "I really have," I say in response. "I''ve already started digging the hole. Might as well finish it." "I did see it. I will maybe tell you some day, explain more. It is a long story, and I am not good with words," "Yea, I noticed," she says, her amusement barely hidden. "Yea," I say, fully turning to look at her. "My teacher is not the best."


    "OH? Really! That''s crazy because you only started learning a month ago, and you can already speak how well? I think I''m doing great, actually!" she says in faux outrage, a true smile breaking out on her face. "Month? 30 days?" I ask, feeling a bit off kilter from her statement. "Yea, thereabouts," Ko-lee says, her head nodding along to her words. "Wow, thats... It not feels like month," I say, my smile faltering slightly. "A lots happened, I guess," I think, but I keep my mouth shut. We go back and forth a few more times, finishing up our food and poking fun at my stilted use of the language.


    Eventually, we head back in.

 Childhood Dreams

    A few days later, me and Ko-lee are still trekking through what feels like endless forest. I''m not sure of the exact day; they had all started to blend together a bit and I lost count at some point. We had reached the edge of the forest, but due to the occasional dargyn flyby, we had to move farther back into the forest, to try to take advantage of the cover. "Stupid Grineer hovercar thing. Don''t you have babies to go terrorize or something", I think, grumpy at the forced relocation from their presence. "Although I wouldn''t mind yoinking one for me and Ko-lee. Those things SHMOOVE. We could probably cut the rest of the Cetus trip down to end of day if we could get our hands on one. Maybe I''ll just channel some Annie Oakley next time I see one fly over." I''m so focused on the daydream, in fact, that I barely notice Ko-lee is giving me a hand signal to be quiet. I freeze on the spot, my head whipping around, desperately trying to spot whatever it is that Ko-lee has us trying to avoid.


    Ko-lee just puts her hand onto her zaw, and from her crouched position, begins to make her way towards a mound of dirt and sticks. "Oh, obviously we''d run into a kubrow nest," I think sarcastically, and while I have an impulse to tell Ko-lee of the danger, it''s pretty clear from her body language that she knows exactly what she''s approaching. Each step feels like it takes minutes, but eventually Ko-lee reaches the nest, and she proceeds to lean in towards it, ear up against the side of the mud. I can''t help but hold my breath, and it feels like the forest is too, because there is dead silence surrounding us. Then just before my lungs explode, Ko-lee stops listening to the inside of the nest, and with the same pace as before, takes 5 steps away. She turns to look at me, and once she locks eyes, makes a very clear hand motion telling me to get behind a tree.


    I look around my immediate area, and decide on the one that has grown into two trunks; the split in the body of the tree making it easy for me to still have line of sight on Ko-lee, while being effectively entirely covered. "Better safe than sorry," I think, and I reach for the Kraken in it''s holster, slowly flicking the safety off. Feeling set for whatever came next, I turn my attention towards Ko-lee, who looks like she is limbering up for some sort of physical activity. Then, with a last glance to make sure that I was fully covered, Ko-lee lets out one sharp shout. "HEY."


    Immediately, a kubrow exits the nest. Even at this distance, the presence, the solidity of the kubrow, is apparent. I could feel my mind tossing out the lower resolution video game version for this creature in front of me, filling in all the details that game didn''t render. The coarseness of the fur, more like beard hair than dog hair. A face that looks more dinosaur than canine, the horn like protrusion poking up from it''s face. The beast opens it''s mouth, and it''s drooling, looking at Ko-lee like she was a steaming hot pizza delivery to a house of stoners. It''s paws are covered in the remnants of some poor creature''s viscera; the stain of dried crimson matting down the fur. Even from this distance, the smell of the kubrow was nausea inducing. The rank scent of rot and death drifting all the way over to the place I was hidden, assaulting my nose as violently as the kubrow was planning to towards Ko-lee. "I bet it''s even worse from where she''s standing. But she didn''t even twitch once from that wave of nasty," I think, watching Ko-lee lock eyes with the killer in front of her.


    And there was no doubt from the look in it''s gaze that that was exactly what the beast was. A hunter. A killer. A predator. The barely restrained violence dancing in the eyes of the creature spoke volumes; the tensed muscles and deep, reverberating growl the sequel. Then, with an ease of movement no doubt lent to it through years of repetition, the kubrow begins moving along the brush carpeted path towards Ko-lee. For her part, she stands stock still, not an errant muscle out of place, waiting for some perfect moment to take action against the 300+ pounds of violence streaming towards her. Each footfall of the kubrow ratchets up my blood pressure, and I begin to bring the Kraken to bear, worried that I already might have waited too long to take meaningful action. "Wait, is she just trying to kill herself?" The thought briefly flashes by, right as the kubrow leaps straight for Ko-lee''s throat.


    The next few actions happen in such quick succession that I need to replay it in my mind to fully process each step. From an initial glance, it appeared as though the kubrow lept, and Ko-lee had somehow fallen forward onto the ground, causing the kubrow to explode above her. But then the pieces started to fall into place; she hadn''t tripped, but had crouched forward beneath the kubrow, who wasn''t able to alter it''s position once in the air. Her arm had been bringing her zaw to bear, so that by the time the kubrow was right in front of where her neck had been, she was already piercing the flesh of beast''s underbelly. The momentum of the kubrow, as well as the force applied to the weapon caused the blade to cleave entirely through the creature, nearly bisecting it in two, leaving only the spine and some skin and muscle at the top, causing everything on the inside to come flying out in an explosive fashion.


    There''s a moment of silence, as I process the 2 second long event, before a bubble of cheer erupts from my chest. "HELL YA!" I shout, only to immediately regret the outburst. Two more kubrow come bounding out of the nest, with none of the reservation of the first. Ko-lee immediately repositions, circling around the clearing to keep both beasts within line of sight at the same time. There''s only a moment of calm between the three killers, before Ko-lee makes the first move, dashing towards the kubrow on her left. It''s clear from the expression on it''s face that it was not prepared for Ko-lee to enter within melee range on her own initiative. It attempts to throw itself backwards, but severely misjudges the extra distance gained by the zaw, and Ko-lee lands a deep gash on it''s face.


    Instead of immediately following up the strike though, Ko-lee continues to rotate, placing her back to the kubrow, and I feel a spike of cortisol flood my veins. "What the fuck-" is the only thing that crosses my mind before Ko-lee finishes the spin and strikes the other kubrow that had been sneaking up on her right. The serrated blade catches the prowling beast in the eye, blinding it and causing it to immediately paw at it''s face, it''s attack aborted. "Oh shit, the other one! I''m totally tunnel vision-ing!" Ko-lee, for her part, doesn''t even hesitate, and the flourish smoothly transitions into an overhead strike, biting deep into the neck of the blinded beast. It drops to the floor instantly, but Ko-lee has already turned back to the first kubrow, not even bothering to confirm the kill. The kubrow is just growling, the predatory rumble echoing off of the exposed stone. "But it''s not really a predatory rumble, is it? The kubrow isn''t the predator here, Ko-lee is."


    She takes a step forward, and the kubrow mimics her, doing it''s best to keep the distance between them. Ko-lee takes another step, but this time to her right, shrinking the gap between her and the nest. The kubrow''s growl clicks up ten decibels, but Ko-lee takes another step anyways, in clear defiance of the creature''s warning. The second steps seems to be one too many, and the kubrow sprints towards her, closing the distance within a second. But this last opponent wasn''t here to learn from the mistakes of the first, and in a near identical set of actions, it leaps towards Ko-lee, this time getting bisected along it''s side rather than from underneath. Unlike the first kubrow, this one doesn''t explode in quite such a gory fashion, but the guts and gore of the creature do get pushed out by the weight of it''s own body the moment it lands on the ground. "Oh no," I think, feeling the flush of adrenaline coursing it''s way through my body. "That was really hot."


    Ko-lee, for her part, just takes a moment to catch her breath, before whipping the majority of the viscera from her blade, and doing a rough clean with some dirt to soak up the majority of the blood. Seemingly satisfied with the field cleaning, she shoves the blade back into it''s sheath, and makes her way over to the closest kubrow, the one that she had nearly decapitated. For a moment I''m confident that she''s going to start skinning the beast, but instead she just places her hand on side of the corpse''s face, as though she were caressing it. I can see her lips moving from my position near the tree, but she''s either whispering or simply mouthing the words, because I don''t hear any of it. There''s a momentary impulse to come from around the tree, but I decide instead to wait for her to finish her ritual, holstering the Kraken as I do so.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    Ko-lee stands, and she looks over to my position, audibly calling out for me to approach, and as she does, it''s as though the forest starts to breathe again; the sounds of birds and bugs fluttering to life as I jog over. "So, that maybe the coolest thing I ever seen? I was sort worried though when second kubrow come, and you kill all of them so fast," I say, the words spilling out of me as I approach the blood soaked ground. Ko-lee just smiles, and says, "Thank you for not firing the weapon. It would''ve thrown me off, olcdu have gotten me really hurt. Thank you for trusting me." I just smile and nod, but part of me feels guilty at her words. "You didn''t really trust her though, did you? You just never really had a clear shot." Instead of mulling over my thoughts though, I decide to shift the conversation, and say "what was prraey thing?", using the hand motions to indicate the meaning of the English word I had needed to substitute in.


    I can see a brief flicker of hesitation on Ko-lee''s face, but she speaks up anyways. "It was from my mom. She was oiiegulsr. I''m not but... it''s a nice way to remember her." It''s clear that it''s an old wound, but curiosity is a vile mistress. My mouth opens to ask the question, but I hesitate, and Ko-lee picks up on the action immediately, shaking her head. "No, it''s okay. She just got old. She lived a long, full life, thank the Unum." The line has me interested in the minutia of the religion, but I do my best to reel in my voracious mind, instead asking, "You want to tell me a... story? About your mom? and S-dad?" My mouth tries to betray me, but I manage to catch the near slip and phrase the question a little more softly, trying to avoid referencing Sanza by name. "I think... some story about happy times would be good. I do not know you, Ko-lee. Too much surviving." Her eyes are a well of endlessly deep sadness, as she says, "yea, we''ve been surviving."


    "You know, life is more just than surviving."


    Ko-lee looks at me, and a small smile crosses her face. "Okay." She starts walking, and for a brief moment I''m confused, before I remember that we have a somewhat strict schedule to keep to, and that we don''t really have the option of sitting around to tell the story. "So, when I was younger, my mom was convinced that I would tge hurt easily. It was mtosyl because of the Jakir-et that tried to kill me." She points to the jagged scar across the bridge of her nose, and I can''t help but blurt out, "wait, this is a happy story?" Ko-lee just chuckles, continuing as though I hadn''t interrupted. "So, my mom tried to baby me. I was ngyou, maybe, this tall?" she says, holding her hand up to my waist. "Maybe 8-12? Why not just say that?" I wonder, but there''s no moment to interject with the question, and so I just hold it in my pocket for down the road. "I didn''t want to be ierscneddo a ''baby'', and so, I climbed up to the roof of our house. My thought was that, my father wasn''t a child, and he was on the roof all the time. If I could get up there, then maybe I would losa not be a child."


    "So I''m on the roof. And dad''s not home, but mom is. Mom sees me on the roof, and she starts yelling. ''Get down right now young lady!'' and I say ''No! I''m not a baby!'' and this just goes back and fohrt for a while." Ko-lee mimics the voice of her mom and her younger self, acting out the scene with her hands. I''m fully invested, and I barely even remember to keep an eye out while we walk. "''Ko-lee, Child of Sanza! If you don''t get down right this mtmnoe you will get hurt!'' ''No, I won''t mom! Only babies get hurt!'' Eventually, she ushff, and heads inside. I can hear her angry footsteps stomping through the house, getting louder as they get closer to the ladder I esud to get on the roof. The trapdoor flies open and mom''s there, and her face is bright as a pele, and I just ocshoc away from the trapdoor so she can''t grab me. So she starts to climb onto the roof, and I thought she was so mad that she was shaking, but then I realize that she''s shaking cause she''s terrified. She crawls her way over to me, and grabs onto my arm, but by that point, we''re nowhere near the hatch, and she can''t pull me and keep all four limbs on the roof, so she just ends up rccedohu next to me, telling me all the different ways I''m going to be in trouble once we get back down from the roof."


    "Then, out of nowhere, dad shows up. So, he worked all day, and he wasn''t spspedou to be there for another few hours, but I found out later that a neighbor had gone and found him and told him what was going on. So he shows up, and he sees us both up there, and he says ''What are you doing up there?'' and I yell down ''Mom''s too scared to get down! I''m up here because I''m not a baby!'' and dad just chuckles and makes his way inside. I hear him acetr the same path through the house, and his head pops up out of the trapdoor just like mom. ''Hey honey, you need a hand?'' he says, and mom just tells him to shut up." Ko-lee smiles at this, although I''m too engrossed in the story to pay much attention. "So he fully makes his way onto the roof, and nuleik me, whose sitting on the roof, or mom, whose crawling on the roof, he just stands up, tirsndgi over to us without a care in the world. ''See? it''s totally safe'', he says, before he slips and falls." I just gasp, and blurt out, "did he get hurt?"


    Ko-lee just grins, and says, "No, but we thought he did. So I cchoso near the edge of the roof so I can peek over, and mom is crying out, and I look down expecting to see dad with two broken legs, but instead i just see him laying in a huge okda berry bush." She grabs her hair, pulling a few strands down as reference. "That''s why my hair is purple. It''s the stain from a koda berry. So I look down, and dad is crawling out of the bush and he is jtsu covered in the stuff. It''s all over his clothes, but also on his face and arms, and he looks like some sort of purple setoptd monster. I''m a kid of course, so I just find this hilarious. I start laughing, and I can barely breathe, and I''m niopitng at dad and then my own arms. Dad looks at his arms and legs and he starts laughing too, and then he backs up from the roof into mom''s eyesight, and she sees that he''s okay, and see''s how rdliocuisu he looks, and then she starts laughing. So we''re all just giggling and laughing with tears in our eyes, and it takes an hour for us to all stop. Me and mom make our way down from the roof, and I was in so much trouble, but... we were all okay, in the end."


    The corner of Ko-lee''s eyes have tears, but her voice doesn''t waver as she continues her story. "I guess, I did sort of get what I wanted. Mom stopped babying me iueqt so much, and dad actually started teaching me how to animiatn the roof. It actually became a monthly ritual, all three of us going up onto the roof. At first it was just me and dad, but mom ended up joining in too. I think partly because she wanted to try to get over her fear, but also because she wanted to spend more time with us. So, once a month, we''d hang out on the roof and eat koda berries, and watch the sunset. Right up until mom was too old to iftl the trapdoor." There''s a moment of silence, and before letting it drag her into a dark place, I say, "that was good story. I thought, maybe, it was going to be sad. But good to have good times with mom and dad." She just nods her head, clearly lost in thought. "When... when I was younger, I didn''t want to be Chief of Sharip. I hated the idea, it just sounded so boring. So I acted out a lot. I wanted to be... well. I wanted to be a Tenno. You know, fly around in a ihspsapec, save people, shoot bad guys. The Chief of Sharip didn''t do anything fun, just make rules and hang out in a tiny settlement forever. But, I got older. I start meeting people, like the neighbors, like Nathom. I get to know the good, and the bad, and being Chief meant that I was able to help them. Just like a Tenno could help people, nmusi needing to put my life on the line. I was excited to be Chief. But now..."


    The tears are streaming down her face, prisms reflecting the beams of light cutting through the canopy of the forest. "I don''t know what I''m gonna do. I was going to be Chief. That was my plan. That was what I was working towards. And now...? Now I don''t have anything to work towards. I don''t have a plan. I don''t have... anything." Her voice was steady, but it was clear that she was finally voicing the thing that was chewing her up. "I get it," I say, my mouth moving almost immediately; my initial reaction to do anything I can to try to comfort her. "I do not know either. It scary to have life scrambled like egg. Like when I wake up in forest. But I lucky. Because someone there to help. Ko-lee was there. So now, this time, I get to be there. I not know what we doing, and you not know, but we can not know together. Whatever choices are made, I will be right here. I am not going anywhere, Ko-lee." We''ve stopped walking at this point, and I take a step to face her directly, holding out my arms for a hug. With a stoic expression, she takes one step forward, throws her arms out, and buries her face in my shoulder. "Together," she says.


    I just tighten the hug.

 Objects In Mirror

    "I smell bad," I think, and a brief gust of wind carries a scent. "Ko-lee smells too." I turn my head to look at my traveling partner, and her eyes no longer contain the fury and rage that had been our companion for nearly the entire journey. Instead, they were dull; the lids of the eyes less open, the alert glances less frequent. Exhaustion had tagged in, and I could feel it''s tendrils pulling at me just as much as they were at Ko-lee. "Yea, go figure that sleeping in a hole in the ground, then hiking for basically 16 hours straight might drum up a little tiredness," I think sarcastically. The hideaways were damp and cold, and they offered minimal cover from the elements. They had food, but it was dry, bland, and often rotten. Had this journey been under better conditions, it still would have been rough. "Plus, Ko-lee''s been crying now in her sleep. Not that she says anything in the morning, if she even knows she''s doing it. At least some part of her body is addressing the backlogged emotions. It''s not conducive to a good nights rest though."


    After the moment of tenderness nearly a week prior, Ko-lee had generally been warmer, but it was like changing from a freezer, to the cold of a room temperature granite countertop. Still not warm by any means, but less likely to cause physical damage over time. "Plus, I doubt she''s ever going to be a warm bubbly person. I''m not really sure that''s part of her MO," I think, watching her march forward with a relentless and unwavering determination. For most of the trip, I had no idea where we were in relation to Cetus, because the MMO looter shooter never bothered to model the hundreds and hundreds of miles of unused forest and plains we had been marching through. "It would be insane people behavior if they had. Like, even in the Plains of Eidolon or Orb Vallis, there''s just tons of ''space'' that isn''t really used. No one wants a game with miles of nothing, that''s how you get Starfield. And the mission nodes are all proc gen tilesets. Even if a tile could be located somewhere on the planet, that''s like... 2 city blocks of space or something. On the whole earth. I would never find it. Also, it wouldn''t even really help me find my way around, because you can''t go from mission node to Cetus without first going back to your orbiter. So really, unless we walk straight onto the plains, I don''t think I''ll ever really know how to get around other than vague cardinal directions. Not that... we have anything to go back to."


    "At least we''re almost done," I think, my eyes turning back towards the horizon and locking onto the somewhat small tower in the distance. "That''s definitely the Unum," I think, trying to discern details on the skyscraper-esque building sat in the water. In the game, the Unum was mostly a backdrop; although during New War, you did have an opportunity to move through it, in a somewhat destroyed state. Now though, I could see it in reality, even if from a distance, and my brain was struggling to fathom the Orokin age structure. "It''s just... more than anything I''ve seen before. The thumper was the biggest, but it was dark, and the whole event was... scattered. The kubrow was very real, but at the end of the day, wasn''t much bigger than a wolf. There''s tons of weird animals out there, so my brain was happy enough to categorize it under ''weird dog''. But this... a real, genuine, Burj Kalehfia ass building covered in gold and... bone, or whatever. Just sitting off the coast of Cetus. You could never make a scale prop. But there it is, with all the people going back and forth to scrape out it''s insides for dinner." My eyes watched the little red and green and yellow dots float lazily about in the sky, moving back and forth from the building to somewhere on the coast, like some sort of symbiotic bug.


    We had been tracing along the beach, headed straight towards Cetus. If all went according to plan, we''d be sleeping in a real, genuine bed by some point tonight. But I felt like I had been watching the tower refuse to get any bigger for hours now. "Everything is just so... big. Comparatively, I guess. Like, back of napkin, if we''ve been walking for two weeks, and we were actively moving for 14 hours a day, conservative, and an average human can walk 3 miles per hour, then that puts us at 42 miles a day. 42 times 10, plus 42 times 4 is... 588 miles? Isn''t it like 500ish miles from san fran to LA? So, I mean, that''s not short, but also, that is technically a day trip in a car. Like 8-10 hours depending on traffic. If we flew, that would be even less, like an hour and a half. Compared to the whole planet, we''ve barely gone anywhere BUT BUT. This is the Warframe universe, so we have the whole solar system plus some extras? There''s people on Mars, like Baro was, and people on Venus like Fortuna and stuff. In the game, you just click a few times and teleport between planets like whatever. You have a spaceship - no, you have two spaceships! And you just woosh right on over in 5 seconds. It was just a picture of a solar system, really. But now, I actually have to travel those distances. Even with the solar rails, that''s..."


    I could feel my brain throwing it''s hands up in the air after trying to conceptualize the distances between locations. ''Big'' is all it managed to begrudgingly come up with. "As big as real solar system, I guess. ...Although, this is the real solar system, isn''t it?" I think, my eyes inadvertently glancing up towards the sky. "It''s really real. Logically, there''s always that small chance that I''m in a coma or a dream or full dive VR or something, but that''s always been true for reality. For all intents and purposes, I''m here, now. I can''t even remember the last time I thought ''is this real, question mark''. I just... live here, now." My eyes come back down from the heavens and land on Ko-lee, and I open my mouth. "We will be in Cetus by the end of the day? You sure about that?" I give a smirk, but inside, I just feel a warmth of pride, and the words felt smooth coming from my lips. There had been hardly any corrections in the past few days on pronunciation and grammar, and there were very few words that Ko-lee would say that I''d fully miss out on. I knew that I still held an accent, one that made me stick out (as most people learned Origin as a first language), but by and large I''d be able to hold full conversations with people without getting a look of confusion back.


    "Not if you don''t pick up the pace, we won''t," Ko-lee said back, and although her facial expression didn''t change, I could pick up on the friendly tone in her voice. "It will likely be night when we get there. But people arrive in Cetus at all times, day and night. The Unum protects the land, and lets people pass or not when they move through her shield depending on their thoughts, so there''s no need to have guards around the entire city. Not that it would be possible, it would be way too much manpower." I briefly consider her words, trying to get an idea of the true size of Cetus, before it strikes me. "Wait, the Unum can read minds?" My eyes turn back towards the tower in the distance, it''s size a fraction larger than before. "Yup," she says, but there''s an apprehension in her eyes. "Ko-lee?" I ask, slightly worried about the intrusive building. "What''s wrong?" Ko-lee just sighs, and says, "Welllll. It''s been a few years since I''ve been to Cetus. The last time I was here, I was with Sanza. I wasn''t a kid, erp yas, but I was compared to Konzu. I was by no means a Chief. And now, not only do I have to play the part of Chief, but I have to do it for a settlement that no longer exists."


    "I need to tell Konzu what happened, and I''m not particularly excited to... talk... about it. It''ll be a trial by fire with the worst news possible. And then I''ll be done. There''s not really a goal beyond that point. It''s a door that I don''t want to approach, open, or pass through." Ko-lee''s face doesn''t change through any of this, but I can see the tension in her shoulders as she dances around the uncomfortable subject. "Well, we will talk to the conclave. That''s step one. Then, we will need a job, so we''re no homeless bum," I say, lost in my mind as I lay out our rough sketch of a plan. "We''ll get jobs as skinners." Ko-lee just rolls her eyes, and says, "cool, and then we get gilded lung and die." The profession that involved removing the flesh from the Unum for sale and consumption had a chronic disease that accompanied many of it''s long term workers; an issue called gilded lung. When harvesting the flesh from the building, occasionally orokin gold dust would be sprayed into the air, and after years of exposure from breathing this dust in, you''d get a chronic cough and breathing issues. Not fatal on it''s own, but unpleasant, and allowed for other diseases to take root more easily.


    "No, we are not going to work that long. We just need a roof over our head," I say, shaking my head. "So then, what''s the plan?" Ko-lee inquires, her sharp yet tired gaze making it''s way over to me. "Well, I do not know yet. But! We can keep making plans. There is no need to worry about not having a plan until we actually run out. And if there is one thing I am good at, it is making plans. I am always in my head," I say confidently, nodding my head as if in agreement with my own words. "That''s odd," Ko-lee says, her gaze still locked on me. "You never seem to stop talking." I just gasp in faux shock, before a smile breaks out on my face. "What can I say, it is a new language! It is fun- oh, so, fun is when you do a thing that makes you happy," I say, straightening my back as though I was giving a presentation. "I know what fun is," Ko-lee says, rolling her eyes at my antics. "Oh, my mistake. I only ever see you worrying about things, so I was not really sure if you knew of fun," I say, a grin creeping across my face despite my best efforts to play it straight.


    Ko-lee just scoffs. "You worry all the time! I''ve never seen anyone worry about so many small things!" I shake my head in mock disappointment. "Ko-lee," I say, "I only worry about stuff I can control. In this case, that is all the small stuff. You worry about everything, even things way down the line. You need to take things one step at a time, and only worry about the next step and maybe the one after that. Not the fifty step. You can not see the future, no one can." My eyes land on the Unum, and I quickly correct myself, "Well, you can not, anyways. You do not know where step fifty will be. What if that step is actually a hop over a branch? What is that step takes you through a river, and you need to swim? Who can know? The actions you take now will affect everything that follows. So just focus on the here and now. Be aware that the journey will continue, plan to take step 50, but don''t obsess over it. Only worry when you get there."


    There is silence between us for a moment, I briefly worry that what was supposed to be a fun and lighthearted faux lecture may have turned into a real one, but before I get the chance to apologize, Ko-lee speaks up. "You talk about steps a lot." I just shrug, and say, "been doing a lot of stepping recently. Some might call me a step expert." Ko-lee just nods her head, a faint smile on her lips. "Fair enough," she says, and once again, a silence falls between us, this time feeling more comfortable and less awkward. I look over at her, and while she still had a look of determination and focus in her eyes, I was pretty confident there was a touch less stress being held in her shoulders. "Alright, not quite a perfect 10 from all judges, but my point still stands, even I hadn''t been intending to make it. She worries too much, and she''ll worry herself into an early grave if she''s not careful. She needs to be less solid brick wall and more flexible timber when a storm hits." I think, just before my eyes catch onto a subtle blue shimmer in the air. I barely have a moment to process what I''m seeing before we walk right past it, and I feel an invasive, ethereal hand explore every inch of my body and mind, scanning me inside and out. There''s no emotion to it, and it feels more like a TSA pat down than anything, but it''s so thorough that the moment it finishes, I can''t help but shiver. At that same moment, I hear what appears to be a faint whisper, but a glance over to Ko-lee shows that her mouth is shut. Whatever the words are, they''re gone before I get a chance to understand them.


    I turn back to look at the shield, now that I''m looking at it, it''s clear what it is. A wall of energy stretching across both into the water, as well as off into the forests in the distance. As my eyes trace the barely subtle curve, the shield blends into the blue background of the sky, before eventually fading from view entirely at range. While the same effect happened to the shield in the game, that shield was solid, to prevent players from passing in and out of the world map. This one was possible to pass through, and like most things, didn''t match up one to one with the video game version. "Trippy," I murmur in English, before glancing at Ko-lee, who was stopped just a few steps away. She just shrugs, and says, "That''s what it''s always like. It''s not dangerous as long as you''re not." I take a moment more to look at the shield, before making a 180, and continuing the trip with Ko-lee.


    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    Almost immediately, I start seeing signs of life. There are small houses dotted here and there along the coast, sometimes with people on the outside, sometimes on it''s own. The houses have a similar design to the ones that were in Sharip, but with less lumber and more Unum materials. There''s even a house that has what I''m confident is some sort of ornate bone as part of it''s structure, but we move past it before I get a great look. A few of the people dotted about are dressed in some sort of armored outfit, and it takes me a moment to piece together that they might be guards. "Weird, I can''t actually remember there being any guards in the game, even if they are referenced," I think, committing their design to memory. At first glance, it genuinely looks like the outfit is ''oops, all belts'', but after a moment''s more examination, it''s clear that the clothes underneath are made from the same leather material as the belts are. And there is still a lot of belts, although few have anything attached to them. The belts wrap around the figure and hang in an almost scalemail type fashion, layering one on top of another to cover huge swaths of skin. Almost all of the guards also have masks with wide brim hats, and I can feel my memory tickling at the sight of them, although I can''t pinpoint exactly what. "I mean, there''s a bunch of crazy headgear in game. I wouldn''t be surprised if this was an actual fashionframe option," I think, as I wave to the man as we pass. Then, my gaze moves past, and I immediately feel confused.


    "Wait, what the fuck," I think, as I scan the horizon for the expected city. Other than the few dwellings located near us, there''s no noticeable presence of people. The Unum also still sat quite a distance away, leaving my sense of place disoriented. "The shield around Cetus in game is supposed to be right next to the city itself, but-", but my thoughts come to a halt almost immediately. "Wait, I was just doing this. The scale of stuff is bigger here in the real world." I shake my head as though attempting to dislodge the errant thought, and continue walking alongside Ko-lee. As I look around, I realize that the various buildings I had seen weren''t just houses; some were businesses and otherwise. There was food being sold, hand carts being pulled away from what may have been storage, and what looked like some sort of school. And on every Unum covered facade there was what appeared to be gold filigree and decoration. "Although, not real gold. Maybe. Probably. Can the Unum grow gold? That''s... insane if true."


    Then, my eyes fall on a familiar piece of geometry. "The landing pad," I think, as my mind compares and contrasts against the entrance point for the player in the video game. But unlike the video game, there was many, many more than just one. The pads stretched along the beach and up past the shore into the grass (although there was very little of the greenery near the pads themselves). There were even a few ships on the pads; what appeared to be a tall, hard angled Corpus ship, as well as, "The Orbiter," I say, the English words slipping from my mouth. I could feel my heart start to beat, as the idea of an encounter with one of the warframes themselves causing my body to kick into high gear. "This must be what it''s like to meet a famous person except the famous person could kill you," I think, as we close distance to the various vehicles. We pass by the various ships, but there''s only a single Corpus man in a somewhat bulky suit climbing around the exterior of his ship. "I really need to keep it together. I''ve literally met famous people before and had less of a reaction than this. You''ll see them when you see them. One step at a time."


    <hr>


    The sky is dotted with a million sparkling lights, as night covers our head. The walk from the start of the shield to here paradoxically managed to feel longer and shorter than the entire two weeks previous. As we had gotten closer, I couldn''t help but take in the various novel information like a kid in a candy shop. Everything was real and present and there was so much to take in, from signage to buildings, to lighting and the path beneath our feet. On more than one occasion, Ko-lee had to pull me by an arm as I had slowed down to an effective standstill while looking (and occasionally) touching various things. The crowds had started to appear as we got closer to the heart of the city as well; people hawking wares along the path selling mostly domestic resources as we made our way into Cetus. As I turned my head to the left, I could see the Unum, now towering nearly directly next to us in the water, with the various hot air ballons that drifted to and from the tower. As I watched, I would see them land at various demarcated places along the beach, sometimes carrying off and sometimes bringing on various goods and people. There was also so much flesh everywhere, but my while my brain was expecting some sort of smell, it instead found a lack of anything noticeable. "Is that cause my nose already adjusted? Or maybe it''s magic building flesh. ...instead of regular building flesh. Handwave handwave clarktech I guess," I think, as I watch the few workers still putting in hours even in the twilight.


    "We can do a real tour later," Ko-lee says, looking straight ahead as she deftly navigates her way through the crowd. "Cetus is really only half of Cetus right now. According to my dad, the lhtgneiif, if you can call it that, lives with the Unum. On land, it''s generally only busy in the day. That''s why it''s so empty." I just look around bemused. "Empty? I mean, we''re not sardines here but we''re approaching the cannery. How many people are there supposed to be in the daytime?" I just do my best to follow in the small gap left behind by Ko-lee''s movements, apologizing every time I bump shoulders with someone, which happens more than twice. "I mean, it''s not Times Square, but there''s still people." I do my best to keep an eye on Ko-lee, even as my attention is drawn by people hawking wares, and various spices from food tickle my nose. I also see people, likely Ostron, who give me odd looks now and again, scanning me up and down as I pass by them. I know why they''re looking; my outfit is clearly Ostron but my face is clearly not. As well, I stand nearly a foot taller than most, with a height closer to the Corpus than the natives. My skin is unblemished, and my weight is heavier too, although the two weeks of near constant motion, preceded by the couple weeks of training prior had slimmed me down some. And while I did have a bit of a tan, I was a different dark to the Ostron, leaving me sticking out as though I were some sort of Ostron cosplayer. "Although I''m not the only odd one out; there''s a few Corpus here and there, and... whoever the other people are."


    A few of the people who were clearly not natives were not people I recognized from the games, but I barely had a chance to get a clear look at them before they passed me by. There were some tall people with pointed hats, and some people in some sort of skintight suit, and a few more, but there was truly so much trying to pull my attention that I was starting to get overwhelmed. "I gotta stick with Ko-lee, or I''m gonna actually be lost. I literally have no idea where we''re going." "Ko-lee!" I shout, my voice deep and loud, and there''s a brief dip in the chatter around me, causing my face to grow warm, before I spot her familiar purple hair, and make my way over. "Sorry, lead on," I say, and she just grins at me, and grabs my hand, pulling me along.


    Eventually, we make our way into what appears to be some sort of tavern. It''s nearly the platonic ideal of a fantasy tavern; wood furniture, a bar, someone playing some music in the corner, a fireplace roaring to fight off the sea chill. There''s a moment of whiplash as I hadn''t known what we were walking into, and as I look around, I start to notice Ostron flair dotting the place. The Unum shell covering parts of the wall. The gold filigree. The Ostron signage, with Origin underneath, in a smaller font. "This is where me and my dad came last time," says Ko-lee, as she makes her way to a table. "It''s mostly for locals, although sometimes tourists drop in." I sit down, and watch as she steps over to the bar, quickly saying something I can''t hear over the music, then holding up two fingers. The bartender just looks over at me, so I give an awkward grin and wave, and then he starts preparing some sort of drink. "Damn, I guess I am just the dumb American tourist," I think, as I lower my hand. "I was loud before, and here I am, about to participate in local culture without understanding a lick of it. U! S! A! U! S! A!"


    Ko-lee makes her way back, and hands me a drink, which I take from her with a "thanks". I go to slip slowly, unsure of what I''m about to put in my mouth and wanting to not be caught too off guard. "Definitely alcoholic. It''s fermented something, I just don''t know what. Sort of dark, or maybe just it''s dark in here and I can''t see what color it is. And... gold?" As I swirl the mug, the firelight reflecting off the various surfaces in the tavern catch some sort of metallic surface in my drink. "It''s mowje," Ko-lee explains, prompted by my curious expression. My mind chews on the unheard syllables, capturing the word and cataloging the word with an ease I hadn''t had a month and a half ago. "It''s fermented seaweed. The gold flake is from the tower. It''s safe to drink. Just not to breathe. You can only really get mowje here. In Cetus, I mean. The seaweed has to be found within the shield, and it doesn''t really have a shelf life. Also, some places buy the drink from here and sell it other places, but gold flake isn''t a common bar gsirnah, so even then, it''s not quite right. They only make it right here." I nod along to her words as she speaks, occasionally taking a sip of the mowje.


    It tastes deep, sort of like a stout, but there''s a salty aftertaste that rounds it out and makes the drink feel sort of filling. Before long, I''ve drained the entire drink, and I look down at the empty mug, disappointed. "We can take a bath, and look for Konzu in the morning. Two meals a day, one drink a meal are paid for. It''s all going on the Sharip tab," she says, as I frown as the vessel in my hands. At the mention of Sharip though, my gaze shoots up, and I give a look to Ko-lee. She just gives me a shrug, and says two words. "For now." The message is clear; it''s not a permanent solution, but it''s a step we can worry about down the line. "The student becomes the master I guess. In the meantime I''ll step my way right into a bath, and then into bed because holy crap do I smell like shit," I think, and I make my way out of the chair and towards the stairs to the left of the bar. Ko-lee follows, and points out the two rooms we''ll end up staying in; mine directly to the right of hers. Then she ducks inside her own room, and I follow suit, my eyes looking around the space. "This is a hotel room," I think, once again feeling off balance from the culture shock. "I knew it wasn''t literally a fantasy tavern but I think I sort of forgot for a moment. But this is a straight up Hilton, with a little closet and a separate restroom slash shower."


    I strip down, feeling relief at getting to peel off the layer of clothes for the first time in half a month, and step into the shower, feeling the textured material underneath my feet acting as a bit of a grip. As I look about for a knob or lever, I find what appears to be some sort of metal surface that I had assumed was simply decoration. When I place my hand on it though, a light field display appears above the surface, words written out both in Ostron and Origin with instructions on how to operate the shower. I just stand there for a moment, shaking my head at what feels like a third rug pull on my minds attempt to categorize this place. "Future shit," I think, grinning at the clearly Corpus tech. As the (surprisingly solid) water pressure hits my skin, I can feel the layers of grime melt off of me and down into the drain, carrying with it the stress of the trip.


    "We fucking did it," I think to myself, and there''s a confused moment as a bubble of emotions try to spill out of me all at the same time. Elation at the success, sadness at Sharip and Sanza, frustration at the ordeal both me and Ko-lee had been through, and a number more all rebound around within me, causing my body to begin shaking and crying, even as a laugh escapes my lips. "Weeeeeeeeeeee, are the championsssss, my friendssssss," I sing out, as the emotional knot sorts itself out in my mind and my body. I stay like that, letting the water run over my exhausted muscles for what feels like an hour, before finally scrubbing and finishing up. I step out of the shower, and dry off with the provided towel, a rougher, but altogether more absorbent material than what I''m used to, before making my way over to the bed, and collapse down fully on top of it. The catharsis from the shower had taken the final fumes out of me that I hadn''t been aware I was running on, and I barely get a chance to cover myself with the blanket before I''m out like a light.

 Carpets And Masks

    Light.


    Loud, snapping sounds.


    The smell of rust.


    A sound of pain, distorted through a mask.


    The cool of metal, the heft of the weapon in my hand heavier for each trigger pull. Bang. Bang. Bang.


    Bang.


    "You need to wake up at some point today Antimony. If you don''t answer in the next two minutes I''m dragging you out of bed," says Ko-lee, her voice muffled by the wood of the door. My eyes look around the room, and for a brief moment, my brain isn''t making any connections. The dirt of the dugout replaced with finished lumber, the damp rotted mat replaced with a down stuffed bed. Then, all at once, I remember where I am.


    Cetus. The tavern.


    I take a breath, and for once, don''t feel the tightness of muscles complaining of sleep on a hard packed surface, or the exhaustion of an animal interrupted circadian rhythm. I just feel... refreshed. Like I had a good nights rest. "Although I wouldn''t mind another 16 hours, to be honest," I think, but another bang on the door breaks me out of my musing. "Mmmyeahh. Yeah. Yes, I''m up, I''m awake," I mumble, before realizing only half of those words are Origin. "Good enough, I guess. I''m leaving some fresh clothes for you right here. I''ll leave it at the door, and you can come meet me downstairs for breakfast." I just give a sound of affirmation, the sunlight streaming through the clear glass window doing its best to pull my eyelids down. Then, as though possessed by the spirit of productivity, I throw my body out of bed, rolling out of the sheets and landing unsteadily on my feet. Once upright though, I can feel my brain and body coming into begrudging agreement on wakefulness, and after taking a moment to make sure that no one is outside, I place my hand on the cool metal of the-


    ...there''s a moment of disassociation, as my brain tries to remind me of the dream it was having less than a minute ago, but like smoke through fingers, I only get hints. "Hmm, I guess some part of me is processing," I think, as a frown crosses my face. "Whatever, whatever, I killed a guy. ...whatever. It''s fine. Don''t freak about it now, it''s been weeks." I take a moment to recenter myself, before quickly turning the door handle and peeking my head out into the hallway. Verifying that the coast is clear, I open it wide enough to snatch the new set of clothes, then quickly close the door. The clothes are definitely more comfortable than what we had been traveling in; they are layered cloth, meant for temperature regulation and freedom of movement more than the hunting attire we had on for most of the trip. There''s also color in them, not dissimilar to the warm natural tones decorating much of the city itself. In this case, the outfit was mostly accented with some soft red and yellow, the colors more vibrant than I had first expected. "Nobody give me an arrow tattoo or I''ll look like an AU Aang," I thought, before chuckling and throwing on the outfit.


    As I head downstairs, I see Ko-lee sitting at a table, two plates stuffed with food on top. Just the sight of it makes my stomach growl, and as I close the gap, the aroma of what appeared to be fried fish makes my mouth water. "This looks so good, but also... fried fish for breakfast?" I say, giving Ko-lee a look even as my hands reach for the chopsticks on the table. "I lied. It''s the afternoon. This is lunch," she says, continuing to eat her already half finished meal. "Oh, we have been sleeping for a while then. Good for recovery though," I say, in between bites of the fish. The breading isn''t anything immediately recognizable, although it''s lighter than the breading on something like a country fried steak. In texture and density, it''s closer to a panko, but the taste isn''t recognizable as such. It is, however, recognizable as a grain, and along with the spices (none of which I was able to identify), the meal is delicious and fulfilling.


    "You''ve been sleeping a long time. I woke up early to get us some new clothes. Ours were disgusting, and I doubt getting them cleaned would help that much," says Ko-lee, her eyes locked on me as I continue to shovel food into my mouth. "It''s already dead, chill out. You''re gonna choke, the food ain''t going anywhere." I pull the chopsticks away from my mouth, and place them on the plate. "Yea, they were pretty atro- atro-...," my mind scrambles for the word, before shrugging in defeat. "they were pretty bad. But did you get enough sleep? You were on that trip with me." At this, Ko-lee looks back down to her plate, and she picks up another morsel of food. "I was having a hard time sleeping. The bed was too soft, maybe. Anyways, eat. We need to go find Konzu," before stuffing the bite of bread and meat into her mouth. It''s clearly deflection, but I know better than to push her on it. "Right, we will go find Konzu. ...or Saya," I say, nodding my head.


    There''s a brief pause in Ko-lee''s movements, and I see her eyes flick up from her plate to meet mine. The subtlest furrow in her brows appears, before she says, "yyyyess. Saya is part of the conclave. How do you know that?" I feel a shock of panic shoot through me, but outwardly, I just keep munching on the meal. "Oh shit, have we not done Saya''s Vigil yet? When do you get access to that quest? That''s def before Second Dream... right? You can do it when you get to Cetus I think! So... uh, or... wait, is it a side quest? Or... no, because you need to do it before talking to Onkko, and that''s main story content I''m pretty sure. Cause you pass through the Quill room during New War. Damn it, this is a million times harder without being able to just look it up!" "Long story, I guess," I say between bites, before giving a non committal shrug. "Are we pre everything? Has the player Tenno not even been woken up yet? Or... Mara, maybe? The one from the cinematics?" I think, my mind continuing to try to determine from scant information where we are on the timeline.


    "Is this a different long story? Or the same long story you keep referencing but refusing to tell me?" says Ko-lee, her face a passable facsimile of marble. "It is... the same one. But, we are not at that step... right now. I promise I will tell you though, Ko-lee. Just not right now," I say, holding her gaze and trying to impress upon her my intent. There''s the briefest moment of tension, before Ko-lee''s expression softens. "Alright," she says, before her eyes once again gain the familiar look of driven determination I had been seeing for the past couple weeks. "Well. I asked the bartender this morning, and he said that Konzu makes a monthly round to a number of local businesses. Lucky for us, this bar is one of those places, and even more lucky, he''ll be swinging by tomorrow. However, I still think we should wander around town today. We may get lucky and run into him. Other than that, we should reach out to the skinners. Talk to them about getting some work." I just nod my head as she rattles off our schedule for the day. "Sounds like a plan, Stan," I say, using the English name Stan since I didn''t know any rhyming Ostron names to swap in. "I don''t know who that is," Ko-lee says, one eyebrow quirked.


    "Rhymes better in English," I say, with a shrug. I stand up from the table, my plate of food having been polished off in record time, and give a wave to the bartender as we exit the building. The afternoon sun is directly overhead; the sky an endless blue without a single cloud in sight. As we start off towards the beach where the skinners are stationed, I can''t help but look at the various stalls as we pass; the sunlight changing color as it shines through the various cloth coverings that cover the walkway, illuminating the goods laid out on tables. There''s gems and ores, trinkets and baubles, ranged and melee weapons of all varieties, and of course, food. "Less food than last night though. I wonder how often the stalls change," I think, my eyes soaking up the seemingly infinite information around me. "I could probably stand in one spot and see four different people end up selling just from one stall. And the stalls are jam packed." I want nothing more than to hang out on a corner, just to get a ''feel'' for the city and it''s people, but I know we have a plan and so I make sure to keep close to Ko-lee as she deftly navigates the crowds. "Plus, once we''re skinners, we get access to the Unum, and it''s supposed to be even busier in there. Probably actually New York density, I bet. Hype." A smile crosses my face at the thought.


    <hr>


    After about 30 or so minutes of walking, we had found ourselves on the beach. I look around at the various workers, and there''s a moment of indecision on who to approach. I catch Ko-lee''s gaze, but I can tell she''s in the same boat as me. "Fuck it we ball," I think, as I pick a person at random, and begin to approach them. They are focused on the veritable wall of meat in front of them, using a giant knife as they cut the 500+ pounds of meat into much more reasonable 50 pound slabs. "Hey. You." I half shout, as I approach the man. He startles, his attention breaking, as he pulls his eyes away from the meat and cast them towards me. His shoulders tense slightly, and I feel a moment of awkwardness as I come to a stop in front of him. "Just starting out with a "Hey you" and nothing else? Smooth, very neurotypical," I think sardonically. The couple weeks of survival mode, coupled with my obvious accent meant that my approach had come across a lot more confrontational then I had originally intended. "Sorry, did not mean to scare you," I say with an awkward grin, doing my best to salvage the mangled first impression. "I was looking to be a skinner. I do not want to be homeless. I was not sure how to start doing that."


    The man just looks at me, the suspicion still apparent in his tensed muscles. "Not really an offworlder job," he says, speaking in Ostron. "Not really an offworlder," I snap back in Ostron. The brief exchange causes him to straighten a little more, as he gives me another look over. Before he gets a chance to call me on it though, Ko-lee steps up. "We''re both looking for a job. Me and her." The worker''s suspicion drops a hair as Ko-lee''s much more recognizable ethnicity sets him at ease, and he looks at me briefly, before looking back at Ko-lee. "Well... you''d need a badge," says the bald man. "What sort of badge?" I ask, and the man reaches for a metal trinket around his neck. As he pulls it out and wiggles it back and forth in his hand, it''s clear that there''s some sort of technology it the oblong object, as a sort of holographic display pops up with a date, as well as what I presumed the man''s name was. "Neat badge, Othlak," I think, watching him move it back and forth. The second he stops, the badge''s display goes dark, and he lifts it up and places it back underneath his shirt. "If you don''t have a badge, you''ll get dropped," says Othlak, his attention turning to the meat in front of him. "If you work with one of the companies, then a rofmnae can help you get one, but they''ll usually take some cut of the pay so that everyone''s wages are steady. Most are independent." His motions are rhythmic as he tells us this, his cuts precise and quick.


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    "Where do we get the badge from?" Ko-lee asks, her attention on the man''s chest, as though she could see through his shirt to the badge resting on flesh beneath. "Within the Unum. You can hire someone to give you a lift in. If you work in a company, they usually provide transportation to the tower." He looks up briefly at this, and the hand with the knife gestures towards a section of the beach where a cluster of the hot air balloon looking vehicles are sat. "Uh, those things have no floor," I briefly think, before my eyes spot one taking off. As it lifts into the air, a man, who I assumed was simply sat near by, rises up in the air along with it. From what I could tell at a distance, a chair was suspended underneath the wireframe structure, sort of like a paraglider. "Alright, questions for later, then," I think, as my attention shifts back to Othlak. "Thank you for your help Othlak," I say, gently pulling Ko-lee away from the man and towards an unoccupied section of the beach. Ko-lee has a focused look in her eyes, and the second we are out of earshot, she speaks up. "We don''t have any money. We''re covered for some things, like with the tavern, but that''s just off my name. That won''t work to get us into the Unum." I can see the gears turning in her head as she tries to puzzle out the catch-22 of our situation.


    "We will just do an odd job or two then. We only need enough money to get in and out of the tower a few times. Then we will be able to afford it from working as skinners," I say, as I watch the hot air balloons drift in the air. "We will be a sign spinner or something." At this, Ko-lee just stares at me, confusion clear on her face. "You know, draw attention." Ko-lee just continues to look at me, her expression unchanging. "Why would we need to draw attention?" she asks, clearly out of her depth. "To bring crowds in? You say, ''hey, do not shop there, shop here! Our goods are the best!'' That sort of thing. It is not skilled work, but more people means more money, so it is worth doing, if you have the people for it. We could probably make a handful of credits," I say, doing my best to explain to her the basics of customer service. "I don''t know," Ko-lee says hesitantly. "I''ve not heard of anything like that before." A sardonic smiles breaks out on my face. "That is because you have never had the pleasure of working customer service," I say, reverting to English for the final two words.


    Ko-lee just rolls her eyes at me, before quickly following up, "do you know of any traders who''d be willing to work with us?" I open my mouth to say ''yes'', before thinking for a moment. "I don''t actually... know anyone. I just know about them, and I think it''d be a huge mistake to assume that the video game versions of characters are going to be identical to the real life people. It''s not like we get to shoot the shit when trading with them." "I only know of a few traders. I do not know them personally. ...maybe we could talk to Nakak," I say, as I rack my brains on which of the traders would be the most affable. Ko-lee just scoffs at the recommendation. "You want to work with a kid?", Ko-lee says, the disdain clear on her face. "No, I want to work FOR a kid," I say giving her a cheeky smile. "From all of the traders I know, she is the most... uh... friendly." "Most friendly? Friendliest? Dear Wally, please pass this on to any non native English speakers; language is hard and I''m sorry if I ever meme''d on you," I think to myself. While I was able to form grammatically correct sentences in 90% of cases, I often found my mouth moving faster than my mind, and I would end up reaching for a word that I only knew in English instead of Origin.


    Ko-lee paid no mind though, familiar with my occasional misuse of language, and she was clearly against the idea of working for Nakak. "At least try. She is on the main path, she probably makes good money. She will be able to afford us for a day or two," I say, trying to convince her of the validity of the plan. There is a moment of silence between us; the sound of wind and waves the backdrop, as the voices of thousands of people echo along the thoroughfare. "Fine," she agrees, and I can feel the rush of excitement hit me. While I know that Nakak is a child, assuming that the lines from the game hold any weight, her cheery demeanor gave me confidence that we''d have no issues getting her to hire us for a few days. "Plus, meeting a person from the game. That''ll be sick." We put our backs to the water, and immediately start marching up into Cetus proper, but only a minute or two later, I''m confronted with a serious problem. "I have no idea where Nakak actually is."


    In the game, there was really one path that split around a big central object (a suspended platform with nothing on it) the purpose of which I never really deduced. However, as me and Ko-lee continued to wander around, I found that it was not nearly as straight forward. While the multi story pavilion ...thing... did exist, it was bigger than in game, was filled with even more stalls, and there was more than just one. So Ko-lee and I just found ourselves wandering from point to point, doing our best to pick through the overwhelming sensory input to find the four foot tall carpet salesman. My eyes kept roaming over the various technology and weapons and food and toys and decorative objects and tourist kitsch and every iota of my body wanted to just take a moment to inspect ''everything'', but I knew that if dared to stop, it would be impossible to get moving again. So we continued wandering, and luckily within the hour, I was able to spot a very familiar high pitched voice.


    "Heyyy, friend! You look like a traveler of distinction and taste! Behold! A fine array of masks, curiosities, and masterfully woven carpets!" My head swings around, as I do my best to track down the one voice competing among many. "Swazdo-lah! How about a rug or carpet for your fine star vessel?" I find myself walking in an arbitrary direction, my entire focus on my aural senses, and I nearly end up walking right past the stall itself, nestled next to a three way intersection, if not for Nakak calling me out directly. "Offworlder! Looking to decorate? I have adornments that would catch the starlight beeaaautifully above a command console!" My eyes settle on the young girl, whose eyes lock with mine, a smile stretched wide across her face. "I guess the ''5 layers of brown gauze'' outfit she has in the game never really made sense," I think to myself, looking at the green eyed girls outfit. It''s some sort of waist cloth thing on top of a pretty rugged looking skirt that goes down to her shins. Her shoes are simple sandals, and her top is pretty similar to mine and Ko-lee''s, but with a different color and pattern across it. "Guess we all shopped at the same stall."


    I can see Ko-lee beginning to step in front, but I put a hand on her shoulder, taking up the forward position instead. "Ahh, hello surrah! What a fantastic top you are wearing! Looking to decorate a ship as well as your body?" says the young mask seller. "Or maybe you are looking for a carpet to being some warmth to the cold of space!" I just nod my head, a smile on my face. "Yea, your carpets are pretty fantastic. I would have hated to miss this stall. I almost did," I say, watching her expression closely. At this, Nakak''s smile shrinks a fraction. "Ahh, but you were drawn in anyways! That is the power of local craftsmanship!" she continues, doing her best to put product in our hands and credits in hers. "Actually, it is because I was looking for you. I think we could help draw eyes to your carpets and masks. I could help you sell, hawk your wares. I think I stand out quite a bit, do not you?" I say, doing my best not to flinch at the awkward phrasing at the end of the sentence. "Wait, do not you? Don''t you? God damn it, what is words even," I think, as I hold my smile. Nakak, for her part, loses the customer service stance she is holding, and I can see a level of calculation in her eyes.


    "You do... but that''s not worth a whole carpet," she says, her voice lower than before. "Wait, does she lean into the whole young thing on purpose? IS SHE EVEN A KID," my thoughts spin, but I do my best to avoid focusing on them. "You are probably right. But it is worth something. More traffic means more sales," I state, gesturing at the crowds passing by the stall. Nakak just chews her lip, a mercantile gleam in her eye. "You do draw the eye, offworlder. You''re very tall, and you''re voice is very deep. Will your friend help too?" "Oof, hit me with the dysphoria beam why don''t you," I think, but I don''t let it show on my face, as I throw my left arm around Ko-lee''s shoulder. "Ko-lee? Of course she will help! She will stand on the other corner. You will have three intersections covered, like a glowing sign pointing right your shop!" I can feel Ko-lee tense underneath my arm; likely her pride warring with her pragmatism. Still, she doesn''t say anything, and there is a moment of silence as Nakak looks between the two of us. "How much?"


    With the arm around Ko-lee''s shoulder, I give her a gentle squeeze, and she picks up on the signal immediately. "Three bronze an hour. For each of us," Ko-lee said, her expression focused and intense. Nakak, for her part, just laughs; a short, high pitched bark, before she she stops. "Wait, are you serious?" she says, before scoffing. "You want three stack for the day? For each of you? All you''re doing is standing on the corner and telling people to come over. That''s barely worth a bronze an hour. I can do 1 stack for the day, total." Ko-lee just shakes her head, with an immediate rebuttal on her lips. "We''ll be on our feet just the same as you. The only difference is we''re not finalizing the sale. Two and half bronze." Nakak just looks at the older woman, her eyes squinting. "I still need to make a profit. Two an hour. That''s a stamp for each of you at the end of the day. Deal?" At her declaration, the young girl stuck out her hand. Without hesitation, Ko-lee takes it and pumps up and down once. "Deal."

 Ember

    The entire exchange between Ko-lee and Nakak had my head spinning. "I only know a little bit about credits, but it''s hard to gain a sense of value in a vacuum. Plus, I barely recognized the words they were using. Something about a stack and a stamp," I think, as I hawk wares at my designated intersection. "In game creds drop all the time but it''s just basically blue lights and a 4 polygon model. Like, I know the words, but I don''t have any sense of what a credit actually is. Nakak could literally hand me a piece of scrap metal and I wouldn''t know the difference." I knew it wouldn''t happen though; not only did I trust the young merchant, but I also knew that Ko-lee wouldn''t let anything like that slide. "Nothing ties a room together quite like a carpet!" I shout, as I muse on my lack of real world financial experience. "Make a house into a home with decorations that will fill your neighbors with envy!" My number of years in customer service positions had led me to doing this exact thing in one situation or another, so unlike Ko-lee, I felt quite comfortable coming up with things to say on the spot. "Plus the years of theater and choir? Game was rigged from the start," I think, my eyes occasionally passing over the frustrated looks of the other merchants in their stalls.


    Still, I don''t let their sour expressions get to me, as I single out one of the pointy hat people I had seen earlier. "Young man! Your apparel is exquisite! But I think I know what would go great with-" but my spiel dies in my throat as my eyes land on the form of someone farther down the path.


    A warframe.


    "HOLYSHITHOLYSHITHOLYSHIT Okay relax RELAX," I think to myself, less relaxed than I have I ever been in my life. "Do we call them over?! What''s the game plan here??" I can feel my brain trying to form a plan, but thoughts are colliding in my mind so quickly that I''m effectively frozen in indecision.


    "


    cause if I


    well they''re already


    ng towards us and


    wasn''t the plan to see them now!"


    My main issue is that, while I had wanted to interact with the Tenno, I had wanted to do it on my terms. This initial social collision wasn''t something I was prepared for, and I was of two minds on what to do with the situation. "Either I can talk to them now, or I can let them pass by. Pros and cons! Column A, this could catapult me into working with the Tenno right away. We might be able to skip being a skinner. We could get revenge on Colonel Jar. Column B, we already have a plan we''re enacting right now. If I were to say something, what would happen with Ko-lee? Would she stay on Earth while I went went the Tenno? Would she come with? We''d need to talk about it so me making a unilateral decision could end up splitting us up. Also, if this is pre Second Dream, then I''m not even talking to the Operator, I''m talking to the Lotus! If I tell a reclusive sentient slash mom figure that I actually know where she hid all her children, how the hell is that going to go over well? For real she''d actually just kill me. If she can hide a whole moon she can probably hide a body, if she even needs to do that. ''Cause like, I''m just a random nobody, and who is gonna argue with the Tenno except people I don''t really want on my side?"


    "But also, if I don''t mention the Operator or the Reservoir, then I don''t even really have anything to talk to them about? Other than vengeance, but again, that would cost money that-" but by this point the warframe has nearly reached me, and before I manage to make a conscious decision, my mouth makes one for me. "Hey, Tenno!" "WHYDIDIDOTHAT" At my words, the warframe comes to a halt right next to me, and I can''t help but swallow as the frame takes a step closer. It''s clearly an Ember, standing at what appears to be a few inches taller than me, possibly 6''3" or 6''4". Standard social procedure has me attempt to make eye contact with the biorobot, but like all frames, she didn''t have any. Even still, the warframe turns it''s head towards me, in a mimicry of eye contact, putting me just a fraction of a hair more at ease. "This is actually insane please do not kill me," I think, looking at the metallic surface of it''s face, a smile still locked on mine. As my eyes continue to roam around for the eyes that aren''t there, I get a better look of the warframe''s composition, and I can feel the analytical part of my brain doing it''s best to categorize the makeup of the human shaped weapon.


    The surface of the frame is some sort of metallic material, but it looks more pliable and less reflective than any metal I knew of. If I didn''t know better, then I would have said that the warframe was actually made out of some sort of concrete or bone like material, and there were only a few parts that I was confident were actually a metal I could name. Due the patterning, I''m left wondering if the various interspersed metal is decorative or functional, and that confusion continues as I notice little lights attached here and there, barely brighter than a penlight. There are, what appears to be, decorative leg guards that are suspended about 6 inches out from the legs, as well as some sort of flat cabling that hugs underneath the chest and along the side near the abs, which catches me slightly off guard. "Wait, is that on the vanilla frame in game? This is a trip."


    I feel a mix of confused emotions rush through me. A bit of terror at the upcoming conversation with what basically amounts to a walking nuke, a bit of frustration that I had attracted the Tenno''s attention without a follow up. A smidge of attraction at the curved form of the frame, along with revulsion at knowing that it was effectively an infested Dax corpse. "God why is Ballas such a fucking weirdo. He couldn''t just make robots, nooooo, he''s gotta make hot robots! Out of soldier corpses! Piloted by children! Insane people behaviour." Although I knew that it was more complicated than what I was making it out to be. The warframes weren''t meant to originally be piloted by the children from the Zariman, that was only due to the fact that his weapons kept losing their minds and attacking indiscriminately. As well, since the warframes were meant to live amongst Orokin society, as bodyguards and the like, it would make sense that they would want them to be aesthetically pleasing. Still, all the bits and bobs of lore I had picked up over my many hours of gaming made the entire situation even more confusing than it was initially.


    "How can I help you?", says a voice, emanating from the warframe. I was unsure of just how long it had been since I called the Ember over, as lost in my mind as I was, but the words from the frame bring a stark level of clarity to the situation, like a bucket of ice water. I open my mouth, but no sound comes out, and the warframe continues to stand stock still like a statue, as I do my best to find my resolve. "Just say something! Literally anything!" I think, but for all the initiative my mouth had shown earlier, it now seemed awfully reticent to speak up. "Miss?" says the voice, again, and all I can think is "That is space mom. That''s... that is literally Rebecca Ford''s voice. What. What the fuuuuck is happening I''ve heard that voice a million times in game in a million voice lines, and now it''s just being projected out of a face that has no mouth to speak it." Once again I feel my mouth open, but although I could feel the pressure building in my lungs to form the words, I still wasn''t entirely sure what I was going to say.


    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    "A-after all that hard work saving the system, you need a comfortable space to relax in, Tenno! Nothing like a carpet to make an Orbiter a home!" I say, my voice initially wavering before finding my footing in the familiar motions of improv. "Nakak has just the thing for you and..." I lean into the frame, giving an exaggerated look left and right before stage whispering, "I can get you the local deal, instead of the offworlder deal. You just tell her I sent you." I finish the bit off with a wink, before leaning back from the frame, my face starting to hurt from the grin that had been locked into place since the warframe had approached. "I appreciate the offer, Cetisian, but I will not be purchasing any carpet today. In the future though, if I am looking for the... local deal, then I know who to speak to," says Lotus/Ember, before continuing her path through the crowd, deftly navigating around and through it. As she leaves, I can feel a sense of pressure drop, one that I hadn''t even noticed was there initially, and I can''t help but watch the warframe as it continues down the path, moving with more life than I had ever had a chance to see in game. "Fuck," is the only thought I can muster up, as I watch the weapon disappear.


    For a brief moment after it''s gone, I can''t help but think about the entire interaction, which must have taken less than a minute. I hadn''t told Lotus anything because I wasn''t confident on how to approach the subject, but ultimately, I''m glad I hadn''t tried to strike a deal then and there. I know that there will be other frames eventually, and so rather than ruminate, I just think about how real the thing was. "No cosplay could compare. The material they''re made of... it''s just not something I''ve seen before. Like a flexible metal, but without being reflective. And the way she moved, I just can''t wrap my head around it being a real thing. Even the cinematics don''t have the frames bullet jumping around but I would bet every credit I''m about to make on that Ember being able to bounce around just like a player. Plus, the fact that she''s just walking around, when she could hit her 4 and obliterate everyone. But no one cares. No one''s even really scared." I just shake my head at the entire interaction. "This is probably what it''s like to meet Superman, except if Superman was more morally questionable. Mercenary Superman. Mercman. Whatever."


    <hr>


    "-and then the Ember walked off. It was so trippy. I have not seen a warframe before, not in person. There was this presence that... I do not know how to describe it. You could feel it coming off of them just by being near them," I say to Ko-lee, as I sit across from her within the tavern. "Actual aura for real," I follow up in English, still somewhat in a daze from the encounter. Ko-lee just nods her head, occasionally taking a swig of her mowje as she listens to me tell the story. "Obviously. They are walking forces of nature. They are so strong, so fast, you''d be dead before you knew it. And, you can''t really kill them. There are stories of people thinking that they''ve killed a Tenno, and they snatch up it''s body to sell for parts. Then, not even a minute or two later, it comes back to life only to kill everyone and leave." We''ve swapped now, and I find myself nodding my own head and sipping my own mowje as she talks. "I''ve never heard of anyone referring to a Tenno as Ember before though. What does that mean?"


    "It is... a small flame?" I say in Ostron, my hand wiggling as though it were a flame at the tip of a candle wick. "Or a tiny coal, barely alive." I can see it click in Ko-lee''s head, and she says, "ohhh, ember. You weren''t using the Origin word for ember, you were using... uhm, what did you call it..." "English," I prompt, and I can see her head nodding in confirmation. There''s a thoughtful look in her eye and brief moment of silence, before she asks, "Let me guess. You can''t tell me why you call that specific Tenno Ember?" I just shrug as non commitally as possible. "It is just what I know them as. It is a long story," I say, taking a bite of grilled tower flesh and some sort of root vegetable. I wasn''t particularly enamored with it''s taste; something like a cross between a cauliflower and a brussel sprout. However, its flavor was minimal, and it acted as a fantastic vessel for the sauce it was covered in, so I ate with gusto. Ko-lee just leans back in her chair, taking a sip of her mowje, before saying, "Someday, I will sit you down, and you will tell me that ''long story''." I just give an affirmative while my mouth is full of food, but as I get a glance at her eyes it''s clear that, while in good spirits, she''s very serious.


    I sit up, swallowing my food, and look at Ko-lee. "Ko-lee, I promised I will tell you. I am not trying to hide my story from you, it is just... it is really complicated. With the words I have I... it is just a lot. Even I do not have all the answers. I keep my promises, and I will tell the entire thing you, some day soon, okay?" I do my best with my limited language to impress upon her my sincerity, and she seems to notice, because she nods her head right away. "I know, I believe you. I''m not trying to push you, I''m just curious," she says, as she leans back in her chair. "I wasn''t planning on let you sneak away anyways. Oh! That reminds me of the Corpus guy I saw..."


    <hr>


    Our food finished, and the night wearing down, Ko-lee stretches in front of me, and says, "I''ll see you in the morning, right? We have to talk to Konzu, but if we head down to the beach, we may be able to catch him before the end of the day." I give her a nod of affirmation, and Ko-lee gives a small grin. "And by morning, you are aware I mean before the middle of the day, correct?" I just roll my eyes. "I do not think it is crazy to sleep in for a single day! We were walking for two weeks! You taskmaster," I say, the mirth evident in my voice. She just keeps on grinning, and she starts off up the stairs, as I finish the last few sips of my drink. "It''s gonna be a bitch to sleep though. Actually meeting a warframe is crazy af. Like, I D K what update we''re in, since Ember is a vanilla frame, but there were 20ish something frames pre second dream. But also, some of those frames were actually just primes so really there''s only like 15 unique frames. Still, would be wild to see like, a volt or an excal with his sword or something. Orrrr, like a nidus? Could nidus even walk around in somewhere like Cetus? Isn''t he a walking vector? Or straight up mummy frame? What would that even look like I R L? Or like, their attacks or something..."


    As I continue thinking, I make my way upstairs to my room, but my train of thought is derailed by faint sounds reaching my ears. The tavern isn''t silent; there''s still a few people about since it''s not particularly late, but what I''m hearing doesn''t seem to be coming from downstairs. I stop walking, and quirk my head, trying to pinpoint the origin of the sound, and as I take a few slow steps towards my room, I realize what it is I''m hearing. "Oh," I say, taking a few steps closer to Ko-lee''s room. "Shit, she''s crying, but there''s no way she''s asleep. It''s almost def the stress of having to talk to Konzu tomorrow. Do I... like, knocking on her door is super the wrong play probably," I think, as I stand there awkwardly in the hallway. "I know she''s got the whole stoic strat but I''m like, 95% confident that she needs a friend. Is it irresponsible to let her suffer by herself? Am I bad friend for not saying anything?" As I hem and haw on my actions, I can hear Ko-lee sniffle, before stopping entirely, followed by a number of shuffling sounds. "Well... whatever. Moment''s passed," I think, and I finish making my way into my room, collapsing on my own bed.


    As I stare at the ceiling, I can''t help but continue to ruminate. "It''s been like a week plus of this though. I should probably say something, at some point. UGH. Both my partners go to therapy, so like, I can just talk them about stuff like this. I don''t need to push them into it, which means I don''t really know how to approach someone who might not want to talk about that sort of thing. Bruh. This sucks." A chuckle passes my lips, and I can''t help but think, "this is the sort of thing I''d talk to ''my'' therapist about, but I highly doubt she got isekai''d along with me. I hope not anyways." There''s a moment of silence, as I listen to the muffled sounds of life underneath me, before letting out a sigh. "I''ll talk to her about it. Eventually. There''ll be another opportunity, I''m sure."

 The Conclave

    "I don''t understand why or how she sleeps so much. You would think she was a child," Ko-lee mused to herself, as she made her way into hall. Today was the day that her and Antimony would meet with the Conclave, and like nearly every day prior that Ko-lee had spent with the woman, she would need to be woken up. As she made her way out of her room and into the hall, she had a brief impulse to leave Antimony behind. To let her sleep, while Ko-lee went on to speak to Konzu herself, not dissimilar to how she had spent the previous morning buying new clothes for the both of them. But as quickly as the impulse came, she discarded it. "The Conclave will want both of us there. She may have insight into the... event... that I don''t." She could feel the ghost of the fury of that night pass through her, and she took a momentary breath to settle her nerves. She had spent much of the journey from Sharip to Cetus trying to come to terms with what had happened, but she still found her mind a mix of unpleasant emotions anytime the memories cropped up. "A Chief needs to-"


    Ko-lee''s musing was interrupted by the door to Antimony''s room swinging open. Ko-lee''s gaze found her way towards the woman; she had clearly just woken up, apparent by the haphazardly thrown on outfit and disheveled hair. Her mind, however, didn''t seem to suffer the same exhaustion; her vibrant blue eyes were searching Ko-lee''s, as though trying to pierce into her mind. "How did you sleep?" she asked, as she stared straight into Ko-lee''s soul. "Her eyes are mesmerising," thought Ko-lee, before she realized that Antimony had asked her a question. She could feel the tips of her ears burning, and there was a brief moment of silence as the words caught in Ko-lee''s throat. Quickly schooling her expression, and hoping that her companion hadn''t noticed her slip up, she spoke. "Fine, as usual." For some reason, that didn''t seem to be the response that Antimony was hoping for, and the briefest frown crossed her face, before she broke into a grin, her gaze wandering around the hall as she spoke. "Better than yesterday, I hope. So, what is our next step?" For some reason, that seemed to tickle her, and her smile grew even wider.


    "Her mind is all over the place. How she functions, I have no idea," thought Ko-lee, as she began to lay out the day''s plans. "While Konzu will be at the tavern tonight, I was hoping we could find him before that point. If we do, then we might have an opportunity to bring the Conclave together today, rather than needing to drag this out." As she spoke, the two made their way down the stairs and towards the tavern itself. As they passed Mareep, the bartender, Ko-lee held two fingers up, receiving a nod of affirmation in return. "However, I don''t know where else we might find him. I figured we could speak to Nakak. She might have more insight into when and where he might be." Antimony nodded vigorously as Ko-lee spoke, and the moment the last word left Ko-lee''s lips, the excitable woman spoke up. "I like it, peh kass oh," she said, for some reason inordinately pleased with herself. Ko-lee, for her part, did her best to ignore it. During the trip to Cetus, Antimony had explained that she would occasionally just... say things. There was a term attached to it, but Ko-lee couldn''t remember what Antimony had called it. In any case, it wasn''t meant to be responded to, it was just... something she did.


    She wasn''t worried that there would be any odd outbursts during the Conclave though. When Antimony had explained it, she said it was generally only in situations where she was relaxed. "It is because I feel comfortable with you," she had said, and even the memory of the conversation made Ko-lee feel warm inside. Still, she knew her feelings were one sided, as the few times she had made insinuations towards Antimony, they were gently rebuffed. So, while they dug into their food, Ko-lee did her best to set her feelings aside. "I need to keep my mind on our next step. Breakfast, Nakak, Konzu, Conclave," she thought to herself, and with her mind set on their immediate goal, she dug in to her meal.


    <hr>


    As the pair made their way through the busy market streets, Ko-lee heard the young entrepreneur''s voice cut through the chatter of the crowd. Not long after, Nakak spotted the two approaching the stall, and her face lit up. "She''s probably excited for another influx of cash," thought Ko-lee. She wasn''t sure how much the young woman had made from the assistance of her and Antimony, but being able to draw attention to one stall among many was no doubt a valuable ability, and Ko-lee knew that Nakak would use them as long as they were available. "Ahh, my friends! I am so excited to see you again, and so early too! Are you here to assist me on this Unum blessed day?" Ko-lee looked at Antimony, but her attention seemed to be lost in the flow of the market, so Ko-lee decided to take charge. "We''re looking for Konzu," she said, focused on the young carpet seller. "We know that near the end of the day, he''ll end up in a tavern called Salt of the Sea, but we were hoping to find him before that point. We have an important discussion to hold with the man." Nakak just nodded her head, and when Ko-lee finished, she responded, a mercantile gleam in her eye.


    "Wellll, I think I might know, but I hardly have the time to discuss it. I''m losing sales just from talking to you, you know," said Nakak, a look of faux frustration on her face. Ko-lee just sighed, reaching into her pocket to grab at the few credits she had from the work of the day prior. But before she had a chance to pull them out, Antimony spoke up, her gaze still wandering amongst the crowd. "Sorry Nakak, we are just trying to find him so we can wrap up our business early. If we can, then we can come back around lunch time and work with you again. Assuming you want us to help again," she said, seemingly offhand. Ko-lee almost spoke up to counter what Antimony said, but then a thought flashed through her mind. "If we find Konzu and speak to the Conclave, we''ll end up having the rest of the day with nothing to do. We''re still short on credits to make our way into the Unum, so we''d need to work with Nakak anyways." She looked at Nakak, who had a smile on her face, clearly amicable to the idea. Then she shifted her attention to Antimony, who for all intents and purposes, didn''t even seem to be paying attention to the conversation. "Was this all a ploy? It felt so... genuine, like it was just something she thought of on the spot, but surely not."


    "Hmm, that sounds like a plan to me! So, from what I know, he heads in towards the market from the beach, likely coming from the tower. He doesn''t have a specific time he passes by here, but it''s still early enough that you''ll likely catch him if you leave now," said Nakak, as she recalled the previous month''s interactions with the man. At her words, Antimony spun around, a grin on her face. "You are the best! We will go find him right now. See you in a few hours?" she said, looking at the mask seller. Nakak just nodded, a smile on her face. "Sho-lah, Antimony, Ko-lee." Just as quick, Antimony spun to face Ko-lee, gesturing with her head to start walking towards the beach. Ko-lee nodded, then gave a short wave to Nakak, before starting to make her way through the crowd, with Antimony trailing behind her. A minute into their walk, and Ko-lee couldn''t help but speak up. "That was well played, Antimony." Antimony, for her part, looked confused. "What was?" she asked, and Ko-lee gestured the way they had just come. "How deftly you handled Nakak. She wanted us to pay her for the information, but instead you got us more work for the day." Antimony''s expression of confusion didn''t leave, however.


    "She did?" said the woman, and this just caused Ko-lee to become confused. "Well, yea. You didn''t know? I thought you did it on purpose?" Ko-lee didn''t understand how Antimony could simultaneously be so competent and so unaware at the same time. "Oh, uhm. I did not know. I just thought... well, I was just thinking about what we would do after. I did not really, uh..." Ko-lee took a moment to look at Antimony, and saw her face growing red. "I don''t understand, what is she embarrassed about? Even barely paying attention she''s a social savant," thought Ko-lee, as her gaze refocused on the the path before them. She wanted to do something, say something to assuage Antimony''s clear concern, but not knowing what exactly the woman was so embarrassed about, she decided to just keep her mouth shut instead. "Maybe she''ll explain it at some point in the future." And so, the two women continued making their way past the various stalls and towards the beach.


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    After the short jaunt, Ko-lee looked around the sandy stretch of land, but wasn''t able to spot Konzu anywhere. Noticing Othlak however, she made her way over, waving to catch the man''s attention. Othlak, seeing the approaching pair, gave a short nod of acknowledgement, and as Ko-lee got closer, she spoke up. "Do-lah, Othlak. I heard that Konzu passes by the beach at some point today? Do you know when and where I might be able to run into him?" Othlak, ever focused on his work, said, "He generally speaks to the companies. You''ll need to speak to one of the foremans." At this, Othlak took a brief pause in his slicing to point with his knife at a much cleaner man directing others near the balloons. "That man is a foreman. I think his name is Jakob." Then, he returned his attention the meat before him, continuing his methodical and bloody work. "Thank you," said Ko-lee, before making her way over towards Jakob. As she approached, she heard the scratchy tone of the foreman directing those around him. "I''m sorry to interrupt," said Ko-lee, as she got within earshot. "Are you Jakob?"


    The older man took a quick look at her, before quickly returning his attention to the various workers around him. "We''re not accepting any applications right now," he said, making a quick note on a holographic tablet he had in his right hand. Ko-lee just shook her head. "Sorry, this is about Konzu, actually. I heard that he would be somewhere on this beach? I have an urgent message to give him," she said, and at this, the foreman gave her another look. "Ahh, I see. Yea, he''ll be coming back from the tower in an hour or so. If you wait near the landing pads, you should be able to catch him," said Jakob, gesturing towards the section of beach with the most balloons. Thanking the man, Ko-lee made her way over to the pads along with Antimony, and managed to find a section where they''d be mostly out of the way, but still have full sight of everyone taking off and landing.


    Roughly 40 minutes after settling in, Antimony spoke up. "Did you say something?" she asked looking at Ko-lee. Ko-lee just shook her head "No, I didn''t say anything." "That is so weird," said Antimony, looking both concerned and confused. "This is the second or third time that has happened, I think." Ko-lee, without taking her eyes off of the beach, asked, "What happened?" Antimony just shrugged, and said, "I keep thinking a woman is speaking to me. I think I am going crazy." Ko-lee, without missing a beat, said back, "I''m pretty sure you''re already crazy." Antimony''s face lit up, a grin stretching wide across it. She said something in that other language that she spoke, but Ko-lee didn''t have the opportunity to press her on it, as at the same moment, she watched a reclamator balloon that was carrying Konzu land nearby. Ko-lee stood up, with Antimony quickly following suit, and the pair made their way off their rocky seats and towards Konzu. "Konzu!" said Ko-lee, half shouting to get his attention. The older man looked up towards Ko-lee, and he began to smile as they got close. "Ahhhh, swazdo-lah Ko-lee! What-" but he was quickly cut off. "I need to talk to you about Sharip," said Ko-lee, her expression stone.


    "Gather the Conclave."


    <hr>


    Ko-lee and I are sat in some sort of official looking building. That is to say, the building was less wood and more Unum shell, almost like they were attempting to mimic the Orokin style. "Or probably the Unum''s style, realistically. Potato, potato," I think, as I start to look at the oft mentioned ''Conclave''. It was, not unsurprisingly, mostly older people. Konzu and Saya are the first two that I recognize, but I also note Master Teasonai, the conservation merchant within the game. The rest of the members weren''t people I recognized though, all with varying levels of frustration clear on their faces from being pulled into this emergency meeting. They were sat in high backed chairs, with the chairs sat on a part of the ground that was about a foot higher than what we were stood on. However, since they were sat down in chairs, it meant that they were really only at eye level with us, rather than looking down on us. "Alright, game face," I think to myself, as Ko-lee steps forward to begin speaking.


    "Swazdo-lah, conclave. Thank you for coming, and I am sorry for having pulled you away from whatever you may have been doing. I, Ko-lee of Sanza, Chief of Sharip, have some news to bring." At her mention of her title, there is some quiet murmuring, and I manage to pick out a few words. It''s clear they think that this is about Sanza passing, and Ko-lee now taking up the role, although there is still confusion about why an emergency meeting was called. I look at Ko-lee, and I can see a subtle shake, although whether it''s anger or sadness I can''t be sure. I take a step over to my right, bumping my shoulder into hers, and I feel the shake subside just a fraction. She takes a breath, and says the words that we''ve been carrying for the past 500+ miles.


    "Sharip has been destroyed."


    Obviously, there is a multitude of reactions from the various Conclave members. Shock, anger, pity, even a look of disbelief from a few. Konzu doesn''t react, however, since he had already known; we needed to tell him to have him bring together the Conclave in the first place. There''s nearly a minute of chatter between the various members, before Konzu calls for order, and nearly 30 seconds before there is silence again. Then, the questions begin. How did it happen? When did it happen? How many have survived? How did you survive? Did the Grineer see us flee? On and on and on the questions go, with Ko-lee answering them as quickly and succinctly as possible. I can tell how hard it is for her, and I think the Conclave does as well, because the questions don''t drag on too much, or dig into specifics. Still, I can''t help but wish I could speak for her, so that she doesn''t have to go through it all again. However, I''m effectively a nobody in regards to the meeting, so all I can do is be present.


    Eventually, the question we knew would be asked comes to the table. "And who is Antimony?" says Master Teasonai, causing the various members to shift their attention to me. "Damnit, see if I ever catch a vampire cat for you again," I think, as Ko-lee speaks up. "A wandering monk. Someone at the wrong place at the wrong time. She had been passing through, but we had... grown close. She''s unrelated to Colonel Jar and the Grineer." I just keep my mouth shut, my gaze jumping between the various sets of eyes on me. It was the only thing that we had to lie about, since we knew that drawing too much attention to me would cause issues, but I still felt uncomfortable with the bent truth. "Shit like this always goes sideways eventually," I think. Still, we had a plan, and I wasn''t about to disrupt it. "How sure are you that she is not a spy?" says some old lady I don''t recognize. Ko-lee speaks up immediately.


    "I would bet my life on it."


    "Damn, alright, that''s... she''s probably just being hyperbolic for the crowd. Or, I guess she did bet her life on it," I think to myself, the tips of my ears growing red. Even though I know that Ko-lee trusts me, the statement leaves basically no room for interpretation, and I can''t help but grow a little embarrassed at the unequivocal show of trust. Still, it convinces the Conclave, and eventually, after a few minutes of chatter, Konzu speaks up. "Thank you for bringing this to our attention, Ko-lee. I think I can say for all of us that we are deeply sorry for your loss. I''ve heard that you are staying at Salt of the Sea. I will let the bartender know of the situation, and we will cover your stay for as long as you need to get your feet under you." Then, in seemingly a dismissal, Konzu stands up, the rest of the Conclave following shortly behind.


    "Hold on," says Ko-lee. "Is that it?"

 Meeting Adjourned

    Konzu just looks at Ko-lee, confusion on his face from her exclamation. "Do you think you''ll need more assistance?" he says. "Unfortunately, Cetus can''t afford-" but Ko-lee cuts him off before he can finish his sentence. "This isn''t about money!" she snaps, and at that, the Conclave, who were shuffling out of the hall, stop moving. Konzu, still amicable but clearly confused, says, "Well, I''m not entirely sure what more there is. Did you have something you needed to say?" Doing her best to contain her rage, Ko-lee says sharply, "Yes. What are we going to do about it." The various Conclave members murmur amongst themselves, and a few even sit back down in their chairs. Saya, who had been silent for most of the meeting, speaks up, her expression severe. "To be clear, you are asking us to retaliate against the Grineer." Ko-lee''s expression is cold, as she stares at Saya. For my part, I just feel frozen, unsure of my standing in the social hierarchy. "Seriously, what is her play here? We already talked about this like a week ago; she knows they''re not gonna do anything. Why is she starting a fight with them?" I feel pulled in six different directions; part of me wants to apologize and pull Ko-lee out of the hall, part of me wants to stand by her and feed her fury, and another part of me wants to try to get something more from the Conclave.


    "Seriously though! ''Oh damn looks like everyone you know and love died, have a tavern room''? And I just know Konzu was trying to make some excuse about how broke they were before she stopped him. Utter bullshit," I think, as Konzu does his best to play mediator. "Ko-lee," he says, his hands raised in supplication, "I understand your frustration. But you have to understand, we can''t go on a tear every time the Grineer attack. But we are not doing nothing. We''ll use the information you provided us in future pushes against them, and when we have an opportunity, we will move against Colonel Jar. But we can''t go on a vengeance kick. There are thousands of lives here in Cetus, and we walk a zaw''s edge whenever we push against the Grineer." Ko-lee just shakes her head in exasperation. "So you''re useless then? After all of this, after everything we did to get you this information, you''re just telling me that there''s nothing that can be done?" she says, her expression granite. Konzu shakes his head in response, saying, "No, Chief Ko-lee, that''s not what I am telling you." At the use of the title, Ko-lee just scoffs, but Konzu moves past it, continuing, "what I am saying is that we will do what we can, ''without'' risking the safety of the other Ostron clans, as well as Cetus. If we were to retaliate, we would be fine behind her walls, but what do you think would happen to Sempa? To Hotas? To Lykka, who would no doubt be the next attacked?"


    "Then use the Tenno," says Ko-lee in response. At this, Konzu nods his head. "We will use the Tenno, Ko-lee. Our first order of business will be to send the Tenno to Lykka, but for protection only. We will not be pushovers, but we''ll not bite off more than we can chew." There''s a moment of silence and I look at Ko-lee, to see her expression has softened a hair. "Can we use the Tenno?" she asks, and Konzu nods his head. "Of course you can, Ko-lee," says Konzu. "I... I know Sanza and I didn''t see eye to eye on the role that the Tenno play in keeping us safe..." but at this, he trails off. Silence returns once more, and I can''t help but wonder why Sanza was so against the Tenno in the first place. I do my best to think back to when I first spoke to him, but the language barrier at the time meant that I often misunderstood as much as I understood, often leaving me in the dark on specifics. Even still, I can''t remember a point where he actually laid out his reasoning, beyond saying that he wanted to keep Sharip safe. During the trip to Cetus, Ko-lee had given me some of the specifics, but I still wasn''t sure if his stance was based in anything in particular. "Some people are just like that, I guess."


    Konzu is the first to break the silence. "However, like I was trying to mention before, we can not afford to fund you. We will keep a roof over your head and food in your bellies, but if you want to seek vengeance... well, that''ll have to come out of your own pocket. I''m sorry." And for his part, he genuinely does look sorry, which makes me wonder about the economic stability of a place like Cetus. "Like, how are you supposed to make money when you''re a bubble city vee the super capitalists? If I were to go by game logic... a lot of the bounty rewards aren''t even credits, they''re mods and stuff. Maybe there''s actually something to that; like Konzu/Cetus do some sort of barter trade thing with the Tenno, based on stuff they want and or need. Hmmm... maybe we could swing something like that," I think, as the meeting is adjourned for a second time. I watch the various Conclave members chatter amongst themselves, before leaning over to Ko-lee.


    "So, I have some ideas, if you want to hire a Tenno to kill Jar," I let her know, as she watches the Conclave members leave their seats. "I''d rather kill him myself," she says, before making eye contact with me. "...but hiring a Tenno would be a good second option. Still, we''ll need money." "Actually, I have some ideas that might save us a few credits," I say. "Still, we will need some credits. I have a plan for money though, we just need to put in the elbow grease." Ko-lee''s eyebrows scrunch at my turn of phrase. "Elbow grease?" she says, and I give her a big grin. "Hard work," I say, answering her insinuated question. Ko-lee just nods her head, and she begins to make her way towards the exit along with the rest of the Conclave. "I''m willing to put in the work. Are you though?" At this, she gives me a sideways glance, and even though her expression is totally straight, I know she''s just messing with me. "I am the hardest worker around, you know that. Besides, you can not get rid of me that easily. I am not going anywhere, Ko-lee."


    As we leave the hall, I pull Ko-lee to the side. "I am going to ask Konzu a few questions. You do not have to stick around, if you do not want to." I watch as she weighs the two options in her mind, before responding, "I''ll head off to Nakak then, get started on that ''elbow grease'', as you call it. The faster we earn those credits, the quicker we can get into the Unum. It shouldn''t take more than a few more days." There''s a brief moment where she stutters, almost like she is going to do or say something else, before quickly pivoting and walking off towards the market. "That was weird," I think, but before I can get a chance to muse on it some more, I see Konzu leaving the hall. "Ah, Konzu!" I call out, and there''s a brief moment as I watch him shift from exhausted old man to approachable leader. "Damn, man needs like, 50 early lunches," I think, as he approaches me next to the side of the building. "Swazdo-lah, offworlder. Antimony, correct?" he says as he gets within range. I have a knee jerk reaction to correct his pronunciation of my name, but manage to catch myself in time. "Ah, yes, it is Antimony. I wanted to ask you some questions about the Tenno, if that is okay."


    Konzu nods his head, and I can see him quickly glance around, as though searching for something. "Oh, Ko-lee is not here, just me," I say, a sheepish grin on my face. He just smiles, and says, "No worries. So, the Tenno. Have you worked with them before?" "More than you could ever know," I think, but I simply shake my head in response. "Not a problem, we have the facilities for getting in contact with our metal friends. Have you seen the building with one of these on top of it?" he says, then makes a cupped shape with his hands. There''s a brief moment of confusion as I try to figure out what shape he''s insinuating, before it hits me. "Oh, a parabolic dish, like a radio receiver or something," I say out loud in English. Konzu''s eyebrows scrunch up at this, and he says, "I''m sorry, I don''t think I''ve heard that language before. Where did you say you were from?" "Bruh, we need to actually stop yapping," I think, but I quickly give a backhanded wave. "All over. But anyways, a dish? Like this?" I say, doing my best to redirect his focus to the original topic.


    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    Konzu, for his part, seems more than happy to let it be, and he nods his head in affirmation. "Yes, a dish. The building is only a few minutes away from Salt of the Sea. It''s a communications raary, and has enough power to reach into orbit. From there, it''ll reach the Strata relay, and you will be able to speak to an operator." My mind freezes for a moment, and I blurt out, "wait, what?" Konzu doesn''t seem to notice the change in demeanor, and simply points up to the sky. "You likely passed through it on your way to Earth. They relay is called Strata. It houses a number of different groups, and our communications array doesn''t reach any one of them specifically. Instead, there are a number of people who work to keep the relay afloat, and they aren''t aligned with any one group. The one of them operating the communication array on their side will redirect you to whoever you need. They''ll be more than happy to help you from there. Normally using the communications array is... well, I''ll let them know that you and Ko-lee have unrestricted access. You shouldn''t have any issues." I just nod my head, my smile feeling plastered on.


    "Holy shit he said operator and I nearly lost it. I genuinely was like, hold on, no one knows about the operators except like in some cases with the Quills and stuff, but also, we''re not at that part in the story yet cause the moon is still gone? He just meant like, telephone operator old school style. God damn," I think, my mind firing a mile a minute. Still, I manage to speak without giving away my temporary panic. "Dah-dap, Konzu! That is very kind of you. If me and Ko-lee did need to get in touch with you again, what would be the best way to do that?" "Oh, you can leave a message here," says Konzu, gesturing to the vertical cut in the side of the building we were stood next to. "I usually get out here once a week to pick up the mail. That way you don''t need to hunt me down again!" He chuckles at this, and I laugh along with him, playing the part of social butterfly. "That is great, Konzu, thank you again. Sorry again for pulling you and the Conclave into an emergency meeting," I apologize, looking suitably sheepish. He just gives me a wave. "No big deal, I was able to take a load off. All that walking at my age, it''s a bit much. I''ll just have an early lunch," he says, as he starts to head off.


    "Hah, he said the thing," I think to myself, as I turn the opposite direction to follow after Ko-lee into the market. I only make it two steps before I hear, "come to me." I stop walking, and turn to speak to Konzu. "Sorry, was there something else?" He stops walking, and turns to look at me back, seemingly as confused as I am. "Uh, no?" "Oh woops, actually you''re just crazy, big abort," I think, and I do my best to backpedal. "Oh, uh, I... do not worry then. I think it must have been someone else," I say, trying to dig myself out of the social hole. "I thought I heard you call for me, but it was not you, so no worries! Enjoy your lunch!" I go to turn away, but Konzu reaches out to grab my arm. "Woah, old man moves quick," I think to myself, as I look at Konzu''s hand on my bicep. My eyes move to his face, but his jovial attitude has been replaced by one of intense seriousness. "What did the voice say?" he asks, barely loud enough for me to hear him. "Uh, come here? Or, maybe, come to me? Something like that," I say, my eyes jumping between his expression and his grip. Konzu, for his part, quickly backs up, taking his hand off oh my arm. "Sorry," he says, "but if you are hearing voices, it is likely the Unum calling for you."


    I can''t help but feel flabbergasted. "Wait, for real?" I ask, but I can tell at a glance how serious he is. "You must speak to a sripet of the Unum," he says, and before I get a second to ask what exactly that is, he continues, "within the Unum herself, there is a church. Go there, and ask for a riptse. Tell them that you hear the words of the Unum. You will need to meet with her." "Oh," I say. "Meet with... the Unum. Inside the... Unum." I except some follow up, but Konzu just nods in affirmation. "Well... okay. I will do that," I say to him, and at this, he lightens up. "Great to hear, surrah!" he says, and immediately spins off, walking in the direction of, presumably, his early lunch. Part of me wants to call out for more information, but I don''t actually know what I''d ask him. "Unum religion?" I think to myself. "I mean, I guess I knew that people worshipped the Unum but... I didn''t really extrapolate that out. I wonder who he was saying I needed to talk to. Something I can ask Ko-lee about, though."


    As I watch Konzu walk off I can''t help but think about the Conclave and their reaction to Ko-lee. I was of two minds during the back and forth; on one hand, I wanted to be upset along with Ko-lee. The fact that they weren''t going to actually do anything of substance against the Grineer, at least not anymore than they already were, was beyond an insult. She lost not just her home, but everything. Every person she knew and loved, the history of nearly every moment of her life wiped out because of the ego of one man with too much power and too little control. It was effectively a declaration of war, and the Conclave basically told her that they''d let her stay in a tavern, like she was just some irate customer demanding a refund. "Actual opps. If the Grineer ice''d one of their kids you know they wouldn''t be so fucking blaise about it."


    But on the other hand, I knew that was the exact problem. "They can''t just go scorched earth Frank Castle on their ass ''cause they have all of Cetus to worry about. It would just escalate hard until one side got wiped, and T B H it wouldn''t be the Grineer. They can just pop out 300 at a time, and the clones are straight cannon fodder ''cause they don''t know. How are you supposed to understand the nuances of war if you''re just dropped in Helldivers style? The Grineer can''t give up because they have no other way of being, and Cetus would lose the worst war of attrition," I think, as I make my way towards Nakak''s stall. "I know they''re not stupid and I know they can learn but like, that''s besides the point, I think. Cetus isn''t doing either option really. They''re just keeping to the status quo, and that''s what sucks the most."


    In a perfect world, some sort of ceasefire could be organized; in a brutal world, the injustice would not be allowed to stand. Instead, in this one, things would just continue as is. "And that''s the worst of every option. This isn''t the video game anymore, I feel like... shit, we should be able to do something! Stuff should happen!" As the thoughts fly through my mind at an ever increasing pace, I can feel tears in the corner of my eyes start to well up. "Clarktech AND magic and we''re still S O L? If there''s one fucking thing that this universe is supposed to have over my original one is power! Personal power! Power enough to PREVENT SHIT LIKE THIS! TO SWING BACK! TO..."


    FUCKING


    "Antimony? Are you okay?" says Ko-lee. I''m not entirely sure how or when, but I had reached Nakak''s stall at some point in the last 20 seconds, and was just standing there, on the verge of tears. My knuckles are white from gripping so tight and I have no doubt that if I were able to see my face, I''d look like I was about to murder someone. Still, her words manage to ground me for just long enough to put a mask on. "Sorry, I was... uh, sorry," I say, my voice trailing off as a I try and fail to come up with a good excuse as to my current state. Still, with the smile and the universal ''don''t worry about it'' hand wave, Ko-lee doesn''t follow up, although she does give me a lingering look before heading back to her portion of the walkway. With a plastered on sheepish grin, I look at Nakak.


    "So, what can I do?"

 Free Day

    Ko-lee and I are both stood within the stall, Nakak diligently counting out our credits for the day. "Friends, you do such good work! But I must let you know, I will not be here tomorrow." My mouth opens of its own accord, as the words spill out of me before I have the chance to filter them. "Spending time with family?" I look up just in time to see Nakak''s face fall, and I can''t help but feel like an idiot. "Take the foot out your damn mouth!", and this time I speak with more intention. "You are a good boss Nakak! I hope you get some rest on your time off, and we will see you later!" I turn to walk off, extracting myself from the situation as quickly as possible. "Whhyyyy did I say that? Actually insane behavior; she''s like 14ish and is working a stall, of course her parents are dead or some shit," I think, as I pocket my freshly earned credits. "Or maybe a deadbeat dad. Or something. Still, context clues." I''m still shaking my head at the nuclear faux pas when I hear Ko-lee speak beside me. "What are your plans for tomorrow?" she asks, and my train of though quickly shifts to the new topic. "Oh, uh..." I say, unable to come up with some on the spot. "I was not thinking of plans, to be honest." Ko-lee just looks at me for a moment, before speaking.


    "I think I''ll spend tomorrow looking for more work." I take a moment to look at the woman walking shoulder to shoulder with me. At a quick glance, it doesn''t appear like she''s particularly tired, but I know that she''s just trying to distract herself from what happened with the Conclave, and from thoughts about the future. "You know..." I start, and her sharp gaze swings over to mine. "You are allowed to take some time off once in a while. Today was rough." She just looks away at this, and there''s a moment of silence that stretches on so long, I start to wonder if she''s planning to respond at all. "I''d rather keep moving," she says. "Got it in one," I think. "I know, I understand why. I just... do not want you to burn out," I say, as I watch my purple haired companion scan the crowd. "I don''t know what that means," she says, and for a moment, I''m caught off guard. "Wait, for real? That''s not... I mean, I guess it''s a saying but... it''s contextually clear isn''t it?" I think, as we reach Salt of the Sea. "Oh, it.. uhm. You know... give me a second," I say, as I try to think of an appropriate metaphor.


    "I was gunna say burn out like a candle, but that''s not really it, is it? Candles are supposed to be lit on fire, but in the context of burnout it''s going so far past your limits that you in some manner damage yourself. More like, when you''re trying to start a fire with a stick and the friction catches it on fire. Or like, catastrophic bridge failure, although that''s maybe even more confusing. Damn it," I think, as we continue to make our way up the stairs towards our rooms. "So, uh... it is like, you know how if you stress a material, it can get hot?" I start off, somewhat mixing the two ideas I had percolating. Ko-lee, for her part, just nods her head, and I continue my mixed metaphor. "So, imagine you are that material, being stretched, and pulled, and it gets hotter and hotter, and then it catches fire. Even if you put the fire out, you have permanently damaged the material. If it was fabric, you could put a patch on it, but it will never be quite the same again. Do you get what I am saying? You need to take a break, cool off every once in a while." Ko-lee just stares at me, a calculating look in her eye. "I''m not a piece of cloth. ...But I understand what you''re saying. Sort of." I just shrug at the concession. "It is not the best metaphor. I... panicked. But all I am saying is... if you want to talk about what happened today, or if you want a shoulder or... whatever. I am just a wall away."


    There is a moment of hesitation from Ko-lee. I can''t read her mind, and so I wait for her response, hoping that she''ll be willing to take me up on the offer. "...sure," she says, and then quickly heads into her room. I head over to mine, and just in case, decide to stay up a little bit later than I usually do. I''ve always found it easier to stay awake than to fall asleep, but some of that likely had to do with infinite information at my fingertips and I suddenly find myself opening my eyes from a night of rest. I roll from my side onto my back, and my eyes begin to trace the grainy wood patterns of the roof above me, as I think about how drained I feel. "Man, we have been go go going since... well, Sharip. Then we get to Cetus, and we just immediately pick up a gig and then we''re talking to Konzu... this, I think, is the first day where we''re just... not doing anything." Part of me wants to simply sink into the bed, but by instinct I do my best to ignore any desire that could even remotely be driven by my depression. "Still, I need to for real chill. If I''m not gonna just lay in bed all day, then I should start getting dressed. Even if I don''t actually have any plans for the day."


    My free days back home were generally video game or music focused, but my lack of phone means that both of those are immediately off the table. If I was hanging out with friends, I generally ''did'' something in particular; bowling, the movies, indoor skydiving, et cetera. I was never a fan of buying things just to have things, and even if I was, I barely had two credits to rub together. Still, anything I would end up doing would likely be outside somewhere and so I hop in the shower, quickly scrub down, don''t leave the shower because its warm, convince myself to leave the shower, finally finish the shower, throw some clothes on, and step out into the hall. As I do, my gaze roams over towards Ko-lee''s room, and I can''t help but wonder if she''s still around. "I know she said she was gonna look for work but maybe she hasn''t left yet," I think, as I knock on my neighbors door. It only takes me a few moments to confirm that she''s no longer there, and so I start to make my way into the tavern itself for breakfast. "She''s an early riser. And or, she just doesn''t want to talk about yesterday. Which I totally get, it makes me heated just thinking about it. Still, she can''t just bottle everything up. A single cry session isn''t really enough to get over losing your entire way of life."


    Part of me twinges at that; am I really in the position to tell people how to grieve correctly? My grandfather died and I barely reacted, I lost my house in the same fire that people lost their lives in and I made a meme. My sister sobbed when she cut our racist and transphobic father out her life but I was just relieved I didn''t need to think about him anymore. Logically I knew why; I was poster child for the DSM-5. Still, not being able to innately pick up on social nuance meant that I had to actively study it, and that meant that I comprehended a lot, even if I didn''t feel it in quite the same way. Still, I couldn''t help but feel like a bit of a hypocrite. "Hey, you! Blue eyes!" says the bartender, a buff older guy whose name I haven''t actually learned. I wander over to him, and his expression softens as I do. "Hey, Konzu talked to me yesterday, explained everything. I just wanted to let you know, you''ve got a roof under Salt of the Sea as long as you need it. And... I wanted to say I''m sorry for your loss. You and Ko-lee." I can tell the man is genuine, and I can''t help but feel like I''m stealing sympathy. "It is okay," I say to the man, sheepishly. "It was not as bad for me. I was only there for a month or two. Ko-lee had it much worse." The man gives me an odd look when I say this. "It''s not a competition. You both suffered. I''d like to do what I can to help you both heal," he says, his gaze locked on mine.


    Still, I can feel words of rebuttal forming on my lips. I want to say no, dissuade him, tell him I didn''t suffer... but I bite my tongue, instead simply giving a nod and a smile. I take a moment before I open my mouth, making sure it won''t betray me, before I say, "Well, thank you for letting us stay here. We will be out of your hair as soon as we can." He waves his hand in a sweeping gesture, almost as though offering up the tavern. "Please! Stay as long as you''d like, there really is no rush." I give him a smile, but before I get a moment to do anything else, he follows up with, "by the way... I''ve noticed you''re a bit a late riser. Would you be interested in breakfast, or lunch?" I can feel heat in my cheeks at his question. "Ack! Don''t perceive me!" Still, I do my best to pretend like I''m not melting from embarrassment, and I let him know my preference. "Lunch would be fine. Also, can I get the fried fish again?" He takes a moment, clearly trying to recall which fried fish I could''ve been referring to. "The goopola! Of course, it''ll be up in a moment. Go get yourself comfortable," he says, before dashing behind the bar, ostensibly to the kitchen. As I watch him go, I can''t help but grin to myself. "Goopola is an objectively hilarious thing to name a fish," I think, before my mind quickly returns to it''s previous musing. "Also, I''m fine. Ko-lee DOES have it worse. All I lost were some people I sorta knew and sorta liked, and also my phone, which I can acknowledge was my only piece of home, but also! I''m headed back! Soon! Eventually. I''m literally taking steps to get home. I''ll get there when I get there."


    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    "Which could be a long time. Which could be never," another part of my mind whispers. I don''t suffer from DID but there are times where I do feel less like a cohesive person and more like the head of a council of know-it-all assholes. "Maybe you won''t get a chance to leave!" says asshole one. "Only if you give up prematurely! We must have single minded focus! Stop worrying about that girl!" says asshole two. "If you were a good friend, you''d lend her a hand!" And another. "You''re being too pushy! Let her grieve however she wants to grieve!" And another. I can''t help but examine every situation from every angle, seeing only the shades of gray and never the committed stances of black and white. "Which is pretty ironic, honestly. Black and white thinking is supposed to be a staple but I haven''t really been like that since I was a kid, back when I though I knew better," I think to myself. I don''t get much more of an opportunity to muse on the thought as my food arrives, and with extreme gusto, I dig in.


    <hr>


    After another delicious meal of fried fish, I make my way out into the midday sun, squinting as my eyes adjust to the glare. For a moment, I just take in the senses of life all around me; the voices of merchants and children and shoppers, the smells of food and oil and wood and dirt, the bright colors of decorative clothes and covered walkways all mixing together into a feast of stimuli. But it''s not long before my ever nagging mind poses the question I had effectively been dodging all morning. "Now what?" Without any plan or purpose, I begin to move, merely a facsimile of intent, as my eyes wander around the various points of interest I can see. It''s only a few minutes before I manage to spot the communications building, and for a brief moment I consider stopping in. "I could call the Tenno now. I could let the Lotus know that I have information, when she doesn''t effectively have a gun pointed at my head. ...but even if she doesn''t Rod of God me or some shit, I still actually need to talk to Ko-lee about all this. Still, it''s nice to know where it is," I think, before continuing past the technologically adorned building.


    As I continue walking, my eyes soak in the view, and I can''t help but feel like I''m looking for something, even though I''m unsure of what it is I''m actually looking for. It''s not until I find myself scanning the stone cliffs bordering the market that it dawns on me. "Wait, isn''t Onkko slash the Quill''s hideout thing somewhere around here?" I think, as I continue making my way around and through the crowd. "I''m not a Tenno, and I definitely don''t have void powers, but I''m probably maybe void touched." Even with my confidence though, I still try to do a void blast, just in case. All I manage to blast is my confidence, as I find myself effectively reenacting the scene from the Sam Rami Spider-Man film. "Okay, yea, definitely no void powers," I think, as I give a sheepish wave to some passerbys giving me odd looks. "Makes sense though, the Tenno got their power from the handshake deal, although I don''t actually know if it was every Tenno got their powers from one shake, or if each kid made their own deal. In any case, I never talked to Wally."


    But I''m still curious if the door to the Quill hideout will let me pass regardless, and so I continue looking. It''s only an hour and a half later that I have to acknowledge a genuine flaw in the plan. "I could barely find the door on foot in Cetus in the game! And that was with a HUD on a map that was like 10 times smaller. Honestly, I just fast travel there, cause why walk when you don''t have to?" I feel a bit embarrassed at my absolute abysmal lack of directions. Still, the walk in the sun has me sweating, mainly just because it''s such a warm day out, and I''m feeling pretty thirsty because of it. So I table the plan to find the secret door, and instead keep my eyes peeled for something to drink instead. Luckily, this goes much better than the first search, and after only a few minutes I manage to find a food stall selling some sort of fruit drink. I walk over to the man, and after a brief exchange of words and currency, he hands me a cup of the liquid.


    The cup is interesting; instead of it being a paper or styrofoam cup like I might''ve expected from back home, it''s made out of some sort of natural reed material. It''s still very clearly meant to be disposed of afterwards, but I do find the eco-friendly receptacle sort of neat. "Although, I doubt they''re worried about climate change," I think, as I take a sip of the drink. "It''s probably just bec-WOAH" I can''t help but be shocked by the drink as the liquid hits my tongue. At home, I was a big fan of pretty much any carbonated drink, excluding carbonated flavored waters (how could anyone be a fan of something like LaCroix will forever be beyond me), but since ending up here I hadn''t had anything carbonated that wasn''t alcohol, and even then, it was pretty subtle. So it was a bit of a surprise to find that my fruit drink was more like a soda than a juice. The fruit is interesting as well, even if it''s not something I''m able to identify. If I had to draw a parallel, I would say it was like if someone took their own spin on the idea of a grape.


    More than pleasantly surprised, I make my way over to a section of the stone cliff that looks like it is both out of the way of the path, but still visible enough for me to people watch while I sip my drink. As I approach the divot in the stone though, I realize that it''s not just a naturally formed deformation, but in fact, a set of stairs leading up to somewhere. As I make my way up the stairs, I find that they lead up to what appears to be a cliff wall with colored engravings laid in it. "I should buy a lottery ticket," I think, as I stare at the very thing I had been looking for. Like most things, it wasn''t a one to one copy of the stone door from the game, and it''s missing the little stone... decoration thing that is nearby in the game, but otherwise it''s pretty unmistakably the same door. It''s also a lot less colorful and glowy, which makes sense, because why would you put your secret hideout behind effectively a neon sign? As I examine it, more things stand out to me as well. The steps look more naturally formed than intentionally, and the door itself blends more seamlessly into the rock face than it does in game. If I were an average Cetus resident, I could fully see thinking that this was just a neat little semi-cave with some art on the wall.


    I lay my hand on the door itself, and, yup, it''s definitely stone. Unfortunately the action doesn''t cause the door to open, or react in anyway, so I lift my hand off, and form a fist, knocking on the door. All I get from the attempt is scratched up knuckles, because that was to be expected from slamming them against a stone wall. I have a brief impulse to shout ''Is anyone home!?'', but I figure there''s no way that the Quills, if they''re there, don''t know I''m standing here. "They''ve got magic and tech, I''m sure they can scrounge up a tiny camera," I think, my eyes flicking over to potential hiding places. Unsurprisingly, I don''t find any evidence of one, and since there''s no response to my attempted greeting, I walk back down to the bottom step to resume my people watching.

 Four Hit Points

    "I guess I can just wait here for a bit," I think, as I do my best to conserve my grapeish soda. "Maybe I''ll get lucky and catch a Tenno or a Quill coming in through the front door." I take another sip, and as I watch people pass, I find my gaze idly following one of the few soldiers within Cetus. "I wonder what their day to day is? Is the Unum just too busy to deal with petty squabbles? Or is she just a big picture gal. ...also, I should probably get a better gun. The Kraken kind of actually sucks. Which, I did already know. It''s no Stug, but... if there was literally more than one guy, and he was facing me instead of fully unaware, I''d probably be fucked." I can''t help but flinch as a loud bang of wood causes the image of me firing the gun, over and over, refusing to stop pulling the trigger as I efficiently removed a living person from-


    "STOP," I shout in my mind, as I simultaneously take a deep breath and hold it. I know what''s happening, I understand logically, but even on a good day I can''t help but get sucked into my own mind. "I killed a guy. Just... I did. I can ruminate on this, if I need to, but I don''t need to spiral." I''m unsure if this could be classified as PTSD, but regardless of title I find myself frustrated with it. "Post mortem. Would I feel better if I had left him alive? ...yes," I think, cringing at the realization. "I didn''t want to kill him, sure. Was it feasible to leave him alive? Unclear." The entire situation as Ko-lee and I left Sharip is scattered, fragmented. My mind is likely hiding the specifics to protect itself. But even still, I believe it''s unclear now because it was unclear then. "If it was unclear then, then would it have been worth the risk of mine and Ko-lee''s life? No." I''m emphatically confident that attempting a sneaking maneuver in our state would have likely ended disastrously.


    "I would not have made a different decision with the information I had, because the one I made is the one I made. Do I regret taking a life? Yea, in the same way that I regret that bad things happen to good people, that the universe isn''t a utopia, that I don''t have the strength or ability to fix any and all problems I come across. I didn''t want to, but I did. Do I regret the thoughts and actions that lead me to it? No, never. I truly believed and still do believe that what I did was in protection of mine and Ko-lee''s life. Was it excessive?" I take a moment, letting the memory play out in my mind again. It was... every shot in the magazine, but, not out of maliciousness, or hatred, or in attempt to cause excess suffering. I was just... terrified that I wouldn''t succeed, that it wouldn''t be enough. I take a deep breath, and I consciously relax every muscle I can, slowly flopping my body onto the stairs, doing my best not to spill the last few sips of my drink.


    I''m under no allusions that this will have cured me, but I can continue to reinforce my mind, reconfirm my decisions, and hopefully, come to terms with it. I did what I did. It is what it is. I can wax philosophical all day, claiming moral superiority AND degeneracy of my actions, but I''m confident that will just lead to more of a spiral. The sooner I can come to terms with it, the better, because in all likelihood, it will need to happen again at some point. "Ain''t that just the shit? Like, I have New War to ''look forward'' to, with as heavy air quotes as possible. I mean, shit, we''re pre War Within. We might even be pre everything! There''s literally so much stuff that''s gonna happen that I''m absolutely not excited for," I think, as I slowly rise from my seated position, finishing my drink. "I don''t want to be stuck on Earth, especially not Cetus, during Plague Star. I doubt I can even avoid New War, although maaaaaybe I''ll be able to do something to stop it, or at least reduce it to some degree. Stalker is still helping Jade, but bro is full on crazy right now, so I don''t know if I can do shit to help the baby."


    I toss my cup, as I continue walking, my mind doing it''s best to collate information from the many hours of gameplay and wiki diving. "Albrecht is still farting around- actually, he might not even be in Hollovania yet. I know he had that stint in Duvuri. I have no idea when any of that stuff happened. No Kalymos Protocol, hell, no Deimos at all, I think. I don''t remember the lore for why the Mars moon was missing in the first place, but I''m pretty sure it just pops up out of nowhere because they need help dealing with the Heart. Parvos is still trapped in his voidtime bubble. The moon is also still in the Void, which, also where the Lotus is? I think? Ballas is still wherever, Hunhow is still being grumpy in... shit, where is he? All I can remember is the Grineer Sealab tileset. Is he on Saturn? Uranus? Jupiter?" I can feel frustration bubbling in my gut; no matter how many hours I may have put into the game and it''s world, I have a hard time remembering things on a good day. The flash of anger is... annoying, but not all that surprising since my HRT meds have no doubt long since run their course through my body.


    "Whatever, it''s just one more thing," I think, shaking my head. "So, let''s see... Teshin is still presumably trapped slash being controlled by the Grineer Queens. Oh shit! Rell is still holding back Wally!" My heart beats a bit harder for a second as my body dumps a bit of adrenaline into my system. "Can... can we save him? I mean... he is definitely for sure still merged with his frame, but like... is he merged with Wally? Fuck, okay, bump that one up on the priority list," I think, as I mentally reshuffle the bits and pieces of plans I had been working on. "No Zaramin, obvi, which means no Drifter, and no Duviri. Jordas is still floating around, I would assume. Nora Night is... doing whatever she was doing pre-Nightwave, I guess. Maybe scrounging up a ship to fly around in. No Nightwave means no Arlo, no Glassmaker, no Saturn Six... although the Wolf still exists." Just the thought makes me shudder. I have absolutely no intention to tangle with the guy; even though I had pretty much missed all of that Nightwave, I had still fought him a number of times during Kahl''s questline.


    "Even bigger question, I guess, is what about all the shit DE abandoned and removed? Like, do the Tenno control the Solar Rails? I remember that was a PvP thing, sort of kind of. Like with guilds, or whatever. Does Kubrow DNA still degrade? What about every change with frames and their abilities?" By no means am I perfect repository for everything that is or was with Warframe. Even when I had the collective intelligence of the internet at my fingertips I still found myself a bit lost and confused. But now that I exist in the world, the answers to some of those casual questions feel so much more pertinent than they ever did before. I just don''t know what information will continue to be useless, and what will end up saving my life. "There''s just... a lot. Also! All the main story stuff! I want to fix and change things, but it''s pretty much a guarantee that the second I start interfering with the ''timeline'', for lack of a better term, a lot of the information I have will quickly end up becoming useless. Do I try to make small decisions here and there, but otherwise let things play out as is? Do I try to make one big move at some point, to try to steer the timeline away from some calamity? And when slash where would I do that? How could I even make a judgement call on something like that?"


    Unbidden, I find myself sighing. Broadly, I want to make things better, but the information I have is tainted, to a degree. It is mostly broad strokes information; it would be like knowing that the Twin Towers got hit, but not by who. Running around New York yelling my head off would just make me look like a crazy person at first, and incredibly suspicious after. "Call me Cassandra, I guess, unless I can tell someone who can actually something about it. Like... the Lotus." But just the thought of giving up all that information feels... icky, somehow. I don''t want to put everything into someone else''s hands, and then end up relegated to the sidelines. The idea of being a side character in my own life just feels... wrong, somehow. "This is a universe where things happen. Mostly bad things, but still. Could I feel good about myself if I played a small role, when I finally have the ability to do something?" The moment I think the thought, I already know the answer. "No, absolutely not. Plus, it''s cowardly. To refuse the responsibility that I effectively have, and to place that burden on someone else''s shoulders... I''m pretty sure that would make me a bad person."


    "Besides, I''m somewhat confident that even if I were to tell the Lotus about Ballas, for example, there''s all the chance in the world that he''d just shmooze his way into her chambers anyways, and then he''d also have all the information I gave her. All I would be doing at that point would be tipping my hand. So... realistically, I need to keep my cards close to my chest. Unless I am absolutely confident that my information will shift things one way or another, I need to stay silent, and not tell anyone. ...except Ko-lee, I guess, ''cause I promised her," I think, as I aimlessly move through the crowded streets. At the thought of my purple haired companion, I can''t help but glance about, but like most of the day, I haven''t seen a hint of her. "I hope she''s doing all right. But yea, she needs answers about my life and stuff, and I''m pretty sure that that info and the Warframe info are intrinsically linked. If I tried to tell one without the other, I''d very much be hiding the main crux of the issue of how I know everything and nothing at the same time. But also... it has to be later, when I have answers. I can''t just give her my half formed theories on things, I''ll need concrete evidence or she''ll just think I''m a crazy Corpus person with amnesia. Like, for example, I thought Ordis was the mouthpiece of the Tenno?"


    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    "And more to the point," I think, as I find myself wandering onto the beach, "is there one Ordis, or multiple Ordis''s? Ordi? Is he the ship Cephalon for all Tenno ships or just the player character''s? Are there other ship cephalons? Also, speaking of the player character, what about the canonical Tenno that we play? Because, if I was to be honest, most of the information I have directly corresponds to that person and that person alone. Like, I doubt every Tenno got captured by the Grineer Queens, or saved that one girl from the Myconid colony, or calmed down Excal Umbra. Assuming it''s the same one from the trailers, (I think her name was Mara), then I should specifically be trying to find her." I find myself walking down the beach away from the city, vaguely towards the direction we had entered Cetus from. "But again, all of this is based on assumptions. Assuming this, assuming that, assuming assuming assuming. I have to assume about details, because the universe doesn''t conform to game logic, and I have to assume on events because I''m a regular ass person with a life, so I don''t have every single detail of Warframe memorized. Plus, I almost definitely have stuff mixed up, like with names or people or events or dates."


    "The more I focus on specifics, the more likely-" but my train of thought is interrupted by an object sitting on a hover cart that is being pulled by a Corpus merchant. We had both been walking the same direction, although ostensibly he was headed towards his ship while I was headed towards nothing. Still, our proximity led to my eyes wandering to his cart, and the goods on it, and one in particular caught my eye. It''s a round object, smaller than I thought but still roughly volleyball sized, looking vaguely reminiscent of a game cartridge.


    A mod.


    My breath catches in my throat for a moment. "Oh... shit. I forgot mods were diegetic. That... that could change things," I think, as I somewhat unconsciously step closer to his cart. "???," says the Corpus man, in a language I fully don''t understand. He looks worn down, with his facial hair cut into geometric patterns, and while his words held no meaning to me, the tone is very clear; back off my stuff. "Oh, I am sorry," I apologize, taking a step away from his cart. We''ve both stopped at this point, close to but not directly on the beach, and while there are a few people here and there, none of them are particularly close to the pair of us. He just looks at me for a moment, before speaking again, this time in a language I can actually understand. "I''m sorry, I thought you were... nevermind. I was headed back to my ship but, if you''re interested in parting with a few credits, I''d be willing to part with a few quality Corpus goods." For my part, I can''t help but still be a bit shocked by seeing the mod, but I quickly put on my social mask. "Thanks! I was actually interested in that, right there," I say, as I point to the module. As I do though his face falls slightly.


    "Ah, that''s... well, the casing is cracked on this one. It''s meant to be a display piece, while I sell the more functional oulesdm, but unfortunately, I''m all out of those," he says, picking it up. I hold out my hand anyways, and he hands it to me, pointing to a hairline fracture in the main body of the mod. "See? Right here. The mix has depressurized a bit, and so it won''t be nearly as effective. Makes it basically worthless. That''s why I use it as a display piece." I do see the fracture, but beyond that, it seems intact, and more importantly it''s the first mod I''ve seen since I got here. "I do not care. How much?" I ask, still looking the mod over. I manage to find a small inscription on the edge of the casing, but it''s clearly written in the Corpus language, so I''m unable to decipher what it says. "I''m... sorry I don''t think you understood. It''s broken. As in, it wouldn''t work," he says, with a confused tone. I look up from the mod and lock eyes with him. "I understand, you said that it is a display item. Basically worthless. But not literally worthless, right?" I ask, and he nods. While I hadn''t had an opportunity to converse with many Corpus people, the stereotype of being money focused held, at least in this instance, and I was planning on using it to it''s fullest.


    "So, if it is not worthless, then how much would you be willing to sell it for? I have got 100 credits," I say, and at this he just chuckles, holding out his hand. I give him the mod back, and he says, "Listen, if you really want it, I''ll sell it too you, but at the very least, it would be 10 tall." I had talked to Ko-lee about what the different slang terms meant after I heard her and Nakak using them, and so I quickly did the math in my head. "10 tall... 1 tall is 5 bronze stacked together, each bronze is 100, so 500 times 10..." "Sorry, five thousand credits?" I ask, convinced that I somehow screwed up my math. And for a brief moment, I feel relief as the man shakes his head, before it''s quickly dashed. "No, sorry, 10 tall. 10 thousand credits," he says, his grin pulling his geometrically cut beard in odd ways. "Oh, wait, a stack of bronze is called a stack! A single silver is called a tall. Oh my gooodddd those words basically mean the same thing that is so dumb and confusing," I think, feeling somewhat embarrassed. Still, I forge on anyways, my face no doubt burning red. "Would not 100 credits be worth more than a paperweight?" I say, and at this, he gives me a so-so hand sign. "Maybe, but you''re missing the point. Even broken, a mod has value. It''s the difference between a civilian and a soldier. The difference between an unmodded gun and a modded one is the difference between tickling a ghoul and killing one. It''s the difference between us and the Tenno, because they can put them right in their bodies. Even a flawed mod like is power, and unless you can match that power in credits, I''ll have to decline your offer."


    I bite the bottom of my lip at this. I know what he''s saying is true; it''s basically the entire reason I want the thing in the first place. However, I don''t think there''s any chance in the world I''d be able to convince him to lower the price by a factor of 100. "I... I guess I will not be buying this from you," I say, feeling somewhat despondent. The Corpus man shrugs, but before turning away to continue to his ship, says, "Well, I''ll be in Cetus for a few more days. If you manage to scrounge up that much flash, we can chat again." I just nod, doing my best not to show my disappointment on my face. I know that there''s no chance in hell that I''ll be able to scrounge that much up in just a few days; the little bit of money I already have is accounted for, and if I knew a quicker way to make money I''d already be doing it. He gives a wave, and I wave back, before I turn to make my way back into the city proper. "I can''t believe I forgot that mods were a real thing in lore," I think, as I make my way through the knee high grass near the beach.


    I was never the most best at modding; even with all my hours I could never make a build that would hit damage cap, or hit level cap in arbitration. Still, with my own builds I could run a netracell with all four keyglyphs without breaking a sweat. I could solo archon''s and eidolon''s. If I could get my hands on some... "What would I do? I''m not a frame, I''m literally squisher than an operator, and that''s ignoring the magic powers they have. The best I can do is thrown them on a gun," I think, before I stop walking entirely, as a thought strikes me like lightning. "Or a companion. I... I don''t know where to get a companion, but they suck in game cause it''s one tiny robot against hordes of dudes. But this isn''t a game anymore, so I could have... a lot of companions. Like a whole army." I start to feel giddy as the thoughts fly through me. "I could have a whole army of kitted out deathcubes roam through a ship, blasting guys! I could make hounds and moas, and maybe even kubrows and kavats? Holy crap, I could turn Warframe into an RTS! This could actually maybe be something?" Even though the idea is rough and unpolished, I can tell at a glance that there''s a diamond underneath. I smile, as a turn of phrase my boyfriend would often say when we were theorycrafting builds springs to mind.


    "Numbers go up."

 Oh, The Places Youll Go

    It''s been a few days since our "weekend", and Ko-lee and I just finished up a shift with Nakak. I haven''t had any more run in''s with any Tenno, so my shifts have started to become somewhat routine, but luckily not so much so that my brain has started to self-sabotage. I watch idly as Ko-lee finishes counting the last of our pay being doled out by Nakak, before she makes her way over to me, a calculating look in her eye. "Antimony, I was counting our pay for today, and if my math is right, I think we may have enough for a trip over to the Unum and back. On our free day, I did a bit of checking around, and there''s not really a set price, but as long as we ask, we should be able to find someone who will fly us over for cheap," she says, her hand held out as though I''ve already agreed to offer up my funds. "Although let''s be real, I''m gonna," I think, outwardly nodding my head at Ko-lee''s words. "Alright! I am actually so excited for this, you have no idea," I say, a grin stretched across my face. "I think I, and everyone else in the market, are very aware of how excited you are," she says, amusement in her eyes. "Damn it," I think, as I feel the blood rush to my cheeks. "Yea, alright, I get it, I''m loud," I mumble in English, but even her light heckling isn''t enough to keep me from being excited about the prospect. We start to make our way over to Salt of the Sea so that I can grab the rest of my money, which unfortunately places the Unum behind us, meaning that the entire walk I''m basically resisting the urge to spin around to look at the Orokin tower.


    "The only time we ever get to explore the Unum is during New War, and she''s all fucked up from that Murex sitting on her like a headcrab. Big hype to see what she looks like prim and proper. Also, Nakak is great and all, but it''ll be nice to make more than like 12ish dollars an hour," I think, as I sprint up the stairs to my room to grab my money. While there''s no way to confirm my suspicions on the exchange rate of credits to American dollars, it feels like our pay is somewhere between the 12 to 20 dollar range. A single credit is definitely not an entire dollar, but neither is it a penny. That being said, it did settle somewhat nearer to the lower end, although I''m willing to concede that my entire basis of this is on the cost of various goods found within the market. Since a case could be made that the market is somewhat of a tourist trap, I have no idea if my valuations are anywhere close to realistic, but I also knew that I''m unlikely to get better numbers if I was to end up in somewhere like Fortuna. So for now, I''m willing to assume I have a moderate stash of cash; not even enough for a months rent back home, but enough for food and drink, and apparently, a ride over to the Unum.


    As I make my down the stairs and back out into the sun, I hand over my stack of credits to Ko-lee, who stuffs them into a colorful bag she was carrying. "I guess the slang makes some sort of sense," I think, as I watch her place the magnetically linked credits somewhere within. I had found out, soon after I had a chance to rub more than two credits together, that the actual credits themselves can magnetically link with each other, to form a literal stack. All types of credits can do this, except for the smallest white ones, for some reason. As well, when they link together, a series of lights on the body of the credits light up, so you can easily tell at a glance how many are stacked together. Trying to over stack or under stack them is easily visible by both parties, which makes trying to pull one over on your trading partner a bit harder. I had tried to pick Ko-lee''s brain about some of the specifics of the inner workings of credits, but beyond knowing that they were originally of Orokin make, she couldn''t tell me much. "Makes sense I guess," I think, as we approach the beach, and the various hot air balloon landing pads. "I never really did see anyone using credits back in Sharip."


    I let Ko-lee take the lead, as she makes her way over to the first person within eyesight. "Do-lah, surrah. Quick question, if you don''t mind. Would you be someone to talk to if me and my... friend here, were looking to cross over to the Unum?" she says, and I can''t help but notice her brief pause before the word ''friend''. "I mean, we are friends, aren''t we? God, I hope so after everything, would actually suck so much if she was like ''yea, I kinda don''t fuck with your vibe if I''m being honest .'' Although, I''m like 99 percent sure it isn''t that," I think, as I watch her haggle a price to fly us across the water to the living Orokin construction. "Maybe she wanted to try to pass me off as a sister or something to try to get a better deal, and balked at the last second. Eh, it''s literally impossible for me to ask, I guess I''ll never know," I think sarcastically, as they finalize payment. "All good, ''friend''?" I say, and I watch her face grow a shade more vibrant, although she refuses to acknowledge the verbal poke. "Yea, probably embarrassed about the fact that I caught it. We''ve all tried to fudge a truth or two for a cheaper ticket."


    "Fantastic! Credits in my hand, and a seat in yours," says the man, and although I imagine his enthusiasm is feigned, I still can''t help but find myself excited, as I watch him attach some sort of construction to the bottom of the balloon. There are a number of cables and carabiners, and with practiced ease the man finishes attaching them to the wireframe structure to reveal... a seat. "Oh holy shit! It''s like one of those seats on the spinny carnival ride except we''re gonna be dangling thousands of feet in the air! That is so terrifying, I can''t wait!" I think, as the man begins to speak. "Is this both your first time visiting the Unum?" he says, a knowing grin on his face. I just nod my head, too busy vibrating in excitement to say anything in response. Ko-lee, for her part, is even quieter than usual, and I glance over to see that she''s incredibly tense. "Uh oh, is she afraid of heights?" I wonder, but before I get a chance to ask she steps right over to the suspended chair and sits down. "Well, I see we''re quite eager! Don''t let me be the one to stop you," says the man, as he buckles Ko-lee in, and reaches up to rotate the balloon.


    I watch as he presses a button, and pulls a lever, and a drone underneath the balloon itself spins to life. "Oh, so not a hot air balloon," I mumble, but clearly not as quietly as I had thought, since the man responds. "Hot air? No, the balloon itself is filled with a special gas mixture that is inert, but otherwise lighter than air. The drone underneath is what moves the vehicle, but it is pre-programmed with commands. It simply takes a straight line from here to there," he says, pointing roughly two thirds up the body of the Unum, "and I have an associate on the other end who sends it back. The drone has basic avoidance capabilities, but otherwise is a pretty simple piece of tech." As he says all of this, he''s attaching a second chair on the other side of the wireframe structure, which means that Ko-lee and I will be facing out and away from each other. "So you couldn''t drive one of these anywhere you want?" I ask the man, watching him as he finishes attaching the seat. At my question, he takes a moment to think, but his hands never stop moving, and he gestures for me to sit as he does.


    "Well, I guess you could, if you stood above the bars, and physically spun the drone around. Otherwise it mostly does straight lines," he says, buckling me in. "But I don''t know anyone who''d do something like that. The wind can be a bit nasty at times. You''d have to be pretty crazy to pull a stunt like that." "Or an unkillable robot," I think, but outwardly I just give him a reciprocal nod. "Anyways, like I said, this''ll be a straight shot for you. Just hang out, enjoy the sights, and you''ll automatically dock with my friend at the top. He''ll get you out of your seats, so you should have no need to fiddle with anything, alright?" he says, momentarily dropping his relaxed persona. I just nod, doing my best to match his energy, even though all I feel is an endless well of excitement. Ko-lee, who has been rotated to be dangling off the short cliff this entire time, gives a terse, "Understood.", and apparently that''s all that''s needed, as the man switches right back to happy customer service mode. "Great! You are going to have a great time, and I hope you enjoy the Unum!" he says, and with that, hits a switch that begins our ascent.


    Our movement is mostly horizontal, which makes sense as the Unum itself is farther out to sea than she is tall. But as I look between my dangling feet, I can tell we''re rising as we continue to move; the various details I can discern on the ground become less and less. We pass over the small grassy knoll that barriers the beach proper, then end up passing over the beach itself, at least 40 or 50 feet high by this point. Then, we end up over the water, and I start looking outwards, watching the market, and Cetus proper, get smaller and smaller. "How are you doing, Ko-lee," I ask, feeling as light as the balloon carrying us. "It''s... alright," she says, and I can tell she''s just putting on a brave voice. "Not a fan of heights?" I ask, and I just barely manage to hear a scoff, the empty air around us stealing our voices. "Not particularly. The roof of my house is as high as I ever really felt comfortable with," she says, and I just nod my head, before I realize that''s she''s unable to see me. "I get that. I''m scared of heights too," I say, as I wave at some people returning on their own balloon. As they wave back I hear Ko-lee bark out a short laugh. "No you''re not, Antimony, I saw how excited you were."


    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    "Well, yea," I say, doing my best to speak up so she can hear me over the gentle wind. "I am excited. I can be both. I do not know, there is something about facing my fears that gets me giddy. For example, I love to go skydiving, when I can afford it." "What is skydiving?" she asks, and I can''t help but feel a little dumb. "Yeah, somehow I doubt the extreme sports industry is alive and well in Warframe," I think, but out loud I explain, "It is jumping off a high object, while you are attached to a device that can slow your descent. I call it a parachute. It is made of fabric, and sits in bag on your back, and you fall without it for a bit, and then pull it out as you get closer to the ground. It is pretty scary for a lot of people, but there is something about the free fall that is just...," I trail off, struggling to find an appropriate word for the feeling. "Exciting?" Ko-lee offers up, and I give the so-so hand sign, even though I''m aware she can''t see me. "Yes, but... more than just that. Freeing. There is something about it I wish I could explain. I am not all that great with words, unfortunately," I say, trying and failing to come up with a term to explain the ineffable.


    "Your words are fine," says Ko-lee, and I have a moment of confusion at her response. "Oh, no, I am not saying I can not find the words in Origin, I am saying, even if I spoke in English I would not have words. It is indescribable. It is just... something more," I say, watching the various colored balloons pass us by. As we continue to rise, our balloon is slowly rotating, but the drone seems to compensate, so our path isn''t disrupted. Instead, I just get an insanely beautiful 360 degree view of the deep blue ocean, stark gold and white tower, and vibrantly colored city around us. "This is no skydiving, Ko-lee, but it is something special, I think." I don''t expect a response, but moments later, I hear one anyways. "It-it''s definitely pretty," Ko-lee says, and I feel a grin form at the comment. From that point on, we just soak in the views, accompanied by the sound of the wind, and the gentle whirring of the drone above us. The ride takes about 45 minutes, and I start to feel a little apprehensive as we get closer to the tower. "I really can''t tell if she''s bigger than a skyscraper, or if it just feels like it cause we''re a couple thousand feet off the ground," I think, as we level off, and approach what appear to be a series of walkways terminating in the middle of the air.


    As we get closer, I soak in the activity on the docks; a large majority of the workers are hanging huge slabs of meat onto balloons two to three times larger than ours, piercing them on hooks that are only attached to the balloon''s bars via gravity. I briefly get the image of stereotypical pirates dangling off their own balloon, lifting the meat hooks off in midair, and flying off with their fleshy booty in tow, and the image in my mind is so absurd I laugh out loud. It''s only a minute or two more until we reach the section of the dock that we were expected at; another man looking very similar to the one we just left throws a rope with a hook on the end and pulls our balloon in, tying us off and using a step stool to flip a few switches on the drone. I feel moderately nervous for the worker being so close to the edge, but another glance at his outfit shows that he''s clipped into the railing surrounding the dock itself. "I wonder if the Unum was already like this, of if she grew it for people in Cetus specifically," I think, as the man rotates the balloon to begin unhooking Ko-lee.


    It only takes a minute for him to finish, and after Ko-lee uses the step stool to make her way onto the walkway itself, I hear a small "Whoop!". "You did not want to ''whoo'' on the ride over?" I ask, as I wait for the man to unhook me. She just looks at me, a huge grin on her face, and says, "I wanted to make sure we landed first." I let out a chuckle, and the worker unhooking my straps seems to find it a bit amusing too. "Fair enough," I say, and I join her on the walkway. We start off towards a set of huge double doors, at least 30 feet tall, with a round taper at the top end. Both doors are propped open, with goods and people streaming in and out of them constantly. As we get closer, I begin to hear a cacophony of sound, not unlike the market. I can even smell food, although it''s not nearly as prevalent as it was in Cetus proper. The excitement just continues to snowball as we approach, and finally, we enter the Unum.


    It''s a little overwhelming at first, as my mind tries to take in everything all at once. While I had some level of expectation from the quest that allowed me to explore the inside of the Unum, I''m actually surprised to see how different everything is. I was expecting a very wooden industrial vibe; lots of scaffolding and harvesting, meat piles stacked 10 tall, and unlooted Orokin containers scattered about, and to some extent, I''m not entirely off base. However, it''s very clear that the Unum is not just focused on being a thing to carve meat from, but a place to live, and that''s represented in the various people and businesses I can spot. There are restaurants and shops dotted along the walls, tucked into alcoves and marked by various signs, both holographic and material in nature. I see a great number of workers, but also what appears to just be visitors; both Ostron and otherwise, wandering up the halls. The entire place is temperature controlled, which sort of blows my mind considering how tall the ceilings are, and the voices of life echo about within the main thoroughfare we''ve found ourselves in.


    "It''s a Night City megablock," I muse, as Ko-lee and I make our way down the hall. The analogy isn''t perfect by any means; there''s basically no children that I can spot, nearly every shop is exclusively focused on harvesting, and other than a few people who seem to be pretty clearly visitors, there doesn''t seem to be that much relaxing. Still, it''s the first comparison my mind draws, and the similarities get me about 60% of the way to understanding the space. I glance over at Ko-lee, who, for her part, looks a little overwhelmed too, and I tap her on the shoulder to get her attention so we can move out of the way of the foot traffic. "So," I start, doing my best to avoid letting my gaze wander. "We need to get a badge, right? Do you know where?" She just shakes her head, and I take a quick glance around, on the off chance that there would be sign that would point us in the right direction. Lo and behold, there actually is, and after pointing it out to Ko-lee, we make our way over to where it leads.


    After a few minutes of walking, we find ourselves in front of an unassuming door, with a simple, hand carved wooden sign that just says BADGE. I hesitate a little bit, but Ko-lee seems to have no compunctions and heads right on in, to the seeming displeasure of the lady inside. I make my way in after her, and after a quick glance around, I realize we''re just standing in a tiny office. There''s less paper and more holopads, less motivational posters and more Cetesian decoration, but it''s very clearly the exact sort of office I''ve been in a million times for a million jobs. "Are you here for badges?" says the older lady sat behind the desk, her mouth pinched thin as if already frustrated from having to deal with us. "Yup," I say, "two brand new skinners, reporting for duty." She just looks at me, clearly unamused.


    "You are aware there is a fee, yes?" she says, and flips a holopad over to point at a line item scrawled in Origin. I take a look at it, but I can tell at a glance that we''ll be tight if we both try to buy badges now and then head home. "Hmm, Ko-lee, I do not know if we can both get a badge and head back to Salt of the Sea," I say, and this prompts her take a look for herself. Her lips turn downward, the elation of the balloon ride and the experience of the Unum wearing off now that we have to deal with a real world problem. "Yeah, I think you''re right. Shit," she says, and her exclamation gets her an even colder look from the office lady. Ko-lee doesn''t seem to notice though, clearly doing some quick math in her head, before she turns to me. "One of us could get a badge, and one of us can head back, but that''s it. The number I got for the price of the badge was... lower than this," she says, a look of frustration on her face.


    "Yes, we''ve had to raise the price, recently. Funding from Cetus has been tight, as I''m sure you''re aware," says the office lady, somehow managing to frown even more than before. Ko-lee just nods her head, although I doubt she even heard the office lady. "I can stay," I offer to Ko-lee. She just stares at me, an indecipherable look in her eye. "You sure?" she says, and I just nod. "Yea, I will be fine. I will get a badge, find a place to sleep for the night, and start work bright and early tomorrow. You head back to the tavern, work a few more days with Nakak, and when you head back, bring our stuff," I say, doing my best to come across nonplussed by the situation. "Although I am, in fact, very plussed. This is gonna be the first time I''ll be away from Ko-lee since I met her. Like, we''ve split here and there, but she''s gonna be gone gone for a few days, and I''ll just be here by myself, and I am introspective enough to know that I tend to eat it in social situations. And by it, I mean, my foot."


    Still, a decision needs to be made, and I''m willing to step up. She nods her head, and says, "Well... I guess I''ll head on back down then. The sooner I get back, the sooner I can come back." She starts to turn towards the door, before pausing for a moment. I''m about to ask her if something''s wrong, but she quickly spins back around and grabs me in a hug. I react instinctively, wrapping my arms around her, and neither of us is particularly eager to let go. Still, I can feel the office lady''s eyes boring a hole in the back of my head, so I untangle myself from my friend, and give her a smile. "Have a fun ride down," I say, and some small part of her previous elation returns. "Whoop," she says softly, before closing the door, and leaving me in the office alone. "So!" I exclaim, turning back around to face the dour expression of the office worker. "What''s the next step?"

 Scout Motto

    The next hour spent with the office lady (whose name I learn is Aley) is about as thrilling as one might expect filling forms out to be. Using holopads is only interesting for a few minutes, before the mundanity of signing your name over and over supersedes it. Still, complaining doesn''t help me finish any quicker, and so I knuckle down, doing my best to focus on Aley''s spiel as I finish up the last few forms. "...and otherwise you are effectively self directed. A badge does not guarantee you employment with a company. A badge does not give you special permission, either in Cetus or within the Unum. The only thing a badge offers is for you to support our city via harvesting tower flesh from the Unum. Is this clear?" she says, glaring at me from behind her Orokin styled desk. "Angry eyebrows over here makes me feel like I already went and screwed up somehow. I wonder what her day to day is like that''s causing her to have such a awful vibe," I think, but outwardly, I just give a smile and a nod.


    At my acquiescence, her face softens, ever so subtly. "Good, I''m glad to hear it. Once I hand this badge to you, you will officially be a skinner of the Unum. If you''d like, you may start right away," she says, as she hands over the oblong metallic object. I reach out to take it, and at first glance, it looks utterly identical to Othlak''s. However, as I move it back and forth, the holographic display activates, showing my name, my face, and a few other details that would identify me as a legitimate skinner. "I can''t start right away," I think as I place the badge in my left hand pocket, "since I''m still missing pretty much everything, but I can just pick something up from one of the few stores I saw on the main thoroughfare. Assuming I have the credits." I make a movement to leave the office, mentally running over my sparse finances, but an intentional cough from Aley grabs my attention.


    "Unum willing, I will not be seeing you for at least another year. Neither of us want to be on first name basis with each other, understood?" she says, her ever present frown having returned. "But I know you first name, Aley," I say, mildly confused. She hasn''t provided any other way for me to refer to her, and I can''t help but wonder if I had entirely missed part of the conversation while I was filling out forms. "And I yours, Mrs. Nova. But my point is that I would like to not see it cross my desk for the next 343 days. If I do, then that means, for one reason or another, you have engaged in behavior that needs to be punished, and those punishments mean paperwork for me. I would prefer to not have more paperwork," she says, her glare gluing me to the floor. "343 days?" I ask, confused by the seemingly arbitrary number. "Yes, badges need to be renewed once a year. There is a grace period of one week, if needs be, but there is also an extra fee, so do try to be on time," she says, making a mark on her holopad.


    "But that''s not a year," I can''t help but wonder. "What even is that number? Like, 365 is also not technically right cause we have that smidgen of day left over, but it''s right enough. Did Earth get pulled into a different orbit or some other wacky space bullshit?" I don''t ask her for clarification however; the best case scenario will likely just lead to confusion. Instead, in reference to the punishment, I say, "Yea, I wouldn''t want to get dropped." At this, she rolls her eyes and sighs. "No, Mrs. Nova, you will not ''be dropped''. That is not something that happens. Whoever told you that term was likely trying to scare you," she says, as she reorders the few physical papers she has on her desk. I shrug. "I do not know," I lie, "some guy on the beach told it to me. I do not know what it means." Sighing, and with all the eagerness of root canal, Aley begins to explain. "It doesn''t mean anything, because it doesn''t happen. Please do not listen to rumors, Mrs. Nova." "Oh, okay, I guess she isn''t explaining," I think, as I nod my head. Finally, she turns her brutal glare down at her files and forms, and with a final "you may go," I step out of the stuffy office and into the artificial light of the hallway.


    "Did I say awful vibes cause actually I meant rancid. No one likes their job, but at least save the attitude for actual assholes," I think, as I stand next to the door. "well, I won''t see her for another year, quote unquote. Now I just gotta get gear for tomorrow. Also also, somehow find a room that''ll let me rent for 3 quarters and a piece of lint. Realistically I''ll probably just... skip dinner. I doubt I''ll have enough for all three. I guess it depends on the bare minimum I need to start harvesting." I look around at the various signs hanging above alcoves and doors, and most of them just state things like "CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP" and "Best in the Tower" and so on. "Well, I can''t really check yelp, so... I guess I''m just shopping around," I think, as I start meandering my way over to the first store I can see. As I walk down the ''street'', I do my best to keep my eyes locked on my target, ignoring the mouth watering smells that call my attention. The short trip is arduous, but I reach the store (marked only with a sign saying "GOOD DEALS") with my wallet intact, and enter the warmly lit shop. As my eyes scan the goods on display, I can''t help but notice the bored looking older teenager manning the counter.


    He notices my gaze, and gives a short head nod, causing me to chuckle. "The more things change..." I think bemusedly. Scanning the various tools, I''m slightly overwhelmed by the amount on display; there are hand crank drills, masks, saws of various kinds, empty flasks, belts, explosives, and more that I can''t even discern the purpose of. Every piece of equipment has a sign underneath it, but a good portion of them only contain what appear to be brand names. The few bits of signage that do seem to have information on operation or purpose list out various bullet points that, on first read, don''t make sense. "4 and 3/18ths? Inches, centimeters? 3.5 block? Block of what? God, I can''t even read some of this stuff at all," I think in frustration. "Alright, I just need to... step back. I''m getting frustrated. What do I actually need to harvest? Bare minimum, I need a cutting tool of some sort, so, we''ll do that and just ignore everything else for now until we have a few more bucks in our pocket."


    "Plus, there''s no point in me buying a bunch of stuff and then finding out I didn''t need half of it," I think, as I make my way over to the aisle containing saws and knives. My eyes scan the shelves, and I feel my spirit drop slightly at the prices. "These are straight up too much," I think despondently. "There''s gotta be an off brand something or other that I can use for a little bit." But no amount of searching within the aisle is proving fruitful. "Uh... Hey uhm, there would not be a... saw that is on sale somewhere? A cheap one?" I ask the cashier, startling him out of his disassociation. "Huh? Oh, yea, over there," he mumbles, pointing to a corner of the store with a few unmarked bins. "That stuff''s half off." I make my way over and peek my head into the bins, seeing a collection of random tools and equipment, but seemingly nothing sharp. "You said there is a saw in here?" I ask, projecting my voice to avoid having to walk back the counter. "I don''t know, maybe. If we do, it''s half off," he says, clearly uninterested in the conversation. "Cool man, thanks, you''re a big help," I think sarcastically. "Still, I can''t afford anything else. If I can''t find something in here I''ll just go somewhere else."


    I start pulling objects out of the bins to get to ones buried underneath, placing them on the floor around me. After a few minutes of digging, I finally stumble onto a saw; curved and slightly wavy. The handle is a smooth material of some variety, with slight depressions where my fingers naturally fell. It didn''t seem to be too unwieldy, and running my thumb perpendicular and away from the blade let me know that it was sharp enough. "Could be sharper, but beggars can''t be choosers." Rather than approaching the counter, since there is no one else in the store, I simply hold the blade into the air, and project a question over to the teenage cashier. "How much is this?" I ask, and his eyes lazily saunter over to the blade in my hand. "450," he says, after a moment. "Fuck that... barely leaves me with anything. I don''t know if I can find a room for 200 credits," I think, as I start placing the tools back in the bin. "But also, I can rough it in a closet or something. The Unum''s huge; there''s no way there''s not some unoccupied room in some offshoot hallway somewhere."


    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    Once I refill the bins with their previous occupants, I make my way over to the counter and place the saw on the table, then pull out a stack of bronze as well, the lights on the top credit fully lit. The teen looks at me, a bored expression on his face. "...I need your badge," he says, and I feel my face grow hot. "Oh... haha, yea," I say sheepishly, patting my pockets for the metal item I had just placed in them. After a few moments of panicked searching, I pull out the oblong device, and hand it over. He takes a moment to look at it, gently moving it back and forth, his eyes flicking between me and the object in his hand, before he mutters under his breath, "Oh, first day." I nod my head, nervous words spilling out of me as he examines the badge. "Yea I am just buying gear for tomorrow. That will my first day. I only have a few credits, so I can not buy everything that I think I might need but also, I do not want to buy things and then find out I do not need them, so I am going to wait until tomorrow when I-" but by this point, he''s handing me my badge and my change. The words die in my throat, as I place both in my pockets, before picking up my saw.


    "Uh, yea, thank you," I say, before quickly pivoting out of the store and speed walking back into the delicious smelling hall. "Hol. Ee. Shit. Why did I spaz so hard there?" I think, as I stand just outside the flow of traffic. "Brutal," I murmur in English, before doing my best to push the awkward interaction out of my mind. "Okay, so... since I''m skipping dinner, I should probably just try to find a place to crash, even if it is a few hours before I''d actually go to bed," I think, as I once again start reading the various signage dotted about the hallway. After a few moments, I don''t immediately find anything, and so I start making my way down the hall, moving away from what I''ve mentally defined as the ''front doors'' of the Unum. As I meander my way through the space, I can''t help but take in the sights and smells and sounds of life and activity swirling around me. I''m so caught up, in fact, that I walk right past a sign exclaiming ''CHEAP ROOMS FOR SKINNERS (Must have badge!)'', and it''s only due to being hyper aware of my unholstered saw that my gaze happens across it.


    I veer out of the foot traffic and backtrack until I reach the unassuming door, and after a moments hesitation, head on in. Inside I find a tiny room barely big enough for me, a counter, and an older lady who I assume is the receptionist for the unnamed hotel. "Hello there sweetie!" she says, her social battery clearly untapped. "before anything, I have to ask. Do you have a badge?" She almost looks apologetic at needing to ask, but as I reach into my pocket, there''s a clear sign of relief in her body language. "I can''t tell if she''s putting me on," I think, as I hand it over to her. She takes it out of my hand with a smile, and it only takes a second for her already shining expression to brighten considerably. "Oh! You''re new!" she says, with more energy than I''ve ever felt in my life. I nod, and give her my most enthusiastic smile, doing my best to meet her half way. "I am! I got it just a few hours ago!" I exclaim. "Aw, that''s so great to hear! Well," she says, as she hands me back my badge, "I was going to ask you if you had stayed with us before, but I can clearly see that''s not the case! So let me give you a run down of how we work here."


    "We offer very cheap rooms here, and we try to keep them very utilitarian so as to offer them at as low of a price as possible," she explains. "That means that the rooms do not contain their own bathrooms; the facilities are shared. There are showers, with hot water, but you''ll need to supply your own towels and soap. For renting a room, we can take payment in different increments. We can do a day, a week, or a month at a time, and it''s cheaper if you rent for longer periods. We do not sell food here, but next door they sell food for cheap. It''s a sister business; you can head through that door," she says, as she points to a door on the wall to my right. "Similar to here, you''ll need a badge, and the meals are simple, but very filling. Is this something you''re interested in?" I take a moment to process her wall of exposition, before saying, "Yes, it does sound like what I need. What are your prices?" At this, she reaches under her counter and pulls out an engraved piece of tower shell, with a list of prices marked on it.


    "So, our most popular deal is a renting a room for a week. At that price, it is one and a half silvers. If you''d like to stay for a whole month, then that will be six silvers," she says, pointing out the various prices as she explains them. "Our single night price is 250 credits. As you can see, it gets cheaper as you go, but even a one night stay won''t break your wallet. So, what''ll it be?" Throughout her explanation, I had had a smile on my face, but the second she mentioned the single night price I couldn''t help but internally cringe. "Ah, so... I can not even afford a day. I know I am asking a lot, here, but... would it be possible to only be charged 200 credits for today? And then tomorrow, after I finish work, I can cover the extra 50?" I ask. There''s a moment of uncomfortable silence as some of her pep leaves her expression, but it is quickly replaced with a look of problem solving. "Hmmm," she says, tapping her lip. "Are you with a company?" I shake my head no, and she continues, "Then I''''ll assume you don''t have a seller yet." I shrug my shoulders at this. "I do not know what a seller is, in this context," I say, and she helpfully explains.


    "Someone to sell your haul to. Many skinners only harvest, but the tower flesh needs to be sold to someone to actually put credits in your pocket. Therefore, there are some who don''t harvest at all, and just make their money by buying in bulk up front for less than market price, and then do the selling themselves. That way you get paid for your work quickly, and you don''t need to make frequent trips between the blessed Unum and the market in Cetus." "Yea, in retrospect that''s really obvious. Shit, if I harvested a whole bunch of flesh tomorrow, then I wouldn''t be able to do anything with it," I think. "But," she continues, "you''re in luck! We are actually part of a Cetus initiative to help skinners get on their feet when first starting out. You can actually sell straight to us. We are wildly below market price, nearly 50%, and normally I would need you to have the product on you... but I can tell you''re out of options here, so here''s what I''ll do." She reaches under the counter, and pulls out a dusty metal device with an indent and a screen , and fiddles around with it for a moment, changing some options that I can''t see.


    "Sorry, do you mind handing your badge back to me?" she asks, and I acquiesce, pulling it out for my pocket for the third time in an hour. She slots the device into the indent, and just as quick, hands it back. I take a look at the display on my badge, and see that a new line has been added below some of my identifying information. "Wasn''t sure if I remembered how to do that. So, you''ll note that there''s a new line on your badge," she says, pointing out the new information. "That mark lets people know that you''ve effectively sold your product before harvesting it. It prevents you from double selling. We don''t normally mark, because most people don''t usually plan in advance to sell to us. But, it''s still totally within our ability to do! So, anyways, once you finish up tomorrow, you can just bring the meat over next door. They''ll put it towards your tab." "If it is 50% below though, will I be able to cover today''s missing portion and tomorrow''s rent?" I ask, feeling out of my depth. "Absolutely! Probably! You just have to put in the work. If not... well, we can sort it out tomorrow," she says, with a warm smile.


    She reaches under counter again, this time disappearing for more than a moment, before reappearing with what appears to just be a plastic card. The card is engraved with a room number, but other than that piece of Orokin text, could have been mistaken for a 21st century room key. "Trippy," I think, as I place the rectangle in my pocket. "By the way," she says, as I grab my badge and put that in my pocket as well, "I''m assuming you don''t have any money for food?" I shake my head, giving her one of those flat mouth ''it is what it is'' type expressions. "I was just gonna try to fall asleep before I got hungry," I confess, and she clicks her tongue at me. "Yeah, that won''t work. Head over next door," she says, gesturing to the door on my right. "Tell them Heya sent you, that she''ll cover your meal." I can''t help but stutter. "W-wait, really? Y-", but I manage to cut myself off. "Don''t social niceties your way out of a meal! Don''t pull that ''you don''t have to'' bullshit, or she might actually take you up on it!" Instead, I just nod my head, taking a moment to form my words. "Thank you, Heya, I really appreciate it." She just smiles that same warm smile that had been accompanying us during the entire interaction. "We all start somewhere, right?"

 Vox Unum

    I do my best to return the warmth from Heya''s smile. "Yea," I say, "I guess that''s true." I head to the side door connecting the sister businesses, and end up in another small room, one only slightly big enough to fit a counter, and a few chairs pressed up against it. "Damn, ya''ll are busy huh," I say in English, catching the attention of a jovial man in a cook''s apron. He has a flushed face, and a bald head, and from the knife in one and sculpture in the other, it seemed like he was taking up whittling in his downtime. "Hello friend!" says the man, his loud voice echoing in the small space. My spoons quickly running out, I give the man a wave and smile. "Heya said that she would cover a meal for me," I state, doing my best to keep my voice personable and energetic. "Hmm," says the man, doubt clearly crossing his features. "You can ask her, if you want," I say, feeling the tinges of frustration creeping into my voice. "Nah, I''ll take your work for it. I know where you sleep," he says, his expression not lightening in the slightest. "...Yea, I guess you do," I say, as I hand the man my badge.


    He takes the badge and looks at it for barely a moment, before handing it back while shouting, "I need a hotel!" A much younger voice shouts back, "Ready in five!" and the man gestures to one of the seats at the counter in front of him. "We''ll get it out to you in a few minutes," he says, placing a set of utensils and a cup at the seat in front of me. I pull the chair out and collapse into it, placing the saw on the table next to me, since I still don''t have anyway to hook it to me. "Yea, that''s gotta be a high priority purchase. It''s not that heavy, but it sucks having nowhere to put the damn thing," I think, as the man disappears into the back. As I watch the kitchen door swing back and forth, I find myself humming a half remembered tune, my head empty of thoughts. "I want to buy you something.... but I don''t have any moneeyyyy, but I don''t have any moneeyyyy," I sing in English, the quiet falsetto echoing in the small space. Then, seemingly in an instant, the man is back in front of me, a bowl of food in his hand. I blink, doing my best to recollect the prior few minutes, but try as I might, I''m unable to recall the man reentering the room. "Yea, that... I think I''m about done with the day," I decide, as I give a small nod to the man. "Dah-dap," I say, and he smiles, as he sets the bowl of stew in front of me.


    It smells incredible; my mouth immediately watering from the first whiff, and I do my best to pace myself as I start to dig in. It is, unsurprisingly, tower flesh stew, but at the first bite I''m in love. The base of the stew is thick and creamy, and the meat has a crust on it, likely from being seared before being thrown in. The meat melts in my mouth, and the stew also has bits of seaweed in it, making the entire experience more varied. Overall, I find it incredibly filling, not unlike southern comfort food. "Which means I should probably buy some greens of my own. It''s giving carnivore diet for real," I think, slurping up the last few drops from the bowl. As I finish, I stare at the empty receptacle, feeling slightly disappointed, before hearing a deep chuckle from in front of me. "Hit the spot?" he asks, and I look up at the man, a smile on his face. I just nod my head, too tired to remember how to speak Origin. "You can just leave that here," he says, pointing to the bowl in front of me. I just nod my head again, before grabbing my saw and standing up. "Dah-dap," I say again, before trudging my way over to the door connecting the hotel and restaurant.


    As I make my way back into what might generously be referred to as a hotel lobby, I give Heya a wave, who gives one back. "The missile is eepy," I mumble in English as I make my way down the hallway to my room, before giggling at the reference. When I reach the door, I expect to find a standard hotel keycard lock; the type that you''d need to swipe the card on to open. Instead, I find that merely touching the keycard in my pocket as I approach is enough to have it swing open in front of me. The sudden action causes me to stumble slightly, the fight portion of my fight or flight clumsily jerking my body around. "Fuuuuttuuuurreee," I mutter, as I make my way into the room. I take two steps in, and find myself somewhat shocked at the size; the room is barely more than 100 square feet, containing just enough space for the bed and a small drawer within, as well a smidge of foot room. "Holy shit, it''s the YMCA all over again," I say in English since there''s no one else around.


    When I lived in Los Angeles, I was homeless, trying and failing to be an actress (like most people in the city). When my mom had learned that I was living in my car, she asked me why I didn''t move into the YMCA. "The YMCA? Like, the gym?" I ask her, and she goes, "no, you can live there too! You know, like the song?" It was a silly exchange, and I remember feeling mortified as I made the call, convinced that they''d laugh at me for thinking that the lyrics to a song were in any way evidence of how they worked. Instead, I found out that they did have a place to live. "It was just like this," I say, although luckily, unlike the YMCA, this place had AC. "Honestly, probably a step up in the world," I say to no one in particular. "I was straight dying in the Y, but this place has been pretty much the perfect temperature everywhere, which is crazy since they have those huge open doors sitting at the end of the hall. Probs space magic, T B H," I ramble, as I strip down. Fully naked, I take a moment to try to feel some sort of airflow, but can''t seem to find one anywhere.


    "Oh, for sure space magic then," I say, as I yawn and climb into bed. "Oh damn, the sheets are better too. Also the bed isn''t some plastic... spring mattress... whatever... thing.... uncomfy..." I mutter, and before I know it, I''m waking up. There''s a moment of disorientation as my eyes adjust to the room; I''m expecting to see the dark wood of Salt of the Sea, but instead I''m seeing tower shell. "...Oh, right," I say, as I roll onto my back. I just lay there for a moment, as the last dregs of sleep drain from my body, thinking of nothing at all as I stare at the gently lit ceiling above me. "I should get up," I exclaim to the empty room, but it doesn''t seem to help any, as I continue to lay in bed. "If I don''t get up I will not have a place to sleep tonight," I say, and having finally found the motivation, I roll up into my minimal standing room to get dressed. As I go to throw my clothes on, I do the sniff test, a frown crossing my face. "Yikes, yea I''m gonna need to figure out how to wash my single outfit as well; it might be a bit before Ko-lee shows up and I''m gonna be working pretty hard for the next however long. I E, sweat," I think, as I don my outfit for the day.


    Clothing applied, I grab my saw, and as I make my way into the hall, I feel momentarily tugged in two directions. "Damn, do I bother taking a shower if I''m just gonna throw nasty clothes on top? Or do I just start working right away cause who knows how long I need to work to cover tonights rent as well as what I missed last night. Agghhhhhhhhh!" I hesitate, before making a snap decision to head straight to work. "I don''t even have a towel or soap," I justify to myself. "If I make enough cash today, I''ll be able to afford a towel and then actually get clean, rather than just get wet." I head down the hall, and push open the door leading into reception expecting to see Heya. Instead, it''s just some guy I don''t know, and he looks preoccupied, so I make my way out into the main hallway without bothering him. The moment I open the door, I''m inundated with the echoing sounds of commerce, and it takes a moment for my brain to adjust from the relative silence of the hotel.


    As I leave my temporary dwelling, I can''t help but glance behind me, trying to spot a previously missed sign that might have contained the name of the place I was staying at. After nearly a full minute of searching, however, I find nothing even remotely name shaped for either the hotel or it''s adjoined restaurant, and I just make a mental note to ask Heya or the cook later. "I am 100 percent not going to remember that," I think, as I pull my attention away from the facade and towards the center of the thoroughfare. My stomach does it''s best attempt to wrench my focus back towards the restaurant, but I ignore the array of smells and focus on the flow of people for a moment. While Aley had told me where to go, I still want to make sure that I''m headed in the right direction, and I''m confident in that direction being the one most workers are moving in. Once I have my heading, I join the foot traffic, making sure to keep an eye out for points of interest, so that I''ll more easily be able to find my way back to the hotel.


    As I walk, conversation happens all around me. Sometimes people from shops or offices or restaurants would tag along for a bit, talking to the skinners in the crowd. More often, the skinners would talk amongst themselves; conversation ranging anywhere from visiting family in Cetus, to the goings on of the job, to more esoteric stuff I couldn''t always follow along with. I simply keep my mouth shut, content to take in the liveliness around me, and maybe soak in a bit of useful local knowledge. We reach what is effectively a crossroads only a few minutes in, and I notice that a portion of the crowd is splitting off to take a different path. There''s a moment of indecision, but I figure it makes the most sense to stick with the larger portion of the crowd instead, and so I don''t split off.


    A few more minutes, and we reach a pair of huge double doors, only slightly smaller than the ''front doors'' of the Unum. These are closed, however, at least until those near the front of the crowd approach them. The crowd slows, briefly, as we wait for the doors to finish swinging open, and as I pass through myself, I notice that we''re in a massive stairwell. Like many stairwells, it has a central gap that drops straight down to what I''m assuming is the bottom floor, and I can''t help but take a peek over the railing as we descend. "I don''t know what I expected," I think to myself, quickly taking a step away from the railing, as the 1,000+ foot drop gives me a bit of vertigo. As I step away, I hear a few chuckles from the skinners around me, and I can feel the tips of my ears burning. "It''s a valid reaction to not want to stand next to the death drop!"


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Descending the stairwell takes a few minutes, and as the crowd approaches each landing, portions of it split off like before. The sounds of hundreds of footfalls echoes in the stairwell, like rain on a roof top, mixing with the sound of steadily decreasing chatter. By the third landing, the crowds are nearly equally sized, and so rather than continue to descend, I split off into this new hallway. "If this is the wrong play I can always come back," I think, as I make my way through what appears to be an identical version of the main thoroughfare, minus the commerce. As I walk down the cloned hallway, I hear what appears to be loud cracking sounds, like gunshots. The longer I walk though, the more information I''m able to glean from the sound. The cracking, snapping sounds are accompanied by a low rumble that I feel more in my feet than I hear in my ears. Previously unidentifiable sounds resolve into the calls of voices, shouting warnings or declaring an area is clear.


    My eyes, always wandering, drift across some of the gear of the skinners around me, and puzzle pieces fall into place. "Ohhhh, those things that were all measured in blocks, those are explosives. They''re blowing off parts of the tower shell. Shit, I hope I don''t also need explosives to get to the meat cause I don''t have any," I think, as I search the hallway for exposed Unum flesh. Instead, I notice that the crowd has begun to disperse, some forming clumps of workers, while others forming queues. The biggest line that I can see is formed in front of a man clad in white and gold, as though aping the style of the Orokin. "Or the Unum," I think, taking a moment to watch the proceedings. As people would approach, they''d show him their badge, and he''d refer to his holopad, marking various things off, before directing people to and fro.


    "Alright, he''s for sure in charge of something. Worse comes to worse, I can just tell him I don''t know what I''m doing or if I''m supposed to talk to him. Cause I don''t," I think, finding and making my way to the back of the line. As I stand in line, I also manage to catch a few people referencing the Unum, and using a word I can''t quite discern the meaning of. Still, the queue moves quick, and I suddenly find myself in front of the man. Mimicking those before me, I pull my badge from my pocket, and hand it to the man, who takes a look at it, gently moving it back and forth. His eyebrows raise, and he looks from the badge to to his pad, then to me. "First day?" he asks, and I can''t help but feel a moment of exasperation. "That obvious?" I respond, doing my best to keep my tone light. I wasn''t bothered by the question the day previous, but something about his tone rubs me the wrong way.


    Luckily, he doesn''t seem to notice my mild irritation. "I am the Vox Unum," he says, as though following a script. "The Unum speaks through me, and it is by her will we are allowed to harvest." There''s a moment of silence, as I wait for him to continue his spiel, but he just looks at me. "...have you been told this before?" he asks, and I just shake my head no. "Oh... my mistake," he says, looking a touch embarrassed. "I had just thought... your expression... anyways. Your site will be Oro B. You''ll head down this hallway, and pass three tunnels on your left. The first one on your right is where you are needed. Do you have all that?" I just nod my head, repeating the phrase I now knew the meaning of. "Thank you, Vox Unum," I say, and finally I get an expression that isn''t bored neutrality. "By her will she protects, from her flesh, she provides," he says, giving me a small head nod back.


    Taking that as my cue, I make my way off down the hall behind him, counting the tunnels on my left. "Oh boy, religion," I think sardonically. "Like I didn''t get enough of that shit from my mom. I''ve got plenty of practice in playing ''good little church girl'', but having to pull that mask out the box again sucks. You''d think in sci-fi magic world that maybe worshipping a building is not the play? At least if you''re gonna worship something, pick the eldritch being from beyond reality that can give you magic powers." My mind pulls double duty, as I both think about how frustrating religion can be, and think about how wild each tunnel is as I get a small glimpse inside. Not unlike the tunnels modeled in the game itself, they are caverns of flesh, floor to ceiling, with small puddles of blood caught within the creases and folds. Dark footprints trail out of each tunnel, the dried blood fading out into the hall like a macabre estuary. My attentions shifts to the right, and finally, I spot my tunnel.


    I can''t help but stand there for a moment, frozen. "Ah. What... the fuck. Is this... am I scared right now?" I wonder, trying and failing to place the strange emotion bubbling in my gut. My eyes can''t help but soak in every inch of my living workplace, my legs either unwilling or unable to carry me in. No matter how much I try to convince or cajole myself, some primal part of my mind refuses to enter the space. Some indeterminate amount of time later, the visage of worker rounds the corner within the tunnel itself, pulling a cart piled high with more meat; red dripping out of the bottom of the cart and onto the fleshy floor below. He spots me as he makes his way towards the entrance, the wheels of his cart bumping on every fleshy fold as he approaches. "Hey there!" he shouts, the sound of his voice being swallowed by the natural insulation. Years of practiced social interactions override the terror locking up my body and I wave back.


    "You good kid?" he says with a chuckle. "Yea, totally!" I lie. "Just... taking it in." He nods his head, and the second half of his sentence suddenly registers in my mind. "Hey! I''m not a kid, I''m nearly 30." "Yea well," he says in response, "I''m nearly 70, so in my eyes, you are a kid." From a glance, nothing about his look makes his appear as though he''s 70, and I wonder if he''s just trying to pull a fast one on me. "Also, I''m gonna guess it''s your first day," he says, before I have a chance to consider it any longer. "Damn, I''m about as subtle as a brick. What is this, like the 14th time someone''s noticed that so far?" I think, nodding my head towards the man. "Yea, I do not know why my mind is telling me it is a bad idea to enter the tunnel," I explain. "Logically, I know it is fine, but I do not think my legs agree with me." A grin forms on the mans face. "Because you''re realizing that she''s alive."


    "You might have known she was alive," he continues, the grin relaxing slightly, "but it''s one thing to know it, and it''s another to see her blood, her muscle, her bone. The animal part of your brain is afraid because you''re realizing that she is a creature so large, that you could stand within one of her wounds that is larger than you, and she doesn''t care at all, because it means so little to her." At this, he slaps me on the back, gently moving me in the direction of the tunnel. "But you''re fine! If the she didn''t want you here, you never would have made it through the front doors. You''re safe with the Unum." I nod my head, before saying in English, "oh, it''s an Eldritch thing." He, of course, doesn''t understand, so I follow up in Origin, "Sorry. I was saying you contextualized it for me. I... I think that is all I needed, really."


    The man nods his head, and finishes pulling his cart fully out in to the hallway. "Glad I can help kid! Oh, and one more thing..." he says, as he looks me up and down. "What''s that?" I say, doing my best to tear my eyes away from the tunnel I''m only a few steps away from. "Don''t slip!" he says, before laughing like he''s just heard the funniest joke in the world. I watch as he pulls his cart down the hall, his laughter bouncing around the echoing space, before I recenter my gaze on the tunnel. "Alright bet, eldritch," I mutter to myself quietly, as I takes the final few steps into the tunnel. Of course, on the first step in, I nearly slip on the slick surface, but my back foot is still on the sticky dried blood of the hall, and I manage to right myself. I spin around briefly, and of course the man is maybe 30 or 40 feet down the hallway, watching the entire thing. "Good job kid! One step down, ten thousand to go!" he says, before redoubling his laughter from before.


    I just roll my eyes, and with the utmost care in the world, place my other foot also in the tunnel. "It''s like, slippery and sticky at the same time. Less ice, more slightly dried greasy kitchen floor," I think, as I maneuver my way through the tunnel. Each step I take I feel the potential for slipping, but utilizing the texture of the floor helps to keep my balance, and I continue fully into the tunnel, until eventually, I lose sight of the entrance. As it disappears from view, I feel a moment of panic well up, but I take the moment to speak out loud, continuing down the hall the entire while. "It''s not gone," I say in English. "It''s a straight tunnel. We''re not gonna get lost, we''re not getting eaten. Just put the meat in the cart, bro." The muttered words help keep my mind from taking off with flights of fancy, and as I walk through the tunnel, I start to pass various workers.


    Most are focused on the wall itself, lost in the repetition of blue collar work, but a few notice my presence as I slowly make my through, and I give them a wave or a nod in return. Each worker is in a small divot; cutting, slicing, carving. Most are using the types of knives and saws that I was expecting to see, but some have more unusual tools; Corpus like lasers to cut away the gold like bone structure, hooks that can be worn on the hand for getting a better grip on the meat, and so on. As I walk, I can feel part of my mind considering various places to start cutting, but it only takes a few minutes of seeing no one that I realize what''s happening. "I''m stalling," I think, as I stand next to an untouched section of tunnel, effectively identical to all the other untouched sections I had passed to get here. "Ain''t nothing to it, but to do it," I think, raising my saw to the wall. And on that musical reference, I dig my blade in, and make my first cut.

 Skinner

    As I bring my saw to the wall, making my best attempt to cut into the meat, my brain rejects the motion. "Oh, I have got to be doing this wrong," I think, awkwardly trying to slice in a straight line. I have no muscle memory for this; I''ve never skinned anything before, but even if I had, I''m unsure if it would be applicable. The motion of cutting into the wall feels almost like construction, due to the prevalence of the flesh. "It''s just so arbitrary," I think, as I struggle to slice downwards. "I could just be cutting anywhere, really. I could probably even make my own tunnel, I bet. Well, long term, anyways." As I continue slicing, part of me is expecting a sign of pain, or any sort of reaction at all, but as alive as the Unum is, she makes no reaction to the cut. "I mean, I get it. I''m one out of hundreds. Can she even feel this?" I wonder, sawing back and forth. "Can she just turn parts of her sensory system off? Man this is weird."


    I stand there for a moment, looking at my blade in the wall, watching the blood drip down from my awkward cut. As I watch the blood, it runs down the surface of the wall, and collects in the craggy textured meat floor I''m standing on, sort of but not quite pooling near my feet. I look at the blood for a moment, before I''m struck by a thought. "Wait," I think, remembering the glass bottles I had seen in the shop the day prior. "Oh, shit, this is... temple kuva, isn''t it? Am I supposed to collect this? Does it get sold? Do the priests want it?" I pat my pockets as though expecting to find some receptacle to hold the liquid within, but of course the only thing I have on me is my badge. Finding nothing to collect the kuva with, I reach out to touch the wall, sliding my fingers across the slick surface to let the red drip over and around my fingers. It''s warm, and paradoxically it sends a shiver through me as I notice. "Kuva gives you... powers or something... right?" I think, bringing my hand towards my face, my mouth slightly ajar as I do so.


    As I do, however, the shifting of my weight causes me to slip ever so slightly, and it''s enough to knock me out of the brief fugue state. "Wait, what the hell am I doing?" I think, looking at my hand covered in blood, feeling slightly disgusted. "Don''t they feed temple kuva to the animals on the plains so the Unum can see through them or something? Was I about to mind meld with the tower or some shit?" I look for something to clean my hand with, but quickly realize there''s nothing around except for the cloth of my outfit. "Shit, rags were so cheap too. I should''ve picked some up," I think, drying my hand the best I can on bottom of my shirt. I shift my attention back to the wall, and look at the cut I''ve made so far. My saw is stuck deep in the flesh, and there''s a slice about six inches down, but otherwise there''s nothing else. "Okay, actual focus time," I think, grabbing onto the handle of the blade.


    I make a sawing motion, maneuvering it downwards, and within a few minutes, I have a cut that stretches two feet tall. "Any lower and I''d need to start crouching," I think, as I pull the saw from the wall, ignoring the vitality spilling out onto the floor. I go to place my saw back up near the top, and as I do, I can''t help but cringe at the feeling underneath my fingers. "I''m almost for sure doing this wrong. It feels less like I''m cutting the muscle fibers and more like I''m tearing them apart with brute strength." Still, I don''t know of any better method, and so I continue my sawing motion, until suddenly, my saw catches on something. I can feel the wires in my mind cross briefly, as I panic about my saw having hit a water pipe or electrical wire, but I''m quick to ground myself. "It''s probably the golden bone material," I think. "Gold is supposed to be soft, right? I don''t have any special tools to cut it, so maybe I can just brute force my way through it."


    It takes more than a few minutes before I end up admitting defeat. "Okay, so either gold isn''t really actually soft, or this isn''t gold, or or this saw sucks the absolute most. ...or I''m just really weak," I think, doing my best to untangle my saw from the porous structure. My blade only has a moment of respite before I send it right back in, this time doing my best to cut around the material. However, this is easier said than done, and I need to take out and reposition my saw over 10 times before I''m able to finish with my horizontal cut, and the path taken around the bone is rough and awkward. Looking at my handiwork, and wiping the sweat off of my brow, I can''t help but chuckle. "This is so much harder than I thought it would be," I say out loud. It''s been nearly 30 minutes so far, and I''m only half way done with my first cut of meat. I start in on my third cut, parallel to the first, doing my best to keep it even in length to it''s partner. Luckily, no bone interrupts it''s path, and I take a step back after finishing to examine my handiwork.


    "Yikes," I think, looking at the awkwardly curved cut. Instead of a nice straight line, this cut curves in towards the first one, meaning that instead of a rectangular piece of meat, I''ll be ending up with a long trapezoid of tower flesh instead. I just shake my head at the hack job, then start in on the bottom slice, this time making sure to focus on keeping it as straight as possible. However, half way through the cut, I notice that the first and third slices aren''t actually as even in length as I had thought they were, and so I need to recorrect to make sure that this cut actually connects them. "This has got to be newbie bingo, I don''t think I could''ve fucked this up more," I think, finishing up my now awkwardly shaped pentagon of tower flesh. As I do, I stand up and back, before I''m hit with a thought. "Wait, why is it still attached to the wall?"


    "In retrospect," I think, as I stare at the still unobtainable piece of meat, "I actually screwed this up in multiple ways. After that third cut, the meat should''ve flopped over, and then I should''ve cut it off at the fold. The fact that I didn''t need to do that... ah, whatever." I approach the meat, and get the impulse to reach towards the upper left corner to try to tug it off. Instead, I realize that I have no where to place my saw, and after a moment''s deliberation, choose to just place it in the ever growing pool of blood on the floor. With both hands free, I do my best to get a firm grip on the upper left hand corner, and with my feet set, begin tugging. The connective tissue holding the flesh to the wall tears in fits and starts, and I can feel more through my hands than see with my eyes that I''m screwing it up. "This is gonna be a sad scrap of meat," I think, yanking and tugging with every iota of strength I have. My grip on the meat is awkward and slippery due to my blood slicked hands, and the connective tissue is incredibly tough, forcing me to fight for every inch.


    The flesh itself though doesn''t seem in much danger of tearing, and as I engage in tug of war with the skyscraper, my mind wanders to consumption of her flesh. "How do the Ostron prepare tower flesh? Like, it seems sort of tough for a meal, but I''ve had it a bunch and it''s always been really really good. Like, almost melt in your mouth sorta kinda. Is that the same flesh as this flesh? Wait, am I cutting the wrong flesh? Is that why there''s no one over here? Should I be in a different area?" My hands fall free of the meat and I take a careful step back, doing my best to catch my breath. "Okie dokie..." I say in between big gulps of air, discarding the casual musings and panic my mind had been providing. The polygon of meat is now looser than it was before I had started, but it''s still clearly connected to the wall, and my arms are on fire from the tugging. "Wait Spongebob, we have technology!" I mutter, as I reach down for my saw.


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Unsurprisingly, it is covered in blood, and as I hold it, I feel a twinge of concern about my grip. I go to wipe it off on my outfit, my soft red and yellow outfit becoming darker with every wipe. Eventually, I feel secure enough to use the blade without catastrophic mishap, and so I pick the same corner as before, attempting to pull it back from the wall with one hand as far as possible. Then I take the saw in my other hand and do my best to get it between what I was arbitrarily defining as ''my meat'' (as compared to the meat of the wall behind it). Unfortunately, I''m unable to get the saw in a position any better than ''oblique'' and so with a mumbled "Fuck it", I begin carving away small chunks, forming a new, tiny tunnel that can only fit my blade. Eventually, I generate a small pile of tower flesh tartare, but my saw is able to fit vaguely between slab and wall. My blade finally in position, I begin slicing away, focusing every drop of my attention on keeping the blade as flat as possible as I cut the connective tissue.


    Of course, like much of the cuts I had made before, it feels awkward and jagged, as though I''m tearing and ripping as much as I am cutting and slicing. Still, I manage to make progress, and it''s about one third of the way through that I start to realize my blade is getting uncomfortably close to the surface of my meat. "Shit," I think, doing my best to correct course. "I literally knew it would happen too, and I was explicitly trying not to do that and then I went and did it anyways, DAMN IT." My dreams of a perfectly cut slab of meat are dashed into so many pieces - much like the pile near my feet - but I''m already nearly finished, and so I press on. Finally, after what feels like 8 years but is more likely only an hour, I manage to free my 20 pounds of flesh. At this point though, I''m too tired to really comprehend the physics involved, and so the second the final cut is made, the entire slab splashes into the puddle of blood beneath me.


    At the same time, nearly a full second after the meat had begun to fall, I had tried step back from the meat, so that it wouldn''t fall up against me and knock me over. In an ironic twist of events, this is exactly what causes me to lose balance, as I step awkwardly on a fold of flesh, slipping and falling on my ass in the tunnel. I sit there for a brief moment, desperately trying to take in air, sweat dripping down my body, my pants and the bottom of my shirt minorly soaked in blood. "Thank god it''s not like... 2 feet deep like it is in the game. Also, this is fucking hard," I think, as I look at my handiwork. The slab of meat is an irregular and misshapen mess, and only half the size of the meat I''d seen being worked on at the beaches. As I examine my less than stellar handiwork, I can feel the temple kuva drying on my skin, pulling and tugging in uncomfortable ways. "God damn, I don''t even have soap or a towel to really clean with once I get back," I think, taking the moment to try to catch my breath.


    There''s a moment as the thought passes that my brain tries to form another connection, and I can''t immediately tell what it is until I get the impulse to move on to my next step. "Oh, wait," I think, looking around the fleshy tunnel. "I need a cart too. Where do I get one?" I make my way to my feet, doing my best to prevent my legs from slipping out underneath me, and once I''m upright, I start walking back towards the entrance of the tunnel. "I could ask one of the other workers," I muse, as I pass them on the way out. "I won''t do that, cause eww talking to people, but I could. I might need to, if I can''t sherlock it once I''m out of here." Reaching the entrance, I feel a subtle temperature drop stepping out into the hallway itself, but before I have a chance to acknowledge it, I see a worker pulling an empty cart towards me. As she approaches the entrance, she gives me a wave, and says, "Something wrong?" I just shake my head. "No, I am just on my way out to grab a cart."


    "Ha! You''re either hungover or it''s your first day," she says with a grin on her face. "Yea just go ahead and kill me now," I think, with a smile on mine. "Yup, you caught me. It is my first day. Could you point me in the direction of the carts?" Still chuckling, she points to a door roughly 60 feet down the hall. "They''re stored in there. Just grab any old cart, there''s no priority or anything," she says, as she maneuvers her way past me. "They get restocked by workers later, so no need to worry about bringing it back after you''re finished with it." I just nod my head, mumbling a quick thanks, already making my way over to the storage area. I open the door to the room, and other than the sea of nearly identical carts, the room is just a square box. I head in and grab one, following the path of the woman, and eventually renter the tunnel, noticing a slight temperature increase as I do. "Oh wild, it is warmer in here."


    I do my best to drag my cart over the bumps and crags of the tunnel floor, the wheels occasionally slipping and sliding over the slick surface, as I approach my worksite. "This shit needs crime scene tape; this looks less like a work site and more like the site of a massacre," I think as I reach my flesh pile. The misshapen slab is barely identifiable as a one that could be sold in the market in Cetus, and the chunks of meat from my hack job litter the area, indicating my lack of skill. "Oh shit," I think with a spike of awkwardness. "I never saw the lady on the way in here. She for sure walked past this. Ohhhh mmyyy gooodd there''s no way she didn''t put two and two together. That''s so embarrassing." Doing my best to shove the feeling into a box, I bend over to pick up the meat and throw it into the cart, making sure to bend at my knees.


    As I do so, I look at the amount of space taken up by the slab, and mentally compare it to the images of people pulling carts piled high with their handiwork. "Shit," I think, somewhat despondently. "I''m not even vaguely close to hitting that. How long did this take me? An hour maybe? If I get like 8 to 10 more of these, I won''t even get close to filling the cart. If every slab is like this I''d literally need to be here all day." I take a moment to consider my next course of action, immediately discarding the small pile of chunked meat settled near my feet. "I need to do more with less. I need bigger, deeper cuts. I need to be more precise, and... honestly, I might need to ask for help." From my position in the tunnel, I can''t immediately see anybody else, but most people I had talked to seemed generally affable, so I''m sure that someone nearby would be willing to give me a few tips.


    "Although... I''d rather not, if at all possible. I''ll... maybe try it myself a bit more. See what I can learn on my own before bothering anyone else," I think. There''s a moment of self reflection as I stand there, saw in hand, as I stare at the gaping wound my work had left. "I''m making up excuses to be a loner. ...but that doesn''t change the fact that I don''t want to talk to a stranger. I get at least today to be emo, but by tomorrow, if I''m still whiffing it, I  have to reach out to someone." With my mind made up, I stick my saw deep into the wall, as I make a new incision, dragging the saw down much like before. The movement still feels awkward, but maybe a fraction of a hair less than before, and that''s enough to convince me to keep going. An hour later, and I have a whole new slab, not all that dissimilar from the first one. An hour and a half later, and another slab is created, this one better than the first by some small amount. On and on I go, making slight changes as I work, losing myself in the repetition, doing my best to improve with every cut, deep inside the innards and flesh of the Unum.

 Bounty Fit For A Pauper

    "Yeah... it''s the end of the day," I think to myself, as I look at my pitiful pile of meat. The designation is somewhat arbitrary, but I''m deciding it is due to the fact that I''m incredibly exhausted, and am likely unable to raise my arms high enough to make a cut for a new slab of meat. Still, I can''t help but feel disappointed at the days haul. My cart is maybe half full; my previous conservative expectation of being able to fill the cart two thirds of the way by the end of the day hadn''t been met. Instead, while the cuts of meat had become cleaner and more regularly shaped, each one took longer and longer to do, leaving me with less than expected overall. This was partially because I had spent more time on trying to do the job right, instead of doing it quick, but also because I failed to account for the exhaustion that crept up on me.


    As I tug my cart through the tunnel, the extra weight of the meat is helping it gain traction on the slippery surface, but conversely is also making it catch more frequently on the crooks and crannies of the heavily textured floor. "Yea, if this cart was actually entirely full, there''s a good chance that I wouldn''t be able to get the damn thing out of here." I''m not even entirely convinced that I''ll be able to get the cart out as is; my arms and shoulders are screaming in pain from the extended shift I''ve been working, and each time the cart catches on a bump part of me just wants to leave it where it is. Still, I do my best to persevere, mostly by reminding myself over and over that the half full cart is rent for the night. I''m in the middle of my 34th repetition when the wheels suddenly gain freedom of movement on the linoleum-like floor outside the tunnel entrance, and the shift in texture is enough to make me stumble slightly as I try to reorient.


    Looking around, I see a few workers leaving their tunnels at the same time as me; likely those from the same crowd I had entered with. "I guess just... ride the wave out like I rode it in," I think, closing the distance between me and the closest other worker. The two of us become four, then ten, before I quickly lose track; a small group of quiet, tired workers pulling carts through the echoing halls of the Unum. The conversation is much more sparse than before, and I find myself too tired to subtly eavesdrop. Instead, I just focus on putting one foot in front of the other as we retrace our steps towards the stairs from before. "If there''s a higher being out there, for the love of all that was, is, and will be, do NOT make me tug this damn thing up three flights of stairs. I will actually just throw myself off the side of the building," I pray, as the terror in my gut grows. We continue approaching the stairs, and there''s a moment where I genuinely consider just finding a corner in the hall to sleep in rather than return to the hotel, but the crowd continues right past the stairwell entrance without a second look.


    Relief floods my veins, and before I can wonder how we''re actually going to get our carts upstairs, we round the corner. "Oh hey, there''s the laser lift," I think, as I stare at the blue beam shooting up towards the ceiling. There''s a part of me that wants to be impressed at the powerful light, and another part that''s curious on the what and the how, but all of it is superseded by the exhaustion I feel in every muscle. All I manage to drum up is a simple, "Neat," in my mind, before spending the last few drops of gas on trying to determine the operation of the lift. I watch as some of the workers attach little flags or bits of cloth to their carts, before hoping on the lift, while some of the workers bring their carts with them. As each person approaches the lift itself, they press their badge into what appears to be a curved plinth of sorts, and as they do, the lift glows brighter. Then they simply step into what appears to be open air, and effectively disappear, their forms shooting up so quickly it''s hard to make out their silhouettes. "Oh fuck," I think, a spike of fear shooting through me. "I''m supposed to just step off the edge?"


    Logically, I know there''d be nothing wrong; I was literally watching people do it in front of me, and unless the Unum had a personal vendetta, I didn''t think the elevator was likely to just fail as I used it. Still, the premise is nerve racking, and my body is continuing to drag me forward despite my mind''s protest. As I reach the lift, I mimic the motion of those before me, placing my badge on the indent near the edge of the platform. I''m briefly expecting to see some sort of screen or option to select my floor, but it merely glows for a moment, and activates the lift. Too tired to consider alternative options, I step up to the lift itself, and there''s only a moments hesitation, momentum carrying me straight into what appears to be a multi story drop. Instead, my foot finds solid ground, or what feels like it, and so I turn my gaze to the cart, making sure it can make it''s way over the lip of the platform and onto the lift.


    With no fanfare whatsoever, I''m entirely surrounded by the light of the lift, and I stand there for a moment, wondering if there''s some other action I''m supposed to take to actually get the elevator to move. Suddenly, without feeling any sense of motion at all, my ears are assaulted with the sounds of chatter and commerce. I can''t help but stand there for a moment, utterly flabbergasted. "Wait, did I just teleport? I thought... it was.... lift? Lifting? ...what?" My fragmented thoughts have no opportunity to resolve into anything more consistent however, as I start to hear a small ding sound, reminiscent of an elevator door trying to close and failing to do so. I quickly tug on the cart, pulling it back up and over the lip of the identical platform on this side, once again standing on material ground. Instead of being surrounded by workers, I''m now surrounded by carts; some full and some not.


    I peek into the hall, and there are people moving back and forth, confirming my suspicion of having arrived back at the main floor. However, none of the shops that I can see are immediately recognizable, leaving me feeling entirely lost. "I don''t think this lift is literally the center of the tower like it is in the game. But I don''t really know where it is compared to where I started... I''m probably gunna just need to pick a direction and go for it," I think, my eyes scanning the populated space. "Also... no one has carts. There''s a whole bunch in this room, but I don''t know if I''m supposed to leave mine. It was sort of insinuated by Heya that I''m supposed to physically bring it over to the restaurant, but... ugh. I''m too tired for this shit." I take another look at the room, and much like the previous floor, the few carts dotted around that contain meat have various little flags or bits of cloth to differentiate them. "Yea, I don''t have any of those. Not that anyone is gonna confuse my handful of scraps for their cart," I think, grinning sardonically. Having made up my mind, I tug the cart fully out into the hall itself, and arbitrarily pick a direction, doing my best to avoid a 3mph collision with the heavy wooden vehicle.


    As I navigate the crowd, people split in front of me, doing their best to give me a wide berth. "Did I fuck up?" wonders an anxious part of my mind, but I quickly shut it down. "They''re just being nice. They''re giving me space because no one wants to get hit by a cart. Also also... I probably smell disgusting." I keep my eyes peeled for the hotel or the restaurant, and I''m unable to see either; however, I do manage to spot the store where I had bought my saw, which suddenly reorients my mental map, merging it with the one from the days prior. My heading now confirmed, I spin around, facing towards the unnamed hotel and restaurant, my muscles aching and groaning at every new step. My mind drifts as I half sing under my breath, repeating the same phrase over and over. "I think I''ll lose... my... mind... in hysterrriaaaa... buh daa baaaaa..."


    Suddenly, I find myself stood still in front of the door to the restaurant itself, and I quickly have to pull my focus up front, as I stare at the door. Looking back at the cart, I manage to put two and two together, muttering under my breath in English, "yea, that won''t fit." Steeling myself for the social interaction, I take a deep breathe and rub my face, doing my best to wake myself up a bit, before setting the cart down right outside, and heading in. "Hey there!" I exclaim, with an energy I don''t feel. "I have meat!" The person manning the counter isn''t the jovial chef from the day prior, but someone unknown, and he just quirks an eyebrow at my words. "We don''t buy meat here," he says, looking me up and down. I just take the few steps needed to cross the intervening distance, pulling out my badge in the process. "I am supposed to bring it here. I had... have this thing. With Heya," I say, trying and failing to remember the exact language to describe the situation. The new guy still has a look of confusion, but he takes my badge anyways, placing it in an identical machine to the one that Heya had used the day before.


    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    There''s a moment of silence, as his eyes scan up and down the floating holographic text, before a look of understanding crosses his face. "Ohhh, you''re marked with us. You''re the one that Heya was talking about. I was confused because you came through the front door. Did no one tell you where to bring the cart?" he asks. I just shake my head. "Ahh, first day then." "Damn, four times and a free space, that''s gotta be bingo," I think, my face locked in a smile. "Yup, you got me. First day," I say. At my words, he turns to face the kitchen, his voice stretching out the words as he shouts, "CAN I GET A FIIIIIIRST DAY?" It''s clearly meant to be a call and response, because the young voice from the day prior responds in the same manner, "YEUUUUPPPP!" The man turns back to face me, gesturing for me to follow, and I make my way around the counter into a hall on the right hand side of the room. A number of feet down the hall, there is a single wide metal door, not all that dissimilar to the door of a modern walk in freezer. Past the door, the hall continues, and at the end of the hall is a pair of double doors connecting to a hallway of the greater Unum itself, with a number of carts dotted about. "So, you can bring your cart back here, and then just let us know when you''ve done that; no need to worry about actually carrying the meat in," says the man.


    I can feel my brain trying to connect the two locations; the main thoroughfare where my cart is currently located, and this ''back alley'' location, but I just haven''t spent enough time to feel comfortable guessing on how to actually get here. "I do not know how to get here," I say, feeling a bit sheepish at the confession. The man just taps his forehead and splays his hand, his expression one of faux exasperation. "Right, of course. Once you''re out the front door, head towards the Great Doors, and on the left will be a pair of double doors. They''re unmarked, but they''re the only double doors, so you should be able to spot them. Once you''re through, take another left as soon as you can, and head straight back. Should be simple," says the man, his hands mimicking the path I''d need to take. "The Great Doors have gotta be the big main doors that lead outside," I think, mentally tracing the path the man is describing. Once he finishes, I take a deep breath, making sure to replaster the smile on my face, and then head back down the hall and out the front door towards my cart.


    Reaching my cart, I turn towards the Great Doors of the Unum, mentally running through the instructions provided, and it''s only a few minutes until I find myself at the back of the restaurant, this time with cart in hand. I go to set the cart down gently, but my muscles were finished an hour ago, and the cart instead slips from my fingers, slamming down hard onto the bone-like floor, the echoing crack causing me to wince. I give the cart a quick once over, but don''t notice any fracturing on the floor or the cart, and feeling satisfied that the vehicle won''t fall apart as soon as I turn my back, I head inside the restaurant. The man is placing a doorstop under what I can now confirm is the door to a freezer, and he says, "Go ahead and hang out at a table, we''ll have your meal out in just a second," his attention fully focused on the task in front of him. I just nod my head, and squeeze my way past him, half stumbling over to the same seat as the day prior. As I sit there, I get a brief impulse to pull my phone out. "Damn, I wish I had my music," I think, as I listen to the muffled sounds of the kitchen.


    In what feels like both an hour and no time at all, a 20 something guy brings out some food. His hair is pitch black, and his darker skin sets him apart from the general appearance of the Ostron people. "Huh, transplant from somewhere else maybe? I wonder if he''s Terran or straight up from Mars or something," I muse, but my focus is broken by the smell of the meal in front of me. "Enjoy!" says the guy, clearly the voice of the one who had been in the kitchen the last few days. I look down, and at first glance, it seems similar to the meal from yesterday, but as I look, I start to notice some differences. The stew has nearly twice as much meat in it; full to the brim. There''s some sort of crumbly bread on the side, the texture not dissimilar to that of cornbread, and the drink is some sort of fruit concoction, rather than the standard mug of mowje. Too tired to ask any questions about what I''m putting in my mouth, I simply dig in with gusto, to the amusement of the chef.


    "You''re cute and all but I''m literally too hungry and too tired to give a fuck about not looking like a maniac," I think, shoveling food into my mouth as though I''m worried it''s planning on growing a pair of legs and walking away. Too few minutes later, the meal is nearly finished, and the man who was initially up front makes a reappearance, wiping his hands on a threadbare rag tucked into his apron. He stops for a moment, looking at my nearly empty plate and bowl. "You uh... you tore through that," he says, looking up at me, half amused and half concerned. I just shrug, doing my best to savor the last few bites of food and drink. "I was hungry." At this, he just nods. "Well, anyways, I went through your haul. It''s not bad for your first day; it''ll cover yesterday''s debt, today''s rent, and today''s meal, with 37 credits left over. If you want I can count out the handful of chits." I slump down in my chair at his words. "Oh..." I say, doing my best to sound less sad than I feel. "That is not a lot." He gives me a nod of sympathy, and I do my best to box up my feelings for the moment. "I doubt I''ll find anywhere cheaper, and I''m only going to get better at this every day," I think, before responding out loud to the man. "I''ll be staying here tonight. You can just hand it over to Heya for tomorrow''s rent."


    He nods, and heads through the side door, leaving me alone in the restaurant once again. I take the opportunity to finish up the last few bites of my food, before also making my way over, passing the man as I do so. I give him a wave and start making my way towards my room, and a thought springs into my mind as I walk down the warmly lit hall. "I never asked for his name. I should probably do that if I''m gunna keep running into him." I make my way up the stairs, and walk into the shared bathroom, stripping out of my blood soaked clothes. I take a moment to look at the clothes, as I stand there in the nude. "Fuck. I gotta... get better clothes. Or more clothes. Or find a laundromat or something. But not right now obvi, since I have zero money." I touch the capacitive sensor within the shower to start it up, the operation identical to the one within Salt of the Sea. After 10 minutes of scrubbing off the dried flakes of blood, I notice that I''m falling asleep on my feet, and so I quickly turn off the shower and step out into the bathroom, after a quick peek to make sure the space is clear.


    I grab the incredibly convenient complimentary towel and dry off, before making my way into my room. I can feel half formed thoughts firing off in my mind like pop rocks, feeling more exhausted now than when I first started training with Ko-lee. "It''ll be nice to see her again," I think, as I scramble under the covers and attempt to find a comfortable position. "Also, my haul was ehh... but I''ll learn. I''ll make more money. Today was rough because all I did was recover from debt, effectively. And, it was the worst performance I''ll ever do. Tomorrow I only need to pay for tomorrows rent, and then I''ll have a few creds for stuff. Stuff and things. Practice. Practice makes perfect. Practice makes... not perfect... better. Practice makes good...," I think, my mind spiraling on that final thought, and before I know it, I''m out like a light.

 Going With The Grain

    A knock at the door startles me awake. "Whurgl?" I mumble, my mouth moving before my brain is fully awake to provide it any words. I do my best to separate dream from reality as I untangle myself from the bedsheets. "What was the dream... blue? Maybe also the dead Grineer guy was there and... something about my wife?" Whatever logic was contained in the dream is slipping through my fingers like sand as I try to grasp on it. Still coming to terms with wakefulness, another knock echoes into the small space. "Hey... are you alive in there?" It takes a moment, but I recognize the voice as Heya, and I take a deep breath, trying to focus on my words before speaking them. "Yes, sorry, I am awake. Am-is there something wrong?" I say, my voice still feeling heavy from the remnants of sleep.


    "No... nothing is wrong. But you''ve been asleep for 14 hours, and so I just wanted to make sure you''d be able to afford tonight''s rent. I assume that you''ll need to work to do that," says the voice through the thick door. "Fuck," I say in English, but the intent is clear, because Heya is quick to try to get me to relax. "It''s okay!" she says while laughing, "there''s no rush. We''re not going to immediately rent out your room the moment your 24 hours are up. Take your time, eat some lunch, shower if you need to." I nod along to her words, even though she can''t see me, but one thing she says gives me pause. "I only have 37 credits. Is that enough for lunch?" I ask. There''s a moment of silence, before I hear Heya speak up. "No, unfortunately not. You''d still need about 13 credits more. Still... no rush." I listen to her footsteps make their way back down the hall, and - I assume - towards reception.


    I flop back down onto the bed, resting my head on the pillow, as I feel my arms pulse from the soreness of the day prior. "Ain''t no rest for the wicked, money don''t grow on trees," I sing, as I look at the ceiling, trying to squeeze a few more moments of relaxation out before I start getting prepared for the day. "At least I don''t need to wait 2 weeks for my first paycheck," I think, swinging my legs out over the bed and grabbing my clothes. They''re an absolute mess, and noticeably pungent, but I just do my best to grin and bear it, since I don''t have any other options for outfits at the moment. As I make my way downstairs, I pass into reception, giving Heya a wave to grab her attention. "Uh, do you know where I can wash my clothes? And maybe buy some more?" I ask, as she gives me a look up and down. "These are getting a bit messy." "Ai-yo, I can see that," she says, her nose scrunching as I pass by her.


    "Well, for cleaning, there is a tmuaalnrdo down the way," she says, before holding her hand out in front of her. "Do you mind passing me your badge?" I hand the device to her, and it only takes her a few moments before she has a digital sketch of the path I need to take, as she assures me that it''s easier than it looks. "Next hallway over, past the ''alley''. I''m pretty sure I''ve got it," I think, pocketing my badge. "Very neat. Thank you," I say. "And as far as buying new clothes?" Heya gives me a look of sympathy at this. "Well... there''s nothing really here in the Unum herself. You''d need to go back to Cetus to find anything. Anything sold here is pretty limited and usually pretty expensive, since it needs to be flown in via the reclamators, and they''re usually booked up for meat or people. It''s cheaper to fly down yourself and pick something up from the market, but I know that''s sort of beyond you right now." She looks apologetic as she tells me this, clearly not a fan of being the bearer of bad news. "It is okay," I say, doing my best to assuage her. "I have a friend who will be here in a few days with the rest of my clothes. This is a temporary situation, so I will just tough it out until then." "Maybe I can find a potato sack or something to wear while I''m washing my clothes," I think, the mental image bringing a smile to my face. "Well, anyways, I am off! Sooner I get out there, sooner I can pay rent!"


    <hr>


    "Yikes," I think, looking at my handiwork from the day before. I can''t help but grimace at what looks less like a clean worksite and more like a vicious animal attack. "It''s like a wolf got at it," I think bemusedly, looking at the deep gouges left behind my saw. As the day prior had worn on, I had struggled to keep the depth consistent, and so some of the cuts were much deeper than needed, and some had had multiple lacerations in the same location as I needed to cut and re-cut due to not being deep enough. Some parts of the tunnel wall still contain the bits of meat that I was unable to cut free, and the space is less uniform rectangles and more awkwardly shaped polygons. As I stare at the consequences of my actions, I hear a huff behind me. I turn, and there''s a man who I assume is roughly my age, possibly a few years older. "You''d think a kavat managed to get in here, the way she''s torn up," says the man, a dour look on his face. The bottles strapped to his waist jingle as he adjusts his stance, and he scratches his beard, not making any eye contact with me at all. "It''s either that, or you have something against the Unum. Can''t say I''m a fan of either idea."


    "Is he hazing me?" I think, trying and failing to get some sense of the man''s personality from his squinted dark eyes. "Uh... not.... not either of them?" I say, not entirely confident on whether or not he''s being serious. "I am just new. It is-it''s my second day." His expression doesn''t change, but he does take another step towards the wall, his cart tucked away behind him. "It''ll be easier if you cut along the fibers, instead of against them." I just look at the eviscerated meat, then back to the man, not entirely clear on what it is he''s referring to. "What? What fibers?" I ask. The man just sighs, reaching behind him and pulling out a knife. a spike of adrenaline shoots through me at the motion, but there''s nothing about his demeanor that insinuates that he''s going to hurt me. "Plus my saw''s got more reach than his dinky ass knife," I think, as he makes his way within arms reach of the tunnel wall. As he does, he gestures for me to get closer, and I take a step towards him. "Oh yea, I''m within cut range now," I think, as he begins to make a small cut. "This is some awful knife safety." He finishes his small incision, and points to the inside of it with the tip of his blade.


    "You see how the muscle is striped? That''s the fibers. On an animal, they''d basically all go the same direction. You have that here, to some degree, but they change directions. Back and forth, in X shapes," he says, tracing out the back and forth pattern with his blade. As his knife trails down the wall, cutting the meat, it seems to snag on something, and it''s there that he makes another incision. He points at it, and I lean a bit closer, my attention fully focused on the lesson before me. "Oh wild, it does a whole ass 90 degree angle change," I think, as I examine the flesh. "Why does it do that?" I ask, and the man just gives me a shrug. "Maybe she does it for structural stability. Maybe she doesn''t control how it grows, only where. Maybe for easier processing. I think you''d need to ask her directly, but good luck on getting an audience," he says, and at this, he shows the first hints of a smile. "Maybe a priest''d know," he says, his smile dropping off just as fast as it came.


    "Oh yea," I suddenly remember. "I gotta do that at some point. There was that whole ''hearing voices'' shit that Konzu was talking about." Me and the unnamed man step away from the wall as I confirm his impromptu lesson. "So I have to make X cuts, rather than slicing straight through. The rectangle is more like a diamond." The gruff man wavers his hand back and forth. "Well, yes," he says, clearly willing to impart more knowledge, "but you''ll also want to cut through the fascia as you do it." His words come with action, as he walks me through the steps needed; a cut along the fibers for some distance, then one along the connective tissue. I just watch, doing my best to soak in the free knowledge through the haze of exhaustion. "Well, but when I did that, it was tearing instead of cutting," I say, before realizing he was in the middle of a sentence. "...oh, sorry." He just gives me a look that I can''t quite interpret, before holding his hand out. I briefly panic, thinking that he, in fact, is expecting recompense for his lesson, before I realize that he just wants me to hand over my saw. I do so, and he takes a moment to look at it. "Yea, I see the problem. So, what you''re going to want to do in the short term..."


    <hr>


    Every part of me is somehow in even more pain than the day prior. "Muscles I didn''t even know I had are fuckin'' sore," I think grumpily, as I tug my cart through the tunnel. Thankfully my suffering serves a purpose, as I have a cart half full of flesh, and this time the cuts are recognizably from the Unum and not just a vague pile of meat. As well, the shift was closer to 9 hours than 10, and both the cleaner cuts and time save were due to the advice I had been receiving from the man, whose name I learned was Jae. While I had constantly stopped to ask for his advice, and he never appeared to be particularity enthused at the idea of needing to handhold me through the process, he never once told me to leave him alone, and had always made sure that I understood the knowledge he was trying to impart, before he went off back to his corner of the tunnel. It turned out that we were effectively tunnel buddies, although I''m not sure if he had always been there or if he simply moved closer to avoid having to walk back and forth. In any case, our day is finally finished, and I''m excited to head back home to get another 14 hours of sleep.


    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    As I reach the exit of the tunnel, I see that Jae is actually stood just off to the side of it, securing his Burj Kahlifa of tower flesh with ropes and hooks. "Holy crap," I think, as I watch him test the stability of his handiwork. "He had time to teach me and fill his cart? How fast could he''ve been done if he hadn''t needed to stop every ten minutes to walk me through Skinning 101?" "Well," I say, as I approach the man. "I guess it''s time for me to go sell this for like... a bronze." I give him my best cheeky grin, but he just looks at me, his face severe. "You''re being scammed," he says, in perfect monotone. "Ah! No! I am-I''m joking! Sort of. It''s is... uhh, it is a city program... thing," I say, stumbling over my words, his eyes locked on my face. "Not.. not literally a bronze. I just, I do not have a seller. The city buys it from me. It''s a bit of a rip off, but..." The sentence trails off, and I just hit him with one of those ''it is what it is'' shrugs. Jae''s face softens slightly, and he nods his head. "Good program. Helps get your feet under you." I nod back, a smile growing across my face. "Yea, they are really nice. I had not even thought of actually selling the meat. Had I not talked to them yesterday, I would have just been stuck with 50 pounds of flesh."


    "There was no program like that when I started," he says, as he and I begin making our way towards the lift. "Took me a while, nearly half a decade, but I managed to build up a network. Now I sell straight at the market in Cetus, no middle man," he says, his eyes darting between me and his cart as we keep pace. "Wow," I say, tugging on my own cart. "I do not know if I will be around that long. I am not planning on staying here for years. Although... I do not actually know what the plan is, as far as getting off planet. I... should probably look that up..." I trail off, as I get lost in my own thoughts, and Jae seems comfortable in the silence, and it''s a few minutes before we both make our way into the elevator room proper. As I walk towards the elevator, Jae reaches out and grabs on to my upper arm, pulling me both physically and mentally back towards him. "How much would you earn?" he asks, and I just give him a shrug. "I do not actually know. Yesterday I was able to just about cover a day of rent, plus a bit. Maybe... 3 and a half bronze? For roughly the same amount? Maybe less. My cuts were really bad," I say, doing my best to recollect the day prior. Jae takes his hand off my arm, but I can see there''s still something on his mind, and so I give him a moment to formulate his thoughts.


    "I''d be willing to buy this off you for a stack," he says, with no fanfare. "Wait, how much is a stack again?" I wonder. "Five bronze?" I ask, as confirmation of the quick math. "If that''s right, that''s nearly twice what I made yesterday!" Jae just gives me a short nod. "Uh. I mean... yes! Sure!" I say excitedly, before quickly realizing an issue. "But... also... I need cash today, for room and food and... maybe some soap. Can you do that?" There''s a moment of silence, as Jae looks at me and through me, before speaking up. "Today, I can. If you''d like to keep selling to me, I couldn''t do it every day, but I''m willing to front you, just to help keep a roof over your head for now," he says, nodding to himself as he does. "Well, then, we have a deal!" I say, sticking my hand out for a handshake. Instead, Jae reaches into his pocket, pulling out a little flag. "Just leave your cart here," he says, reaching over to mark both his and my cart on the handles. "I have a guy." After a quick once over of the carts, he walks over and on to the lift, me trailing only a few steps behind him. He presses his badge into the elevator control, and a thought briefly crosses my mind as we teleport up onto some unknown floor.


    "What are the odds that he''s gunna try to ice me?" I think, as I follow him out into an unrecognized hallway. "I mean, insane play if true, since I am literally equipped with a weapon. Also also, he just spent the whole day teaching me how to harvest, which would be a crazy thing to do if you were planning on mercing someone in a dark alley to steal their flesh. ...tower flesh. Whatever." Still, I can''t help but feel slightly apprehensive as we approach a higher end (but still somewhat middling) hotel. "Wait here," he says, and even though I was already planning to, I feel relief that he and I are of the same mind. It''s only a few minutes later that he returns, and he holds out 5 bronze, stacked together. "Very sci-fi," I think, as I look at the stack of credits, 5 lights adorning the top. "If that''s everything..." he says, and I look up at him with a huge grin on my face. "Wanna get a drink?" Instead of a response, he just calmly turns back into the building, and I feel the smile slip off my face. "''Bro it''s fine the worst she can do is say no''," I think, my attention getting pulled back down to the magnetic money.


    I spend a moment pulling the top bronze off the stack, watching as the lights jump down a level as I do, and dropping from five lights to four, then letting the magnets snap them back together in to place. I''m moments from turning and trying to find my way back to my own hotel, when I hear the door in front of me open. I can''t help but furrow my brows at Jae, as he stands there, with no expression on his face. "I had to get more money," he says, in his deep rumbling monotone. I just roll my eyes at him, saying, "Well, I hope you know where to get drinks around here." He gives me a short nod, along with an "I do," before passing by me and heading off down the hall. I trail behind him, fiddling with the magnetic money in my pocket, and it''s only a few minutes before we find ourselves in front of a tucked away bar with a sign designating it as The Drop. "Oh I bet Aley loves this place," I think, as we make our way in.


    The bar itself feels almost like a modern dive bar; the lights are dim in the same way, the wear and tear of a million footsteps roughing up the texture of the floor, and while there''s no pool tables, there are groups of guys playing various games with dice and cards. We head towards the bar itself, dropping ourselves into two adjacent stools, Jae waving his hand to get the bartenders attention. "Forest Poison for me," he says, and I follow up with a mowje. As the bartender leaves, I turn my full body towards Jae. "So," I say, pulling his focus from the bartender. "What''s your deal?" Jae just stares at me, a questioning look in his eye. "My deal?" I nod while looking at him. "Yes, your deal. You are very stoic, but also, you just helped me for no reason." He just shrugs. "I think you''ll be a good investment. Your cuts were a mess yesterday, but you worked for nearly 11 hours. You can train skill, you can''t train dedication." He reaches over to take a sip from our recently arrived drinks, his an almost neon green liquid in a seafoam blue glass. I take a pull from mine, before following up.


    "So, that is it? Just... good business sense?" I ask, an eyebrow raised. He nods. "Just wanted to grab you before someone else did." My eyes don''t leave his, but every reaction of his is subtle, dulled. I''m entirely unable to determine anything from his body language or expression, and so I''m forced to just take him at his word. "And yet... maybe I''ve got main character syndrome but it just feels too random of a pick to me. Not that I''m planning on looking a gift horse in the mouth, but still," I think. "Well. Thanks. I would have been selling to the city for a while if you had not shown up. Cheers?" I say, raising my mug. He raises his glass, to mine, and they clink. "To the Unum!" Jae exclaims, with more energy than I''ve seen all day. "May her bounty never run out!"


    <hr>


    As I lay in bed, I can''t help but ruminate on the experience with the man. "He''s an odd one, for sure, but I dunno... I think his heart''s in the right place. I mean, don''t get me wrong, he needs a fuckin'' run through a rock tumbler to really polish him up, but prickliness aside...," I think, as I feel my body slowly start to drift off. As I do though, there''s...


    something.


    A spike of adrenaline is driven into my muscles, and I take a huge gasp of air, banishing all sleepiness from my mind. "What the fuck?" I think as I sit up, my eyes darting around in the gloom of the room. I can see every corner of the space, and while it''s clear that I''m completely alone, for the briefest of moments it was as though I could feel a... presence... standing in the tiny space near the foot of my bed. I glare at the patch of air, but I see, hear, and feel nothing. "Ya''ll tryna be on Worldstar? I got my dollar store camera... ON," I quote in English, doing my best to ground myself. After the moment of silence, I let out a groan, my body flopping back onto the bed. "Fuck the hat man," I think, staring at the ceiling, feeling the last dregs of adrenaline drain from my system. "I''ve got work tomorrow, so unless you''re paying rent, please kindly bug off."


    It takes me quite a while before I manage to fall asleep.

 Sharing Is Caring

    Whether due to my mental admonishment or not, the ghost of the hat man did not make a reappearance the last few days. Which I am immensely gratefully for since it meant that I was able to focus on perfecting my craft. Or, more realistically, work on the basics of my craft. If someone had asked me, I could list what felt like 100 different ways that I had managed to improve at harvesting, and my daily haul had gone from what might generously be called half a cart to more like three quarters of a cart. As well, my handiwork looked less like an abstractionist piece and more like an actual slab of tower flesh you''d find in the market. However, if Jae was asked, he would have 1000 ways I still needed to improve. Still, I didn''t let his dour outlook bring down my mood. Especially since I now have a handful of credits to spend, as well as basics like soap and clean laundry.


    "I feel like the spokesperson for a detergent line right now," I think to myself, as I get ready for another day of harvesting. "''Are you covered in the blood of ancient tower engineered by a dead race of self proclaimed gods? Buy Ostron Soap! It''ll clear your stains faster than a Tenno can clear a Corpus cruiser! Ostron Soap! You''ll buy us cause there are no other brands!''" As I make my way out of the hotel - whose name I finally learned is ''Goldstone'' - I give a wave to Heya, before orienting myself not towards the stairs to my job site, but towards a different staircase closer to the Great Doors. After the night of drinking with Jae, he had walked me up a smaller staircase that basically just connected his floor and mine, since his is directly beneath the main floor. Since then, rather than heading down on my own, I instead take the smaller staircase to Jae''s hotel first, and then make the trip with him.


    "Not that he''s much of a conversationalist anyways," I think to myself. "I might as well be strolling alone, for all that I can get him to open up. You''d think social lubricant would be the key but his drink is already-" but my train of thought is derailed by a tuft of purple hair that I spot through the crowd. Excitement shoots through me, but I do my best to tamp it down, unsure if it''s actually Ko-lee. "We never really did plan a return time, but if she was really frugal about it...," I think, as I maneuver my way through the crowd of workers and tourists. My eyes are locked on to the spot of color, and within a few moments, the crowd splits wide enough for me to see who it is. "Ko-lee!" I yell, all considerations of social constructs thrown out the window. Her gaze, which had been clearly searching, locks onto mine at the noise, and her face lights up the hall. I half walk, half jog over to her, and I have the impulse to give her a hug, but she''s carrying a huge wooden box stuffed full of clothes.


    "To be fair... that box probs actually saved me from some awkward shit. I don''t know if she would''ve appreciated me jumping her like that," I think, as I close the last few feet between us. "Long time no see, stranger!" I say, as I get within speaking distance. "It''s only been a few days, Antimony," she says, but the grin on her face shows that she''s starting to pick up on my dumb humor. "Damn, you sure? It felt like at least 3 months," I say, sort of vibrating with excitement. "Also, do you want me to take the box?" She just shakes her head at me, walking alongside as I lead us back towards Goldstone, unbidden. "No, it''s not that heavy. I would love a chance to set it down though," she says, hiking the box for a better grip. "Well, I have got just the place for you! It''s where I am-I''m staying!" I say, as I lead her through the crowd. "It''s a bit small, but, it''s super cheap. Plus the owner is so nice. They rent daily, weekly and monthly so you can make it work with your budget. There''s also an attached restaurant!"


    We reach Goldstone, and I open the door, surprising Heya. "Oh, Antimony, you''re back? Whose your friend?" she says, as Ko-lee makes her way in. "Lah, Heya, this is Ko-lee. She''s my-," I say, before my mind shoots of in a hundred directions.


    FRIEND, JUST SAY FRIEND."


    "Or, girlfriend?"


    "DON''T DO THAT."


    "Best friend?"


    "It''s just coming on strong!"


    "Friend just doesn''t feel like enough."


    Yes, but Heya doesn''t need to know all that!"


    "-best friend," I finish, without any noticeable break. Ko-lee just looks at me bemused, while Heya has the same cheerful expression on as usual. "Great to hear! Is she just helping you with moving in some stuff?" Heya asks, eyeing the box of clothes. "Actually, I was hoping to move in to a room of my own, if at all possible," says Ko-lee. Heya''s expression dims slightly at the request, looking somewhat apologetic. "Ah, so... unfortunately we are booked up at the moment. I could give you a recommendation for somewhere else...?" she says, somewhat hopefully. There''s a brief moment of silence while we all stand there, Ko-lee clearly thinking over her options. "Are we allowed to share rooms?" she asks. Heya nods, but I can''t help but speak up at the question. "Like I said before, the rooms are not the biggest. It''s already a bit cramped for me, it will be a squeeze with both of us."


    Ko-lee just shrugs, hiking the box up once more. "Well, let me see it and I''ll make a decision then," she says, starting towards the hallway. "Oh, sorry, before you do, I''ll need to take a look at your badge," says Heya, her arm out in front of the hall. "Antimony, it''s in my right hand pocket," says Ko-lee, as she stands in front of the hotel proprietor. "Oh, I... okay," I say, somewhat startled into action. I reach into her pocket, and it only takes me a moment before I find the egg shaped device, handing it over to Heya. Heya examines the tech with practiced motions before handing it back to me, nodding her head. "Alright, you''re good to go. If you share the room, the rent won''t change, so if you''re willing to squeeze, it''ll be quite the deal," says Heya, as she steps behind the receptionist desk once more. I just give her a nod, and me and Ko-lee both make our way back into the hallway, heading towards the room.


    As we approach, I step in front and open the door, letting Ko-lee into the space, before I shut the door behind us. "Oh," she says, looking around the barely 100 square foot room. "Yea, it''s not a lot," I say, standing only a foot behind her. "Had I known, I could have maybe rented out another room or something, because I actually have a few credits to my name now, but... well...," I say, my words trailing off as I give a shrug. "We can call it poor planning, but neither of us really knew when she''d have the cash or that they''d sell out of rooms. Shit, I''ve only seen one other person so far, so there must not be that many rooms in the first place," I think, standing in silence. "We can make it work. We can squeeze together on that bed no problem," says, Ko-lee, unceremoniously dropping the box of clothes on top of the dresser.


    "Sure, okay, yup, that-that''ll be fine," I think, as my eyes flick between my friend and what is effectively only slightly bigger than a twin sized mattress. I can feel my face turning red as my mind runs away with the idea, but I just bite my tongue as I start pulling the clothes from the box and placing them into the drawers. "Well... great. Cool. So uhm...," I say, trying my best to move onto a new conversation, "do you have a saw yet?" She just smiles, reaching past me to grab something at the bottom of the box. I try to take a step, but unfortunately my foot is caught up against one of the legs of the bed frame and so I just awkwardly sit down on the bed instead. Ko-lee pulls out a what appears to be a saw not that dissimilar to mine, but clearly of higher quality. "I was able to trade some labor for this, a lot cheaper than if I''d bought it," she says, her face enraptured by the blade. "Oh. Neat," I say, just bobbing my head as if confirming my own words.


    "Why I am being so weird right now," I think, still bobbing my head. "We did life or death shit together and then lived in holes for two weeks. What is this ''cat got your tongue'' ass behavior?" I clear my throat, before standing back up off the bed, doing my best to appear more socially adept than I currently feel. "So! Looks like you did all the boring stuff already, so you can start today, if you want. I was actually headed downstairs when I ran into you. Interested in getting your hands dirty, or did you want to take a day before getting in the thick of things?" I ask, as I shimmy my way past her and towards the door. "Sure, that''s why I showed up early. I knew I''d have enough time to get a badge and maybe find somewhere to stay before you actually woke up," she says, looking at me, her expression completely dry. Without even thinking, I flip her the bird, a smile growing on my face. "If you are going to sleep with me then you get to operate on my schedule, got it princess?"


    My words make her face grow a kuva red, and she takes a moment, breathing in and out, before responding. "So... that is actually the wrong term. I know you meant sleeping as in resting... in the bed... together. That was not the term you used." Her eyes are locked on mine, and the small muscle movements of her face belay a complicated mix of emotions. "Wh-" I start to say, before my brain puts two and two together. The sudden realization hits me like a freight train and I can''t help but laugh. Without thinking, an internet reference slips out of my mouth, before I''m able to remember that she won''t have context. "I''m joking! Unless...," I say, before desperately trying to backtrack. "OR. SO... hold on! HOLD ON! It-"


    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    My face feels like what Ko-lee''s looks like, and at my panicked half explanations, she starts laughing too. Her laughter ends up being contagious, causing me to double over with a whole new round of laughs, barely able to breathe. "I..." says Ko-lee in between wheezes, as she struggles to say whatever she''s thinking. "It... a reference..." I say, gulping air down like someone lost at sea. She just nods, the laughter causing tears to stream down her face, as we both do our best to recover in the tiny space. It takes minutes before we''re able to recover any semblance of normality, as every time one of us manages to pull ourselves together, we get set off by the other person. Finally, once fully recovered, I manage to speak up. "I''m glad you are back, Ko-lee. I''m..." I trail off, as I''m not entirely sure what it is that I want to tell her. "I was lonely without you? I couldn''t wait to see you? I think I''m falling for you and now that you''re back I''ve got some real complicated feelings to deal with?" I think in frustration. Before I get a chance to pick an appropriate phrase, Ko-lee shoots me a warm smile, giving me butterflies in my stomach. "Yea, I missed you too," she says. "Let''s go get started."


    <hr>


    "Jae, this is Ko-lee. She is a good friend of mine. Ko-lee this is Jae. He has been helping me with harvesting, and I also sell to him," I say, introducing the two as we walk away from Jae''s hotel. Jae just nods, his expression betraying little, as usual. Ko-lee smiles and nods her head at my words, taking the initiative in the conversation. "It''s nice to meet you Jae," she says, getting another nod from the man. There''s a moment of silence between the three of us, and I can''t help but mentally roll my eyes. "Whatever man, don''t use any words on our account," I think sarcastically. "So, Ko-lee," I say, drawing her attention towards me. "Anything interesting happen while you were in Cetus?" She just shrugs, her eyes unfocusing as she thinks back on her past few days. "Not really. Just worked with Nakak, and a few others. That was basically all I did, really. I didn''t want to spend too much time in Cetus by myself, and I didn''t have money to spend on any distractions, so I just worked the whole time."


    I nod at her words as we approach the Vox. "Well, I have been stumbling my way through learning things, since I''m incapable of asking people for help. Luckily help seems to falls into my lap," I say, handing over my badge to the religious figure. He takes a look at it, muttering under his breath while he checks his pad. "Heya was super helpful in getting my feet underneath me. I had-I''d not planned on how to actually sell the meat once harvesting it, so I actually would have been in trouble had she not told me about the city program. I only needed to use it for a day though, before Jae showed up," I say, as the Vox hands me back my badge and looks over Ko-lee''s. "I wouldn''t be much of an adherent if I allowed you to continue tearing up the Unum the way you were doing," says Jae, speaking up for the first time in nearly 10 minutes. "Hey, we all start somewhere!" I say in response, but Jae''s expression doesn''t shift an iota. "Miss, you''ll be in Oro B. I''m assuming you are with these two?" says the Vox, interrupting our back and forth. "Yes, I am," says Ko-lee, taking her badge back from the man. "Then by her will you may harvest there," says the Vox, bowing his head.


    All three of us bow back, Jae the deepest of all. Once finished, we start off towards the hall, and I pick up the conversation from where we left off. "Yea, so my first cut was so bad, and then I slipped while harvesting. Then, once I was finished, I realized I didn''t not... didn''t even have a cart, so I had to head back out again! It was a whole thing," I say, as we reach the closet for carts. Me and Jae grab one, but I stay Ko-lee''s hand as she reaches out for one herself. "We''ll just share my cart," I say, and she takes a moment, before nodding. We head out of the closet and approach the tunnel, and I keep an eye on her out of the corner of my eye. There isn''t any hitch in her movement at all though, and we enter straight into the tunnel without fanfare. "Damn, she didn''t react at all! And she didn''t even slip when entering the tunnel. I think Ko-lee might actually be the main character and I''m just the plucky sidekick," I think, half joking, half despondent. "Well, anyways," I say, as I start making my way towards the job site. "I''ve learned a bunch from Jae. Probably the first thing I would say is that when you''re cutting, you..."


    <hr>


    "Alright, I see what you''re talking about," says Ko-lee, as we carry the cart towards the elevator. For once, it''s actually full to the brim, and then some, as I was able to distill down a crash course for Ko-lee, so that we could get her started on making clean, usable cuts without needing to take a few days. Her cuts are definitely smaller than mine, but she was also able to make more of them, and so our combined effort meant that filling it up was more than feasible. "I thought maybe it was just because you were out of shape because we had stopped training, but that really was hard work," Ko-lee continues. I just scoff at her words. "Please, we may have stopped formal training, but we have been working hard since... we have been working hard. I''m not that soft girl you found in the woods," I say, flexing the muscle in one of my arms.


    "Well, you do look less like a corpo princess," she says, smirking at me from her side of the cart. "But I''m pretty sure you''re still soft." I gasp in faux shock, putting my hand over my chest, before quickly smiling. "Yea, you are right, I''m soft. The world has plenty of hard, I think," I say, as we reach the lift. Her expression softens slightly, but it''s quickly overtaken by one of focus as I explain to her the flag system. I take out one of the flags that Jae had lent me, placing it on the cart, before making my way over to the controls, explaining the operation of it. A few minutes later, and the two of us find our way back on the main floor, headed back towards Goldstone. "I''m excited for the food. You make it sound really good," she says, as we walk shoulder to shoulder, moving with the flow of the crowd. "No, it is really good, I just describe things well," I say, opening the door to the restaurant proper.


    "Hey, Antimony! Whose this?" says the chef, as we walk in. "Hey Cook, this is Ko-lee," I say, introducing her to the man. "Nominative determinism strikes again," I think, as I continue speaking. "It was her first day today!" Cook''s face lights up, and in a repeat of only a few days prior, shouts to the back, "CAN I GET A FIIIIIIRST DAY?" "YEEUUUPP," sounds off the kid, whose name I still haven''t learned. "Sit on down here, we''ll get this out to you in just a minute!" says Cook, before he dissapears in the back. Me and Ko-lee sit at the bar, and I stretch out my on the chair, taking a moment to just soak in the sounds of the kitchen and the presence of my friend. "So," says Ko-lee, giving a quizzical look from beside me, "Konzu told me that you were hearing the voice of the Unum?" I just sigh, as my gaze drifts over to hers. "Yea, he told you about that?" I ask, and she nods. "Yea, I guess. I was definitely hearing a faint woman''s voice, and Konzu seems convinced that it''s the Unum."


    I just shrug in my seat, my shoulders rubbing against the rough wood of the chair. "I don''t know if he''s right. I need to talk to someone of the faith. A priest. It''s been low priority, compared to making rent. I mean, I''m already here, in her. That is like, 70% of the work done, I think," I say, smiling. Ko-lee just chuckles once, before following up. "Who do you think it is, if not the Unum?" she asks. "God. Uhm, Wally, maybe. The Lotus? I dunno, I don''t think she can do that. It could be the Unum for sure for sure, but like, there''s so many other people it could be too. Ugh. I really need to just lay it all out for her," I think. Our food arrives before I have an opportunity to respond, and our conversation is quickly tabled. "Woah, you were right, this is pretty good," says Ko-lee, as she eats her stew. "What can I say, I like food," I mumble, in between bites of mine. We trade a few more words about nothing in particular as we eat our meal, and before long, we''re both finished.


    I stretch before standing, and leave pay for Cook on the counter, giving him a shout as we leave. I show Ko-lee the connected door, and it only takes a minute or two before we find ourselves in the bedroom once again. I feel the impulse to get ready for bed, but I suddenly realize something. "Oh, shit, I sleep naked," I think, the tips of my ears growing hot. "Hey, uhm, Ko-lee? I don''t not... do not... have... like, sleepwear?" I say, as we both stand in the tiny space. "What do you normally wear?" she says, digging through the drawer for her own clothes. "Oh, I... I don''t," I say. There''s a moment where her search is slowed, and I''m unable to see her expression. "Oh, I... I didn''t know that," she says, as she continues grabbing a few items of clothing.


    "You... would... do you have some? Extras?" I ask, suddenly feeling hyper aware of every part of myself. I put my hands in my pockets, before pulling them back out again, desperately looking for something to fidget with. "Yea, I have some that... well, maybe they''ll fit you. Better than you being naked. Not... I''m not saying that you''re-not that-I was just saying," she stutters, her words flowing out faster and faster. "No, no no no I get it. I get what you mean, like you don''t want me naked, not that I look bad," I say, trying to fill in the gaps between her awkward phrasing. "Right, I... I don''t," she says. "What the fuck is happening right now," I think, before she shoves an outfit in my hands. "So, yea. I will...I will go change in the bathroom, I guess," I say, making my way towards the door. "Well, I mean, there''s space," says Ko-lee, her voice jumping an octave. "Oh my god I''m so fucking stupid," I realize, a bolt of clarity striking me. "Sorry, Ko-lee, hold on. We need to talk before we climb into this bed, I think."

 Building A Routine

    I look at my friend; her face now pale from my declaration, her purple hair mussed up from the day''s work. Her eyes are darting around, searching my expression for information, and her eyebrows have a slight furrow to them as she waits for me to speak. "I could probably do subtle; beat around the bush here, but...," "Ko-lee, do you like me?" I ask, my words a continuation of my thoughts. Ko-lee is silent, the familiar look of focus etched deeply in her expression, but my question returns a bit of color to her face, and then some. I sigh, as I sit down on the bed, resting my back against the wall as I do. "It''s... I think we should maybe talk about this? Before we climb into a bed together," I continue, as Ko-lee reprises her role as a mime. "Has she every mentioned a partner before?" I think, doing my best to remember every conversation we''ve had in the last couple of months. "I can''t recall, but I highly doubt Sharip had a huge dating pool. Also also, she had the whole ''groomed to be the Chief'' thing going on, which is for sure hardmode when it comes to tryna date."


    "Okay, so, I''ll go first then," I say, as she stands in the small space in front of me. "''Hey Ko-lee!''" I exclaim, faking the start of the conversation again. "''So uh, you should know that I like you, actually.''" My confession causes some of the tension to leave her shoulders, and I give a slight head nod to let her know that the floor is open for her to speak. Her mouth opens and closes once, before she finally manages to speak up. "I think I like you too," she says, her voice steady. "Great!" I respond enthusiastically, patting the bed next to me. She takes the opportunity, crawling up onto it to sit perpendicular to me; her legs over top of mine as we claim the two walls near the corner. "We are on the same page. That is-that''s good. Pining sucks," I say, flashing her a quick smile. "Yea," she responds. "So," I continue, "have you ever been in a relationship before?" She just gives me a non-committal shrug.


    "I''ve had some flings before, but no, nothing serious. Oh, and, uhm... I''ve only ever been with guys," she says, the last bit thrown out like an afterthought. "Alright. That''s... hmmm," I say, processing her words. "It needs to be addressed, but first..." "So, I want to lay some cards down on the table for you. Just... so you know where I am coming from. I am interested in you, but I''m married," I explain. Her shoulders sag, but I quickly carry on. "It''s not an issue though, because I''m... uh. Polyamorous," I say, needing to use the English word. Ko-lee just gives me a confused look, and so I explain, "it means to be in a relationship with more than one person." I can see in her eyes the moment her brain accepts it as an idea; new connections being forged as she contemplates the thought. "Oh is that... you can do that?" she says, her question only somewhat rhetorical. "I would imagine there is an Origin word for it, I doubt I''m introducing the concept," I say, grinning. "But yes, I''m both married, and have a boyfriend." "Where are they?" she asks.


    "You''ll never see them agaiiiiiin~," my thoughts sing unbidden, but I do my best to shut them down. "God willing, far far away from here," I say, in response to her question. "But my point is, normally I would have this conversation with them, and... well, it''s not an option, right now. It will not be an issue. Probably." "Honestly, it would for sure be overshadowed by the isekai B S," I think, mentally chuckling at the absurd image. "Okay, so... is there a problem then?" Ko-lee asks, dragging me back down to earth. I shake my head. "No, it''s not a problem, I just wanted you to understand the situation. You would be entering into a non-standard relationship which, as far as first time relationships go... well, I would not normally suggest it. It can be a bit tricky. Especially since, if we did want to... ya know... date, then I would continue to be polyamorous," I say. "I''d still be ''on the market'', as it were." Ko-lee''s brows furrow. "Hmm," she hums, her gaze unfocusing from me as she thinks about the ramifications. I give her a moment to process it, before continuing. "So, yea, I guess I want to ask you if that''s something that you are comfortable with. And, by all means, if you meet someone as well, then you can date other people too. I''m not trying to pull a fast one on you. The rules apply equally," I say, bringing her focus back to me. "Would..." she starts, then stops, then starts again. "Do I need to date someone you''re dating?" she asks, uncertainly.


    "No," I say, smiling. "You totally do not-don''t have to. You can, if you want, but no, it''s not a requirement. This is not a ploy for threesomes, it''s..." I say, before taking a moment to gather my thoughts. "I subscribe to the belief that there is no such thing as ''the one''. Anyone you date is going to have qualities that you really enjoy, and some that... maybe you care a bit less about. For example, back home, my wife and I really click on music, and talking about psychology, and things like that. My boyfriend on the other hand, well, he and I really enjoy video games, and going to theme parks. They are different people that have some overlap, and some not, and I love them differently, but equally. Does that make sense?" She nods, and I continue doing my best to put my feelings into words. "Instead of trying desperately to find one person who likes music and video games and theme parks and psychology and the myriad of other things that I like my partners for, I just date multiple people. That way I don''t need to put all of my hopes and dreams and desires on one specific person."


    Ko-lee gives me a questioning look. "But, what about jealousy?" she asks. "I don''t really... get jealous," I say, before my mind chimes in, unbidden. "Autism. Broke brain syndrome. You don''t function right." I gently shake my head, as though attempting to dislodge the thought, before continuing. "Some people get jealous, and that is fine. Polyamory is not for everybody." Ko-lee is clearly processing everything I''ve said up to this point, and there''s nearly a full 20 seconds of silence, before I feel the need to speak up. "I want to point out that I''m sort of glossing over a lot, since it''s a new concept for you. I could probably do a whole hour long talk about the intricacies of polyamory. This is just broad strokes," I say to my potential girlfriend. By this point, the previous nervousness and excitement that she had is gone, replaced with the look of focus and intent I''ve seen so many times before. I take a deep breath, before interrupting her train of thought. "Also, sorry, I know you are still thinking about that, but there is one other... thing... that I need to bring up," I say, feeling the nerves crawl down my spine and across my shoulders.


    Her attention refocuses on me. "Something else?" she asks, and I nod. "Yea, you mentioned that you''ve only dated men before?" She nods, a tinge of color returning to her cheeks, and before I get a chance to continue, she speaks up. "I do want to date a woman! I''m... I just... haven''t, before." "Right," I say, doing my best to project calm. "That is... what I want to talk about. You know that I''m not..." "Kill me now." "...a regular woman, right?" "i''M NOt LIkE otheR gIrLs," I think sardonically, doing my best to avoid projecting my frustrations. "What? What do you mean?" asks Ko-lee, curious and slightly worried. "Well," I sigh. "You cleaned me up when we were back in Sharip, right?" She flinches at the name of her home, but nods. "So... you know that I''m not... I do not have the uhm... parts. That might be expected," I manage to stammer out. Ko-lee''s expression doesn''t change, as she continues to stare at me with the same look of confusion. "Yea?" she half asks, half states. "And? You... so like... are..." I stutter, before taking a deep breath to recenter myself. "You are not really reacting to that the way I thought you would."


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    "You are a woman, correct?" asks Ko-lee, and I nod. "Yes! I am! I just... I was not... born as one," I say, trying and failing to keep my voice level. "Sure, it was either that or a bodymod," she states matter of factly. "Oh. Uhm. Okay. And... and you''re okay with that?" I ask, feeling more caught off guard by her blas¨¦ reaction. "Yea? Why wouldn''t I be?" she asks back, and I can''t stop the massive grin from forming on my face. "And folks, it''s that fuckin'' easy," I think to myself, frustrated and entertained in equal measure. Ko-lee smiles back, but then it quickly drops off her face. "I... I''m not sure I''m comfortable with the idea of sharing partners. I''ve never even dated a single person, I don''t know that I could do more than one at the same time," she says, looking down at the bed. "Hey, that is-that''s fine," I say, placing my hand on her knee. "I''m not saying you have to make a decision right at this moment. I just... I think we were both sort of beating around the bush, by not just telling each other how we felt. I just thought it was something we needed to talk about, since we were about to crawl into a bed together," I say.


    "Still, for now, it would effectively be monogamous anyways, since I''m not really searching for anyone. I just wanted you to be aware of it, and, down the line, if it''s a deal breaker, then..." I leave the idea unsaid, and Ko-lee gives a look of understanding. "Yea, I get it. I... I think I''m willing to try..." she says, and I give her knee a squeeze. "You sure you do not want to think about it for a bit?" I ask. "I have been thinking about it," she says, looking at me, as though challenging me to say otherwise. "That''s not... really what I mean, but... okay. I''m willing to give it a shot if you are," I say, flipping my hand over and offering it to her. Her face lights up, and she reaches out in kind, intertwining her fingers in mine, and we just sit there in the moment, both beaming. "We will need to talk a lot in the next couple days, I think. Lay down some boundaries and important things to know about each other, and so on," I say, rubbing my thumb on the back of her hand. "And tell her everything about me. Which, I need to do soon, very soon. But not right away. I don''t want to overwhelm her," I muse. "Sure," she says, her eyes bright. "Well...," I say, untangling my legs from hers, "I''m gonna go change." There''s the quickest flash of a frown on her face, and I can''t help but give her a knowing look.


    "Slow down cowgirl, there''s no rush. Like I said, I''m not going anywhere."


    <hr>


    Nearly a week and a half later, Ko-lee and I have settled into a bit of a routine together. Skinning hasn''t gotten any easier, but every day we get a few more tips from Jae, and the repetition leads to slow but steady improvements. Our improvements became so noticeable in fact, that we started needing to use two carts, since I could nearly fill one up just by myself. Not to say that every day has been smooth sailing. For example, only a few days after Ko-lee started working with us, we were moved from our original worksite to a new one, which contained much more interesting terrain. Rather than being an almost entirely flat tunnel in which we could bring our carts all the way down, we instead were faced with a tunnel that had two 90 degree bends in it, like the squiggly tetromino. There was some obstruction that needed to be navigated around, and it meant that harvesting within the tunnel was more of a group effort than usual, as slabs needed to be passed up and down the 10 foot cliff. I had been climbing the ladder that day, and my hands were slick with kuva. Unsurprisingly, this led to me slipping off of the ladder, falling 3 or 4 feet onto my back into a pool of blood.


    At the time, it was a pretty miserable experience, although now it''s a fun story to bring up when drinking over at The Drop. Another day, Jae was interrupted during one of his lessons by a bout of excessive coughing. That reminded Ko-lee about gilded lung, and so she and I went to pick up some PPE the next day, grabbing an extra set for Jae. However, when we brought it to him, he refused to wear it, stating that it "wasn''t that big of a deal." Ko-lee wasn''t particularly enthused by that answer, and the two of them got into a rather heated argument about it. Or, really, Ko-lee was heated, and Jae was his regular apathetic self, if a touch more tense than usual. They''d only stopped when Ko-lee brought up that we''d start looking for a different seller if he continued to be stubborn about it. He folded, but there was an uncomfortable energy between the three of us for the few days after.


    We also found out that there were communal grills that could be used. Instead of paying for a meal, you brought your own food - generally tower flesh - and paid for fuel based on how long you hung out. It explained why the restaurants were not nearly as busy as one might expect, as most skinners ate at a grill, and went to a bar for a drink. The communal aspect really can''t be overstated as well; we generally found ourselves sat with a whole bunch of strangers, which gave us an opportunity to meet some of the people who worked the same schedule as us and lived nearby. And, of course, Ko-lee and I have also spent the last 9 days talking about our relationship; how it will work, what we do and don''t want from the other person, our expectations, and so on. To some extent, we''re also trying to take things slow, although at times it leaves me feeling like I''m trying to mop up an ocean.


    "By the way," says Ko-lee, as she climbs into bed with me, "I''ve been taking a look at our finances. We could probably take tomorrow off, if we wanted." I wrap my arm around her midsection the second she''s within reach, pulling her body against mine. "Hmm...," I hum in her ear, causing her to wriggle in my grasp. "I think I do want," I mutter, my other hand tracing lines up and down her neck. I feel goosebumps form underneath my fingers as I do, a small smile crossing my lips. "You know," I murmur, as my lips press gently against her neck, "I think it''s pretty crazy that you''re so eager to sleep with me, yet you get so embarrassed at kissing me in public." I feel her body shift as she does her best to rotate in my arms, and I lessen my grip slightly to make it easier for her. Her face is mere inches from mine, and I can''t help it as my eyes dart down to her slightly parted lips before looking back into her gaze.


    "There is very much a difference," she says, as she leans in for a kiss. A moment before our lips meet, I turn my head to the ceiling, causing her to kiss my cheek, while I give a look of faux consideration. "Hmmmm," I say, as she struggles to reach my lips with hers. I let it go on for a moment longer, before turning to let her have what she wants. "You''re a bit of a conundrum, you know," I say, as we break for air. "What do you mean?" she asks, her expression quizzical. "You''re the sort of woman that can beat me to an inch of my life, and yet, you''re flustered by a bit of PDA?" I say, grinning. Her cheeks turns red at the memory, and she hides her face in the crook of my neck. "I''m sorry about that," she says, muttering. I give her a kiss on the top of her hair, repeating a meme in English. "I love the kind of woman that will actually just kill me," I say, before following up in Origin, "it''s fine, it''s not a big deal. I just like to tease." As I say this, my fingers trail down her back, slipping under her shirt, causing a quiet intake of breath.


    "Anyways, you''re right, we probably can take tomorrow off," I say, removing my hand from her bare skin. I feel her lips frown against my neck, and I can''t help but grin. "It would be a great opportunity to go see a priest, sort out the whole ''talking to the Unum'' thing," I think, as I adjust myself for sleep. "Tease," says Ko-lee, before she too, makes her own adjustments. I feel my breath start to slow, as my mind fragments into sleep, and as I drift off, I begin to feel that same something I had felt nights before. My eyes gently flick open, and I scan the room, doing my best to stay utterly still in the darkness. "Well well well," I think to myself, seeing nothing of note. "If it isn''t the invisible cunt." My eyes continue to dart around the room, as I look for anything out of note, but like last time, there''s nothing to see. Still, my eyes stay open as long as possible, until finally, exhaustion forces them shut.

 Adherent

    The next morning, I wake up to an empty bed. "Damn Ko-lee, you didn''t wanna sleep in and cuddle on our first day off? Big sad," I think as I stare at the ceiling. She always gets up earlier than I do, but I always feel a bit disappointed anyways to face the morning alone. I roll over to the edge of the bed, swinging my feet around and bringing myself to a seated position, before taking a deep breath. "I miss caffeine," I think. "And nicotine. And methylphenidate." I sit on the edge on the mattress, feeling my brain and body slowly come to terms with consciousness over the course of about half a minute, before I start to move. I reach into the drawer, and dig through the few outfits inside, looking for something to wear. While all of the outfits are clean, due to the fact that I''ve worn most of them during work, they are nearly all stained to some degree or another, and it takes me a moment to find the one clean outfit I''ve yet to wear in the tower. "My Sunday best," I think, while looking at the cloth. The tones are subtle, but warm, and the lack of rust colored kuva stains makes it perfect for a meeting with a religious figure.


    I get dressed, and head down the hall, meeting Heya at reception. "Morning Heya," I say, doing my best to avoid yawning as I do so. Her focus shifts from the project in her lap; something that looks vaguely like hand crocheting, but with adornments woven in. "I have a quick question for you. I''m looking to talk to a preist," I say, making my way to the front of the reception desk. "For the Unum, I''m assuming. What for?" she asks, setting her project down on the shelf at her knees. "That''s a long story," I lie. "But Konzu recommended it to me." Her eyebrows raise at the name drop. "Konzu? The one in the Conclave?" she asks, and I give her a quick nod. "Well don''t you end up in the most interesting situations," she says, her demeanor cheerful as usual. "Haha, yea..." I say, before continuing. "Anyways, I''ve been putting it off, and I have no idea how to get in touch with anyone of the... uhm... faith. I don''t know if it has an official name," I say, ending with a shrug.


    She gives a gentle shake of her head, her voice light. "There''s no formalized name for those who worship the Unum. Those who do are often called adherents, but as a whole..." she gives a wiggle of her hand. "Got it," I say. "I''ve talked to the Vox, obviously, but other than that... I wasn''t sure if there was a church, or some place to go to or something along those lines." "There is!" she says brightly. "It''s quite beautiful. I don''t follow the faith all that strongly, but I''ve been to the church a few times. Most who work or live within her do the same." She reaches her hand out, and I pass her my badge, so that she can mark out the path for me. A few moments later, and she hands it back, and I give her a big smile. "Thanks so much!" I say, as I head out the front door. I take a look at the map, memorizing the first few turns, before setting it in my pocket and heading off.


    <hr>


    Roughly 25 minutes later, I arrive on a higher floor that is almost entirely unoccupied. The few I do see are wearing what could be best described as parts of the Unum herself; gold from her bones as jewelry, Unum shell cut into hexagonal tiles and layered on top of each other to form arm braces and shoulder adornments. The various bits of cloth I see are white, reds, and yellows, in clear mimicry of the color scheme of the tower. Many of the outfits and accessories have a homemade feel to them; dulled colors or awkward cuts give them a less than professional feeling. Some of the outfits, however, are the opposite, with sharply edged accessories, and perfectly pressed and cleaned outfits that nearly sparkle in the warm lighting. Very occasionally, in contrast to the first two, I also spot people who stand out wildly. "Tourists," I think, as I look at those in extremely varied outfits; some recognizable, some not.


    "I wonder what camp other people think I fall into," I muse, as I continue to follow the directions on my badge. It''s only a minute more before I pass through a pair of doors into what is very clearly a church. "Holy crap," I think, as I take in the space around me. "Was it always like this? Or did they have to zhuzh it up I wonder. ''cause this is a church T M. On god I think the Catholics might sue." The space is long and tall, and rather than go for the maximalist approach of something like St Peter¡¯s Basilica, the design is simple, leaning more into the interplay of light and shadow on the subtly textured white walls. The light sources are bright and directed, coming not from the sun, but instead from a frankly excessive number of fixtures dotted about the place. Many of the lights shine onto the exposed gold around the room, every surface polished to an intense shine.


    Eventually I notice signage on the walls, carved in such a way that the text only appears as I make my way deeper into the space. "By her will she protects, by her flesh she provides," states one. "Through her blood she sees, of our blood she knows," says another. Then, finally, what appears to be an extensive description of who the Unum is and how she came to be, albeit in flowery language. "Wait," I think, as my eyes scan the text. "Isn''t this the lore? The in-game lore about Gara?" I''m unable to remember the specifics, as she''s not a frame I owned, but enough wiki diving had let me piece together bits of the story. "If I recall correctly, it was like... one, the Unum comes down from space to ice a Sentient, and then something something she needs help maybe? And then Gara nukes the Sentient and herself and now we have Eidolon''s on the plains," I think. From a quick glance of the story being presented in front of me, it seems nearly identical, bar a few inconsequential details.


    "So Gara wasn''t a protector, at least according to this. She was like... the hand of the Unum. And she exploded due to being powered up by the Unum. Hmmm... I wish I knew how much of this was true, and how much is propaganda," I think, my eyes scanning the text. Beyond the story of the Unum arriving, there''s also an explanation for why she only disables and protects, rather than attacking those like the Grineer directly. "You''re kidding me, she goes by Batman rules? That''s pretty god damn stupid. ''Oh I could totally use my super powered laser to wipe out the Grineer, I just don''t because murder bad.'' Please. If I had to guess, she''s probably stuck here, and straight up doesn''t have a weapon because why would the Orokin give their skyscrapers a gun?" I can''t help but chuckle at the thought, before a frown crosses my face. "Also not a big fan of all the ''Oooh, Golden Lords are da best'' type shit I''m reading everywhere."


    "I don''t care if they created the Unum, do not worship the space bourgeoisie," I think, a frown on my face. "You seem troubled," says a voice to my right, and I quickly rearrange my expression to one of frustration rather than disgust. "Oh, I''m just... a bit upset at the idea that she could kill the Grineer, but she chooses not to," I say, getting a look at the man. "Ding ding ding, that''s a priest," I think, looking at the man''s stark white outfit, and shaped gold accessories laying across his face. "She is judge and jury, but she is not an executioner. There is plenty of death in the system, and she is powerful enough to keep us safe without."


    "Now, is there anything I can help you with?" asks the man, and I''m suddenly reminded of what it is I''m actually doing here. "Oh, right. Uhm, so... my name is Antimony and I... well... this is sort of silly..." I say, trailing off. I''m unsure of how specifically I want to explain the the situation to the man, since I barely buy into the theory myself. The priest nods his head in understanding, his hand gesturing towards the benches. "How about we sit," he says, and I make my way over to the hard wooden surface. My eyes roam the room, occasionally glancing at the abstract gold and white art dotted about the place. The priest catches my wandering eyes, and speaks up. "We don''t need iconography," he says, and I give him a glance of confusion. "We need no pictures, no representation of the one we worship," he says, a look of contentment on his face. "She''s here. On Earth. With us. She''s in us, as we are in her. Our art isn''t meant to capture her, but instead meant to capture her light, the life that she brings to the Ostron people."


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    "Mom would love this place," I think. "Neat. Anyways," I say, doing my best to switch the topic of discussion, "do you know Konzu?" My hopeful appeal to authority is dashed when he shakes his head no, but I forge on anways. "Oh, well, he''s a member of the Conclave. He... when I was in Cetus, he was talking to me, or rather, he wasn''t talking to me, and then I explained to him I was hearing a faint woman''s voice and-" The priest cuts me off with a wave of his hand, his content expression all but gone. "Are you trying to tell me you''re hearing the voice of the Unum?" I nod my head and he gives a subtle scoff. "I''m sorry, but if I may be so blunt, you''re not of Ostron descent." There''s no question in his words; he''s stating a fact. I shake my head and start to speak, but I barely manage a phoneme before he talks over me. "Many people come from off-world to request an audience with the Unum, to hear her speak. Her words are prophetic; this is known across the system. It is not often that she chooses to speak to those outside of her chambers, and it is... very unlikely that would speak to you, an outsider. Specifically."


    His expression holds derision, and I try to placate him, saying, "I know it sounds absurd, but-" He cuts me off again. "However!" he states, a smarmy grin forming on his face, "We can never truly rule out the desires of the Unum, not without asking her directly. We would need to make our way to her chambers, and there we could clear up this... misunderstanding." He stands, and I follow, unsure about his behavior, but unwilling to look a gift horse in the mouth. He takes a single step, before turning, faux disappointment on his face. "Ah, what am I thinking," he says in Ostron, a hand on his forehead, before following up in Origin. "I forgot, there''s a process! Many in line in front of you, as I''m sure you can imagine-" but I take the opportunity to return his medicine. "Sure, whatever. Put me in line," I say, and at this, the priest''s expression drops slightly.


    "What, did you think I was gonna make a big ol'' stink about it because ''O M G I''m so special fast track me?'' I could honestly care less man," I think, doing my best to hide my satisfaction at his disappointment. "Ah. Well, the application process may take quite a while-" says the priest, before I cut him off again. "That''s fine, I''m in no rush. I''m a skinner, I''m not going anywhere. Just hand me the forms or whatever," I say, slightly failing to hide my satisfaction at the second rug pull. His eyes narrow, and he takes a moment, before following up, "And I''m sure you''re fine with the fee as well, then?" I had already begun opening my mouth to interrupt him a third time in a row before his words reach my brain. "A fee?" I ask dumbly, and his smug grin starts to return. "Of course! It helps support not only us adherents, but also helps support Cetus as a whole! You don''t have an issue with that, do you?" I grit my teeth for a moment, before placing on my best ''dealing with the general public'' mask.


    "Of course not! The well being of the Ostron people is so important to me. Ah, but... I''m actually low on cash right now. I work within her, harvesting her sacred flesh, but unfortunately I do not have the money for a fee. I am more than willing to pay, I just wonder if maybe we could... defer the payment? Until the day of the meeting, if at all possible?" I flash my pearly whites at him, smiling as fake earnestly as I can, and I can see him briefly hesitate as he considers the idea. "FUCKIN'' GOT YOU," I think to myself. "Chink in the armor with that ''sacred flesh'' bit! There''s no way he won''t bite. I mean, I still don''t have the money, nor do I wanna pay his bullshit fee, but if I can get out of here, wallet intact, I''ll take the win." "It''s... not standard... but I think we can manage something like that," says the priest, making a note on some sort of device. It looks similar to a skinner''s badge, but it''s white instead of gray, with slight gold insets decorating the sides.


    "So, once your application is processed, the Unum will choose whether or not she wants an audience with you. Which, if your story is true, should be no issue. I will note that, even is she is to deny your application, you will still need to pay the fee," says the priest. "But of course," I say, with my most plastic smile. "At the end of the day, this money gets put into the hands of those who need it the most, right?" There''s the briefest of hesitations as the priest nods, and I continue, "then start handing me forms, I''d love to get started." He brings me over to a desk tucked away in the corner, and passes me what is effectively a holographic tablet, identical to the one I had used when filling out forms for Aley. "This is so fucking bullshit," I think to myself, as I scroll down the page. "What is this ''pre-approved to see the Unum'' type shit she''s playing at? I''m sleeping in her goddamn liver, why won''t she just say something?"


    My eyes pass over the amount for the fee, and I choke slightly at the number. "Is there an issue?" asks the priest, and I quickly try to pull myself together before speaking. "Nope, no worries! Just... clearing my throat." "I''m sorry, fucking how much? I need to pay 1 point 5 MILLION credits just to go stand in her special room!? Grow a goddamn speaker in my bedroom! For fucks sake," I think, as my eyes scan the nightmarish mix between scripture and legalese. "How am I even going to make a fee like that?" I briefly consider asking the priest if there''s any way to lower the fee or get some sort of discount, but one look at his self satisfied grin removes that option from my mind. "I should talk to Jae, honestly. I bet he would know. Worse comes to worse, I''ll just tell them day of that I don''t have that sort of money. If they turn me away at the door, well boo fucking hoo for the Unum again. She''s side quest material at best."


    "Like, I do want to know what she wants, but I don''t want to know a million credits badly. If it''s time sensitive, then she''d be more active about it. The fact that I didn''t have a priest drag me to see her the day I walked through the Great Doors shows that it can''t really be all that important," I muse, as I finish up the form. "So..." I say to the priest, handing him back the device. "One point five million for the fee, huh?" His smug grin grows wider before he opens his mouth. "Like I said before, her words are prophetic. The Golden Lords may have created many towers, but the Unum is the last standing. She has something everyone wants, but few will ever get. That being said, if the fee is too much for you, I can toss your application right now. I''m aware you''re working on a skinner''s budget," he says, fake sympathy in his eyes. "I know where you can put that application," I think, before giving him a placating gesture.


    "Please, keep the application. Run it through the process. It''s clear that the Unum desires to see me, as per her whispered words in the market. If it truly is her desire, well then, money is no object," I say, piety in my eyes. "All that church camp practice paying off." The priest gives me a bow, before placing the device on his desk in a pile of what looks like a hundred others. "By her will," he says, and I give him one in return. "By her will," I say, before turning to head out the front doors. "Besides, if I had that kind of money," I think, as I exit the church and head to the nearest lift, "there''s something else I''d much rather spend it on."

 Modules 101

    "Fuck that guy," I think, as I head out the doors towards the lift. "I refuse to believe that the Unum is literally sooo busy that we couldn''t just pop our head in for a second. Like, ''hey, did you need me? Was that your voice I heard in Cetus? No? It was some other powerful entity and or I''m just going insane? Coool, cool cool cool no big.'' And then I dip. Fucking 1 point 5 mil my ass." I''m doing my best to keep my expression level, but I''m ramping myself up the more I think about it. My fingernails dig into my palms, and I keep needing to force my shoulders to relax as they tense up. "I''m not saying I fuckin'' wanted a palm reading or whatever. I literally just wanted to see if she was trying to slide into the DM''s, but Pastor Jackoff is on a god damn power trip. The only reason I was even there was because Konzu said I needed to, but then he didn''t say shit about the fat fuckin'' fee, so fuck knows what his plan was when I rolled up with four nickels and a piece of lint."


    As I make my way into the lift and descend to Jae''s floor, I do my best to push the entire event into the back of my mind, but I can still feel the sharp bite of anger tickling the edges of my thoughts. "Whatever. I don''t care," I lie to myself. "And I''ll keep saying it until it''s true." I leave the room with the lift and find myself on Jae''s floor, but instead of heading towards his hotel, I browse the various goods on display in what local''s referred to as the ''lower market''. The first floor, I had eventually learned from Jae, is mostly goods and services aimed towards tourists, new skinners, and those who don''t know any better. But one floor down is a market for those who spent either most or all of their time within the Unum.


    Unlike the one above, nearly every place down here requires a badge, even things that don''t generally require it, such as a bar. Having someone who can vouch for you helps as well. I''m told it helps prevent offworlders and tourists who are looking for a more "authentic experience" from trickling down into the space. Unlike the market in Cetus, however, the scope of goods and services is drastically less varied, instead being focused towards those living within the Unum; not just skinners, but also adherents, operations, business owners, and general workers. As well, goods harvested within the Unum generally pass through this space first, before making their way out of the tower; Orokin era technology such as energy cells, high capacity wiring, and most importantly for me, modules.


    "Apparently there''s just so many hidden passages and offshoot rooms and inaccessible paths that they keep finding crap. Not like... a lot, but occasionally," I muse, as I make my way down the open hallway. "If I didn''t know any better, I would assume that the Unum was just making stuff for people to find, but apparently she can''t do that. Her source is ''trust me, bro''. In any case, from my understanding, goods can often stick around in the lower market for quite a while before making their way out into Cetus proper, so if I''m lucky I can find a mod in my price range. Or more realistically, I''ll just get a vague idea of how much a non flawed mod will cost. But also also, if I can find someone selling a mod, there''s a good chance I can have them give me a rundown on how exactly you have a gun shoot faster, or fire more bullet per bullet, or any of the other magic crap that mods do in the game. I doubt I''d ever be able to make a mod of my own either, but mayhaps..."


    <hr>


    It takes me nearly 20 minutes before I break down and ask someone for directions, and eventually I''m directed to the place I''m stood in front of. It has the look of nearly every other shop that does not contain an open storefront, which is to say, it''s a single, unadorned door with a sign. "At least this sign says MODS," I think, before opening the door. "Hey there!" says the man at counter at the back of the store. His smooth baritone voice bounces off the walls as I fully enter the space. His long, dirty blonde hair is tied back, and there are a number of partially obscured tattoos peeking out of his collar, as well as trailing down his arms past his rolled up sleeves. "Oh! Hey," I say, as I approach the counter. "I heard you are the one to talk to if I was looking into getting some mods. Or... a mod, more realistically." The man nods his head, pushing some sort of digital device to the side.


    "Well, you weren''t led astray then. I''m Kot. What can I do you for?" says the man, placing his hands on the counter in front of him. I scan the shop, but oddly, I don''t notice any mods on display. Instead, the few shelves in the store contain weapon parts, all meticulously labeled and organized. My confusion must be apparent on my face, because after only a moment of scanning, Kot pipes up. "Is there... something you''re looking for in particular?" I look back at him, giving him a so-so hand wiggle. "I guess I''m just interested in learning about mods as a whole. I think I know what they do and how they work, at a real high level, but I wanted to know a bit more about the details. And price one out, if possible," I respond. "For example, what can and can''t they do? What can and can''t they be put on? I have a handgun I want to put some onto, but what are the limits? That sort of thing." Kot nods, and says, "Well, let me pull one out for you, and we''ll go over it."


    "I''m an M R zero baby all over again," I think, as Kot disappears into the back. "All this stuff has numbers in the game, but I don''t know how things like ''capacity'' and ''mod slots'' and what not actually work in real life." It only takes a moment before he reappears, holding in his hand an inflated disc shaped piece of tech. He sets it on the table in front of us, and it takes all of my willpower to not immediately pick it up and start messing with it. "So, this right here is what might be considered a basic module. Actually, that''s not entirely true. This one''s called Primed Slip Magazine, and it''s a high end module. Orokin made. But it''s basic in functionality." I nod my head while looking over the mod. "Increases magazine capacity, I think," I mutter to myself, trying to recall what I can from the game of the pistol exclusive mods.


    "That''s... yeah, that''s right. I thought you didn''t know how they worked?" Kot asks, confusion clear on his face. "Oh, uhm... I don''t, but I did a bit of research? But it''s not... you''re the expert, sorry. I''ll... keep my mouth shut, don''t mind me," I stammer out, realizing I let slip what was meant to be a thought. His expression is affable as he waves off the faux pas. "No, don''t worry about it. But you''re right. Slip Magazine increases the magazine capacity. Do you know how many rounds your gun has?" he asks, and my mind replays the killing of the Grineer soldier. I don''t outwardly react though, as by this point I''ve more or less comes to terms with the killing, but the memory is still the first to come to mind when thinking about the bulbous green weapon. "Fourteen," I say, and Kot nods his head. "So that means that if you were to apply this module, your gun would have 21 shots. It''s a 50% increase."


    Something about the number twigs me as incorrect, but I''m unsure of what exactly it is. Instead, I push it to the back of my mind to ask Kot the much more pressing question. "But how?" Kot gives me an excited smile. "That''s the genius of a module. What the Golden Lords did, the specifics of their artistry... not even the Corpus can perfectly recreate what they accomplished. And me... well, I''m no module maker, so what I''m giving you is really just a broad overview. If you want specifics, you''ll have to talk to someone in synthfabrics," he says. "So, modules. Inside of them is a mix of a sort of plasma, a goo that can contain memories." His specific wording nearly causes my eyebrows to jump off my face. "HOL UP. Is he saying that modules contain Aya? Which... it''s space magic bullshit but, Orokin memory plasma? That''s the flavor text for the blue goop you trade to Varzia or whatever her name is at Maroo''s bazaar. That''s... not canon I don''t think?"


    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    The logic tracks to an extent, but the claim is so wild that I have an urge to fact check the man. Unfortunately, my phone is long gone and the wiki inaccessible, so I simply nod my head at the explanation. "Memory goo, alright, I guess I''m following," I say, as I internalize the information. He gives me a nod, before continuing. "So, this plasma is fueled by an energy. These balls of energy are referred to as endo," he says, pulling out a ball from the mod nearly identical to the model from the games, minus the glow. He hands it to me, and I roll it in my hands, surprised at the robustness of it. "I don''t know why I thought it''d be fragile glass," I think, looking at the gold inlaid object. "Now, to be clear, this is really just spent endo, sometimes referred to as an endo casing. True endo contains an energy inside it, what looks a bit like trapped lightning. That energy is used to power the plasma mix, and it''s what brings those memories to life," says Kot, as I hand him back the ball.


    I take a moment to chew on his words before speaking. "So... okay. Endo is an energy, and that energy powers a plasma, and that plasma has memories, and the memories are... whatever the mod does? So, if the plasma had a bunch of memories of say... fire and heat, would the bullets start setting things on fire?" I ask. "I mean, sort of?" he says, giving me a so-so head gesture. "They wouldn''t become little fireballs, if that''s what you''re asking, but you might be able to apply the effects of elemental heat to someone." His words hit me like bricks. "Sorry, elemental heat? What... what?" I''m unable to form a more coherent question, and the man just grins. "Yea, this knowledge is a bit lost to the average person. If you were a monk, or module maker, or worked with the Tenno, you''d probably know this. So, the world has forces inherent to it''s underlying structure. Heat, Cold, things like that."


    "Generally, you hear more about them in regards to mods, as they would apply the force of that element directly. So the memory would have to be about the elemental forces, I''d imagine, not just hot things, and... well, like I said, I''m not a module maker. I don''t really know how you go about getting something like that," he says with a shrug. "Like I said, you''ll have to talk to the Corpus." It takes me a moment to connect his previous reference of "synthfabrics" before I realize what he''s saying. "Wait, the Corpus make mods?" I ask. "I mean, that makes a lot of sense though. They''re probably the only ones with the gear to make mods, assuming it''s big tricky. And all the not prime mods have to come from somewhere. Okay okay, following," I think, feeling new neural connections form from the information.


    "Supposedly, the Grineer make mods too, but I''ve not had a chance to have a conversation with one of those tuberats, so," he says, his affable expression momentarily shifting into a grimace. "Well, I fuckin'' hate that idea," I think, shuddering briefly. "Well, okay. I have a million more questions, I think, but I''d love to know how much a mod like this costs," I say, pointing at the metal disc between us. "Well," he says, scratching his chin, "it''s not cheap, I''ll tell you that much. The Corpus made version of this is pretty standard, but any Orokin tech is going to fetch a chit or two. Also, I''ve charged this one up with endo, which... is not a cheap process. I''m not entirely sure, but I''d imagine I''ve nearly maxed it out, so if I had to put a number on it... three hundred, fifty thousand? Somewhere thereabouts," he says, with a non committal shrug.


    "Oh, is that all?" I say cheekily, shaking my head at the absurd number. He chuckles, before explaining, "I''ve only ever had two primed mods cross my desk. This one, and another one. They don''t really sell, and so I''ve had this one in the back for quite a while. The Unum is nearly fully explored, so primed mods are hard to come by." A quick number crunch on the week and a half of work for seven silver (not including rent and food) make it eminently clear that I''m not earning my way to a primed mod anytime soon. "I''m assuming you have non primed mods then? Otherwise you might want to remove the S from your sign out front," I say, giving the man a grin. He nods, the mirth evident on his face, as he grabs the primed mod from off the counter.


    "Yea, a few mods make their way from Cetus down here. It''s pretty rare; this shop is more focused on weapon repairs and the like. But I do have a few, if you''d like to check them out," he says, as he starts to turn to head into the back. "Well, before you grab anything, can I get a rough range on the cost of a non primed mod?" I ask. "Somewhere between 20 to 70 thousand? Generally below a hundred, and above ten," he says, causing me to wince. "Damn, even then... I don''t have that sort of money, and I doubt I will for a while," I say, feeling bummed at the financial reality before me. "I hate to pile it on, but you''ll also need to account for endo. The stuff is expensive on it''s own, and an unleveled mod barely makes an impact," he says, looking sympathetic.


    "Oh, right," I say, mentally adjusting my timeline from "never getting a mod" to "fucking never ever getting a mod". "Where would I even find endo?" I ask, the image of the gold inlaid spheres popping out of the corpses of the Grineer as I shot them. "You''d have to buy it," says Kot. "Obviously you can buy it from the Corpus, but I think the Tenno are technically the ones who make it. Or farm it. However that works." I nod my head, feeling certain of his theory. "Assuming endo is just void stuff, it would make sense that it was coming from the Tenno, since they''ve got access to it with their frames, and also probably with void keys and what not. I mean, that''s definitely not how it worked in the game, but it makes a certain sort of sense, I guess." He gives a me a look of pity, before continuing, "but to fill a small mod, well, you''re looking at a hundred thousand credits, on the low end." It''s clear he doesn''t enjoy being the bearer of bad news.


    "Well, that is a bit of a bummer to learn, but thank you for the lesson, Kot," I say to the man, leaning back from the counter. "Of course! I don''t often get customers; there''s not a lot of need for weapons for those within the Unum or her protection," he says, glancing around the empty store. "Yea, I can see that. In any case, you''ve been a big help. If I manage to scrounge up the credits, I''ll come to you first," I say, giving the man a big smile. He chuckles and waves me off, and it''s only a few moments later that I find myself back in the hallway outside of the store. "That''s kind of a bummer," I think, running over the numbers in my mind. "Short of selling our own stuff, we''re never really going to be making more than three stack a day, after paying for rent and food and whatnot. Even for the cheapest mod, I''d need to be working for months and months to get it up to snuff. A full set of eight for even a single weapon, assuming it''s the same rules as in the game, would basically take me the rest of my life on skinner wages!"


    I start wandering the hall, my nose pulling me in the direction of food, while I consider alternatives. "I mean... fuck a big box. I have no issue with klepping some shit from the Corpus, I just don''t really know how I''d be able to pull something like that off. It''s sort of a catch-22; I wouldn''t really feel comfortable robbing them unless I had the gear to back me up, but I won''t have that gear until I use my five finger discount." The situation is at a gridlock, and I can''t help but sigh, getting a look from a passerby. "I guess I''d just need to take that risk. I should talk to Ko-lee about it, see if it''s the sort of thing she''d be comfortable with." I find myself in a restaurant I''ve not been in before, and I flash them my badge before finding a spot to sit. "I would hope that''d she''d be cool about it, but it''s not really something that''s come up. I have no idea how she''d feel about it."


    I''m so distracted by the problem that I almost don''t notice the waiter, and I give them my order before turning back to my thoughts. "Ultimately, it wouldn''t really matter until we could find our way off planet. Although the more time I spend here, the less I think my original plan of ''get a spaceship and fiddlefart around the system'' is tenable. Not unless me and Ko-lee wanna pull a Maroo and turn into super thieves. Which, preferably, I''d like to avoid. If it weren''t for the Tenno, that shit would''ve gone sideways for her, and there''s no guarantee we''ll have our asses pulled out of the fire, Tenno ex machina style. Maybe we can be void explorers or something, there''s gotta be good money in that..." My food arrives what feels like moments later, but I continue thinking about plans for the rest of the day.

 Mysterious Backstory

    "All I''m saying is you were awful a month ago," says Jae, drink in hand. Ko-lee and I are with him at The Drop, and I noncommittally wave his comment away. "Who''s good when they first start, really?" I ask, taking a sip of my drink. "Ko-lee was pretty good," says Jae, causing Ko-lee to snort. "Well, okay, but at least I learned!" I say, doing my best to recover what little ego I have left. "Oh, I know," says Jae, the rare hint of a smile on his face. "I was the one walking you through every damn step." I chuckle into my drink, the color on my cheeks just as much from the friendly ribbing as it is from the alcohol. "Yea, well, I''m not nearly as bad as Jakom," I say, causing Ko-lee to perk up from her relaxed position. "Ohh? I don''t think I''ve heard this one? Who''s Jakom?" she asks, her face as flushed as mine.


    "Just one of the strays Jae recruited," I say, before Jae raises his eyebrow at me. "Says the stray." I do my best to ignore his comment though, bulldozing on. "Anyways... so, this was a bit before he got anything down on paper. Jae was still in the ''feel it out'' stage with the kid, trying to figure out if it was profitable to sign him on, whether he could be taught, that sort of thing. This kid, a day after Jae tells him that he''s working too slow, and he''d struggle to break even, well he comes into work, and guess what he has on them?" There''s no guess from my audience of one, since Jae already knows the story, but I let it hang in the air for a moment before continuing. "Something like FIFTY block of explosives! He was strapped, let me tell you. Apparently, this kid spent every penny he had on mining charges, thinking that he could just start blowing holes in the tunnel instead of cutting! I''ve never seen Jae make an expression like that before!"


    The mixture of the alcohol, and the mental image of the novice miner strapped down with a weeks worth of mining charges has me laughing too hard to fully explain it. I only manage to get a couple words out before I begin laughing again, and the laughter is infectious; Ko-lee has tears streaming down her cheeks, her drink sloshing as she watches me fail to finish the story. Jae, on the other hand, quietly exhales air out his nose, which is effectively the same thing. "Anyways," I say, managing to pull myself together for a moment, "the Vox found out, and his badge got stripped. So, yea, I haven''t seen him around since." Ko-lee just gives me a knowing grin, bumping into me with her shoulder, before ultimately resting there. "Oh, I bet Aley loved that one," she says, finishing off her drink. The corners of her mouth turn down slightly as she examines the bottom of the now empty cup, but it quickly rebounds back into a grin.


    "Yeah, I can only imagine her expression seeing that form come across her desk. Apparently, he prepaid his room for a week, as well, so Heya didn''t seem too torn up about him leaving." My voice turns scratchy, and I give what I know is a poor impression of the jovial old proprietor. "Ohhhhh, it''s just too much hard work for some people. He should have a better time dirt side." Jae gives another nose exhalation, and I nudge Ko-lee. "But seriously, that means that there''s another room open. Are you sure you don''t want to crash somewhere else? I won''t hold it against you. The room is small," I say, looking down at my girlfriend. She just leans her head against my shoulder, before turning to both dismiss my question and nuzzle into me with a single motion. "No," she mutters into the cloth on my shoulder. "I don''t mind cuddling."


    I kiss the top of her head, giving a small chuckle. "Oh, just cuddling huh? Nothing else?" I ask, lowering the register of my voice so that my chest rumbles under her head. "Oookay, I think it''s time for me to head off," says Jae, as he starts to stand up from the table. "As the boss, I don''t want to have an issue with HR." I quirk my eyebrow at him. "We don''t have an HR." "Yeah, and now my employees are shacking up together," he says in a dry monotone. "Maybe I should look into some." I give him a grin and a raise of my mug. "I''ll see you tomorrow. And Jae?" I say, catching him right before he turns to leave. His eyes lock with mine, and I do my best to school my expression, trying to impress upon him how genuine I feel. "Seriously, I can''t thank you enough for signing us on." He pauses for a moment, a brief hesitation in his movements, his mouth slightly open as though preparing to say something, but eventually he just closes his mouth and gives me one solid, slow nod. I return the motion, and watch him make his way out of the bar, leaving me with Ko-lee.


    As he leaves the bar, I down the last mouthful of alcohol in my mug, before bringing it down on the table and glancing at Ko-lee. She''s just staring at me, a vulpine look in her eyes. "Spot something interesting?" I say, a smirk on my face. She just grins right back. "Just admiring my handiwork," she says, her eyes running up and down my exposed arms. Over the last month, some actual muscle definition has started forming on my arms, something which I was inordinately pleased about. I had never had what could be considered muscle by any means; my entire family struggled with weight, and even as a kid I was a bit round shaped. Now, most people would give an odd look if someone tried to describe me as "soft". To be fair, I still had more body fat than the average Cetisian citizen, but the high protein diet mixed with daily heavy labor was really conducive in shedding pounds.


    "Though the lack of variety is getting stale. Meat, meat, and more meat, with a handful of seaweed if I''m lucky. I''d kill for a Jamba Juice," I think. "Oh, I''m sorry, your handiwork?" I respond to Ko-lee, giving her a look of faux surprise. "That''s crazy, actually. I thought I was the one who was putting in the hours. At best, you''re the overseer." Our close proximity day in and day out has caused Ko-lee to start to learn some of my idiosyncrasies, such as my humor, and so she''s quick to follow up on the bit. "Oh, management material?" she says, pretending to look thoughtful. "Oh, definitely. Don''t worry, I won''t let Jae know you''re gunning for his position," I say, a conspiratorial edge to my words. "Wellll... if you take it slow and steady, and I''m impressed with you, I might just give you a promotion," she says, putting on imperious airs. "Take it off," I mutter, the words slipping out of my mouth in English, as I''m reminded of the song by FISHER.


    She gives me something half way between a frustrated huff and a resolved sigh. "You know I don''t know what you''re saying," she says, rolling her eyes at me. I open my mouth, the familiar retort on the tip of my tongue, but the words die before leaving my throat. "Tell her," is the only thing that flashes through my mind. "You know," I say, lifting her up off my chest, "you''re right. You don''t know. And that''s on me for not telling you." My impromptu speech has caught her attention, and even through the haze of alcohol, I can see her familiar intense focus, her gaze locked on mine. "How about tonight, I tell you everything." Her breath catches, her eyes widen, but she says nothing at my declaration, instead just nodding her head. I stand up, a soft smile on my face, and hold out my hand, pulling her to her feet. She pops up easily, but I don''t let go of her hand, and we make our way out of the bar, heading back towards our room.


    In both an hour and mere moments, Ko-lee and I are back in our room at Goldstone, both sat on the bed facing one another, her excitement bubbling to the surface. "Though, it''s been bubbling this whole time. Which, my B. I''ve been playing my cards close to my chest. God I hope this goes well," I think, taking a deep breath. I raise both my hands in a placating gesture, my smile long having been erased from my face from the walk over. "I understand you''re excited Ko-lee, but please, I want... I''m going to tell you, but please try to take it seriously. I... don''t think you''re gonna like this story," I say, trying my best to tamper her expectations. It works, sort of, as her excitement dims, but it''s quickly replaced by confusion. "Wait, I won''t like it? Why?" I can see dark thoughts cross her mind, and I''m quick to try to cut them off at the source.


    "Not you, specifically Ko-lee. Just... anyone I''d tell this story to. I think it''d upset anyone," I say, before taking one more deep breath to steel my nerves. "So.. uhm. Context, I guess. You... know what a video game is, correct?" She''s momentarily taken aback by how I choose to start, and she gives me a so-so hand wiggle, a confused look in her eyes. "I''ve never played one, but I know what they are." I nod my head before continuing. "So, I don''t know what games are like here, but you get the general idea. Things meant for entertainment. Digital. That sort of thing. Back home I used to play this one game a lot. It was made by... uhm... I guess that''s not really relevant, in any case. But yeah, they made this multiplayer game, one that anyone could connect to from around the world. And it had been around for a long time. It was... or, I guess, it is a live service game. That just means that they would keep changing the game. They''d add new stuff, tweak old things, so on."


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    I can tell my explanation is leaving Ko-lee confused, but to her credit, she is completely silent while the words tumble out of my mouth. "So, yeah, a lot of stuff has happened in that game over the... I think 13 years? That the game has been around. It started out as this slower paced science fiction game set in space. You''d fight these factions of enemies, and it was pretty simple, but, over time, the main characters got more elaborate, and the abilities got flashier. They started moving faster, killing faster... the term is called scope creep." The words are flowing faster now, as though I need to say everything simultaneously, all at once. I need her to know all of it, all at the same time, and all I can do is transmit it through this limited, audible medium. Still, I press on, doing my best to get the words out as coherently as possible.


    "So, anyways, the characters of this game started to become a bit like superheroes, the way they could jump around killing whole swaths of enemies in minutes. I got really into the power fantasy, and then they started coming out with all these updates that had this really cool story. It explained how you weren''t these people in suits, but instead you were mentally controlling them because you were a traumatized kid from an accident like ten thousand years ago and you were conscripted into the military and then you got magic powers from a deal you made and you''re going all over the solar system from Venus to Mars and Earth and you pull the moon out of the Void and you fight in a New War, like it was literally called New War and..." I can feel my throat tightening up, the silence in the room deafening.


    Ko-lee has the patience of a saint though, and she just waits for the final, vital part of the puzzle she''s aware she''s missing. It''s nearly a full minute before I''m able to speak the words. "That game that I played, in my hometown on Earth is called... Warframe." I see a multitude of expressions flash across Ko-lee''s face, too quick for me to parse, but they settle on what is clearly denial. "So... you played a game about the Tenno, somewhere else on Earth? That''s not much of a story," she says, her tone flat. "Right, so, let me tell you a bit about Earth. My Earth," I say, once again catching her attention. "I lived in a city called Beaverton, just off a river. For reference, a beaver is a small animal that dams up rivers, I don''t think you have them. I lived a few miles from a city called Portland. That''s port and land in Origin, very creative, I know. Portland is a city of bridges and skyscrapers, cubic structures of stone and glass, for living and working. Nothing all that impressive, mind you, only 500 feet tall or so, but they''re packed tightly together."


    "If you were to drive the miles of roads - paved smooth so that we can drive a days journey of walking in 20 minutes - to get from there to where I lived, it becomes what is called ''suburban''. That means less people, somewhere around only 80 thousand. A drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of the 8 billion people on the planet." I watch her expression oscillate between confusion and disbelief, with a tinge of fear running through it all. "I worked as a security guard," I continue. "Basically, I checked people''s identification as they came in to a place of research. It was a very relaxed job. One day, after finishing that job, I drove home, and had a few drinks, planning on opening up my favorite game, Warframe. You see, there was an event going on at the time, called Dog Days, where Kela de Thaym got really high from a gas leak, and all the Tenno played water gun battles with her executioners. Each time you ran that mission, you''d get a handful of pearls you could turn into Nakak, over in Cetus." Every familiar term is like a spike, and I see her tense as I mention them.


    "Instead, I didn''t get the chance, as the drink that I had..." I feel something catch in my throat, and I stop speaking for a moment, desperately wishing I had some water. I do my best to clear my throat, and continue, "I think it killed me. I''m not entirely sure. There''s... fiction about that sort of thing... but... anyways. When I woke up, instead of being in my room, at my desk, I was in the middle of a forest I didn''t recognize. All I had on me was my security jacket from work, and my cellphone. And... well. You know what happened from there." There is silence. An uncomfortable, unfriendly silence, as my story is finished, and I wait for Ko-lee to respond. It screams at me to fill it, and repeatedly I crush the urge to speak, to ask questions, to push her into a response. Instead, I just bite my tongue and sit in it.


    "So..." she says, the sound like aloe on burned skin, "you''re telling me that you think this world is a... a video game? That you came from a different Earth? Where this, all of this is... fake?" "No!" I blurt out, and Ko-lee''s eyes narrow as I quickly backtrack to explain. "I mean, yes, I came from a different Earth, where this was all fiction. But I don''t think this world is a game. I''m very, very aware of how real this all is. But... yeah, Warframe is just entertainment. The Unum is just set dressing for the most part, Konzu an NPC with a handful of repeated lines, the Tenno the main characters who we fling around the maps spraying down thousands of identical enemies." She shakes her head, her eyes full of disbelief, of denial. "No... no, you had amnesia, or something. You-you... maybe you were Corpus, and you mixed up real life and a game you were playing or-" I stop her, grabbing her hands, but she flinches away as we make contact.


    "Ko-lee, please, listen to me. The world I came from is not this one. This is not a joke, it was not amnesia. I swear I''m telling you the truth!" My voice feels strained, raw, like it''s straining to fully impress upon her the truth of my words. "You have to be wrong!" she says, a note of panic in her voice. "I''m not wrong!" I say, I yell, I plead. "Listen to me, please! I know shit! Shit I couldn''t have possibly known otherwise! I speak an entirely different language from everyone else! My brain is stuffed full of knowledge, of brainrot memes, of music, of pain, of JOY, OF LAUGHTER, OF SADNESS AND HATRED AND EMOTION OF A WORLD I NO LONGER HAVE ACCESS TO. A world where my wife is, where my boyfriend is. NOT. THIS ONE." I''m out of breath, I can''t breathe, the room is small and cramped and she''s not listening to what I''m saying even though I''m telling her the truth!


    She stands, to move, to pace but there''s nowhere to go, and she just ends up basically rotating on the spot. "I just..." she starts, then stops. She''s at a loss for words. "Please," I beg, tears threatening to fall. "Please, Ko-lee. Love, please talk to me." I plead, over and over, but she just keeps shaking her head no, as though she can dislodge the ideas taking root in her mind. Her mouth opens, and closes, once, then again, then finally, she speaks. "I... I think I need some time. To process this." Her expression is cold, focused, the one I''ve seen a million times before, with only hints of panic in her breathing, in her glances. I feel my stomach turn, but I try to keep the grimace off my face. "Haha, makes sense," I say, my voice full of a mirth I do not feel. The tears are on the playbill, but they''ve yet to take stage, and I just focus on my breathing, in, and out, in, and out.


    "I am... uhm. I''m gonna go see if that room is still open," she says. "I just, I need..." She doesn''t tell me what she needs. Instead, she makes her way to the door, before opening it, and stepping out into the hall beyond. The door swings shut on its own, and the resounding thud hits me like a punch to the gut. I flop backwards onto the bed, the headliners finally making an appearance, as I scream my favorite obscenity into the pillow. "This fucking sucks," I think, my tears staining the sheet as I try to breathe. "I thought... I don''t know what I thought. I mean, I guess I did. This is what I thought. That if she got it, if she understood, she''d freak. That''s why I was putting it off. And now..." my thoughts trail off, and I try to put my finger on what my exact worries are.


    "I''m worried because of our relationship. We''re in the honeymoon phase, so this is a huge hit to the foundations. Nothing says, ''You mean a lot to me'' like smashing someone''s concept of reality. I don''t... I don''t want to lose her. As a partner, or a friend. I can''t..." A sob escapes me unbidden, and I bite my lip in an attempt to prevent any others from making their presence known. "I don''t want to be here. But I especially don''t want to be here alone. I don''t know what would happen to me. Of me." I sit there in bed for a moment more, feeling the buzz from the alcohol adrenaline mix wear off, and eventually, I get up to turn the light off, before trying, and failing, to get some rest.

 Heretic

    My eyes fly open at the sound of a knock on the door. I take a deep breath, banishing the last vestiges of sleep from my mind and shoot out of bed, still wearing the clothes from the night before. I take the two steps needed to reach the door, but as I fling it open, all hope is dashed as I see not Ko-lee standing before me, but the asshole priest I''d had the "pleasure" of conversing with nearly a month ago. "Oh," I say, doing my best to appear relaxed in front of the pompous adherent. "I didn''t know you knew where I lived." His face has an expression I can''t quite place on it; a mixture of disgust and frustration, hidden under a layer of false serenity. "Emotional landlord special." He takes a moment, before speaking. "Miss Nova-" is all he manages to say before I cut off him off with a shake of my head. "Uh uh, it''s not miss. It''s missus. I''m married," I say, holding up the ring on my left hand.


    There''s confusion now, flitting across his face, but eventually he just nods. "Alright... Mrs. Nova. The Unum has requested your presence," he says, locking eyes with me. The declaration holds weight to it, and in a different situation I likely would have been more willing to match the vibe he was trying to impart, but having just woke up and having had had an argument the night before with my girlfriend, the best I can manage is frustration. "Now?" I think to myself, trying to outwardly appear thoughtful and not upset. "Of all the god damn times for the Unum to make a demand, she had to pick this exact moment? Can''t say it endears me to the damn building. And I still don''t have the money. I was gonna pop over to Cetus and talk to Konzu; I never did that." I take a moment to stretch for the door frame, before responding. "What a great turn around on my application. I''ll be honest, it was quicker than I thought''d be..." I say, before trailing off.


    The frustration from before has returned to the priest''s expression, derailing my sentence. "Your application is still... under review, as far as I am aware. This request has come from the Unum herself," he says, doing his best not to grit his teeth. I just raise my eyebrows at the claim. "Well well well, looks like she can send someone on a fetch quest if she gave a fuck. So what''s got her panties so twisted she needs to see me right now?" I think. "Well," I say with a yawn, "now really isn''t the best time-" But this time I''m the one getting interrupted. "Unfortunately, I will need you to come with me. Right now," he says, his tone sharp. "Fuck, I really wanted to go talk to Ko-lee," I think, quirking an eyebrow at the priest''s demand. "Right now? And how much wiggle room do I have on that? Is that a ''no breakfast, in my PJ''s'' right now, or would I have the opportunity to throw something on before being dragged off?"


    I normally try to avoid quipping with (or at) people in positions of power - unless I think I can get away with it - but the priest''s demands rub me the wrong way, and I''m still too emotionally drained from the night before to play the game. Luckily, the priest acquiesces to my request for clothes, with only the tiniest huff. "Clothes, but straight to her chambers," he says, as I close the door. "I am aware you have just woken up, but we simply do not have time for you to go through a full morning routine!" he half yells through the obstruction. Mocking him while in my room, I grab a few clothes from the drawer, and quickly change before popping back out into the hall only a few minutes later. He gives me a look like he wants to say something about my attire, but I walk right past him, exclaiming "Onwards!" before he gets a chance to do so.


    There''s a brief moment as he has to power walk to overtake me, and he awkwardly shimmies past in the small hallway only a step or two before we reach reception. Heya is clearly interested in my travelling companion, and I give her a quick wave before speaking. "Could you let Ko-lee know that I''m getting pulled away by this guy? Turns out the Unum really wants to have a chat and I guess she''s got a tight schedule to keep." Her expression morphs into one of shock, but the priest''s physical proximity shoves me out the door before she gets a chance to reply. He steps out in front of me, and begins to head off towards the church, taking the same route that I had traveled not that long ago. He''s silent the entire time, rebuffing my attempts at conversation, but otherwise the walk is pleasant. I have a chance to wave to a few of the people I''m becoming familiar with as we past them, and eventually, we find ourselves back in the church.


    As we arrive, he takes me past the seats towards the back, on the left side of the pulpit, to a door tucked away in the corner. We enter into a hallway; smaller than the main hallways, but bigger than the one found at Goldstone, with a slight curve to it so that I can''t see the end. As we walk, my eyes wander around, but beyond the standard Orokin styling on the wall and floor, the hallway is completely unadorned. It also doesn''t contain any other doors, lending no clues as to how far along we''ve traveled, or how far we''d need to go. Suddenly, and without warning, we find ourselves at the end of the hallway, facing a single door. I look at the man, and he takes what looks like a badge out of his pocket, placing it in a socket on the left hand side of the door. It swings open, allowing us to enter, and on the inside is an elevator. He drops his badge into a basket next to the door, containing a multitude of other badges, before giving me a small head movement, indicating that I''m supposed to enter the lift.


    "What, you don''t wanna come?" I ask, not expecting much a response, but for the first time in nearly half an hour, he speaks. "The chamber is reserved for those who are to hear the Unum''s words. Today, that is not me. You are to go, by yourself," he says, gesturing with one hand. "Froo froo ass whatever. You coulda just said no," I think, giving him a small bow. I step onto the light lift, looking identical to the one I''ve used nearly 50 times before, and find myself at the top before I have any moment to notice. "I wonder if maybe gravity works different in this universe," I muse, stepping out of the incredibly quick elevator. The room I find myself in is unadorned, much like the hallway prior, with another single door. This one, however, is incredibly intricate, and it takes me a moment to realize that it''s not elegant filigree, but Orokin script covering nearly every inch. "I wish I was a big enough nerd to know how to translate this," I think, staring at the words, before finally pushing my way through.


    The first thing to catch my attention in the circular room I find myself in is a glowing sphere made of some unidentifiable material, floating about a foot below the ceiling. The material - I assume - is made out of some sort of mix between a circuit board and a solid chunk of quartz, while the glow comes from millions of lights tracing across every inch of the 10 foot radius ball. Cabling runs out of the top of the orb and onto the ceiling, where it traces over to columns up against the wall. The columns look more organic than usual (barring something like my worksite) and I can see what appears to be fluids running from tubing in the floor and up into the columns as well. My gaze makes its way to the floor to see what I can best describe as modular; every inch of the floor seems removable, and my brain immediately makes connections to the removable parts of a laptop, or the access panel of a breaker for a house.


    "So they''re probably not decorative then. This space is like, the brain and the service corridor, all at once," I think. "Correct," says the air. I startle, and at the same time, a part of mind mind twinges at the voice as though it''s familiar, although I''m unable to place it. "Ah," I say, my eyes looking around the room. "I sort of forgot you could read my mind. Uhm. Hello." "Hello," responds the voice. It''s clear and easy to understand, with a feminine bent to it, but the prosody is neutral, like an early days Siri. "Unfortunately, we can only fully examine a mind if one is connected via our life blood, or if they are within these chambers themselves. Otherwise, I am only able to receive faint impressions," says the Unum. "Oh," I say, examining the empty space. The only door is the one behind me, and beyond that, there''s no chairs or anything for me to rest on, so I''m just stood there feeling somewhat silly. "So, you called?"


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    I''m unsure of how to interface with the tower, and her ability to manipulate time and read my mind is starting to give me a smidge of anxiety. "Pre-sentient AI tech? Or just more bioengineered stuff? It''s giving Torture Nexus either way," I think, my mind trying to find something to latch on to. "I need answers," says the voice. It feels odd, because while my mind is telling me that I can hear the sound, it''s clearly not audible, as the resonance is all wrong compared to my voice. "Like noise cancelling headphones." "Well... what sort of answers? I''m not sure if I can help you but... uh... you''re sort of like my boss I guess, so... whatever I can help with," I say, tracing a circle in the center of the room. "You are a gap. A tear. A void in the temporal stream," says the Unum. "You are old, and yet not." Another twinge, my mind clearly remembering something, but unwilling or unable to let me know what.


    "Well, I''m not old... but I think I might know what you''re talking about. Is... is that your question?" I ask, feeling unsure. I have no desire to spill my secrets to the Unum, but as far as I know, she''s a force for good in the Warframe universe. "I mean, I don''t really know that, to be fair. The lore in game is all over the place; it''s hard to know what her deal is. The only time we get to talk to her at all is when she beams us up to a murex after we unstick it from her head. ''Name theory'' says she''s a friend too," I think, referring to my running theory of whether a character in Warframe was friend or foe based on the color of their name. Still, I plan to keep my cards close to my chest. "My question is simple, traveler," she states, her voice calm and measured.


    "Who are you?"


    "What?" "What?" I think and speak at the same time. "I''ve been here for a month and change, surely she knows who I am. Is this some Iro shit?" I wonder, before taking a stab in the dark. "I''m... Antimony?" Silence. All I can hear is the tinnitus in my ear, and I''m about to open my mouth to repeat my words when the Unum speaks again. "That is your name. Who are you?" she asks, this time her question having a tangible weight to it. "Antimony!" I say, getting nervous. "I could just start saying shit? What does she want? I can''t... or... she can read minds too but she can''t just pull it out of me?? What is she looking for?" My mind spirals for a brief moment, before her words hit me again, this time even harder than before. "WHO?" she asks, and words begin tumbling from my mouth. "I''m from another world! This one, this world! But it''s-it''s different! In the past, or something, I... I don''t know! I don''t know how I got here, I''m just trying to get home! That''s what I am. Someone far from home."


    The pressure eases, and I take a breath, before a flash of rage sweeps through me. "What the fuck was that? Did she just mind fuck me? I folded like a paper napkin! It''s like I couldn''t help but speak," I think, and I open my mouth to snap at her, when she speaks once more. "You Desire to return home?" "Yes!" I want to snap at her but something stays my tongue. "I... would like to go home," I say, cautiously. "Do you Desire it?" she says, the sharp edge returning. "I don''t know why you''re phrasing it like that," I say, my eyes flickering towards the door behind me. "Are you a puppet of The Other? That Which Bears No Name? He Who Speaks? The Creator of Angels and Devils?" she asks, each name pounding into my skull like a jackhammer. "Fucking what? God? Or... wait, is she talking about Wally?" I think. I''m about to open my mouth, but it''s as though the air leaves my lungs every time she speaks, forcing me to listen.


    "You know of him. The one you call... Wally? It is as though... you have seen his face... and yet... what is this...?" she says, her voice having a note of uncharacteristic emotion. "PINKELEPHANTPINKELEPHANTPINKELEPHANT," I repeat in my mind, in a desperate attempt to prevent her from digging too much info out of me. "I''m on your side," I say, trying to impart truthfulness in my words. Part of me worries that my mind will be stripped bare, that I''ll be judged not on my actions, but on my thoughts. But another part of me simply doesn''t want to lose control of the one thing that can lend me any level of safety in the system. "And one part of you is just desperate to be special," a dark part of my mind whispers. "If you don''t have this, you''re nothing, just like you were nothing before. You so desperately want to be the main character here, you''re fighting against someone who''s meant to be on your side." My fingernails dig into my palms, and I''m unsure if the voice is truly me, or the Unum playing tricks.


    "You say you are on my side. And yet...," says the Unum, her voice a note lower than before. There''s tension in the air, and I can tell that she''s made up her mind on whatever verdict she''s about to deliver. I''m torn; I want to tell her that I am on her side, to plead, to beg, but the more logical part of me wants to let her speak her piece. "If you speak up, you''re just going to make her point for her. Be reasonable," it says. The choice is taken from me as she begins to speak. "Your demeanor is cheerful, but it is a mask. You do not lie, not often, but you obscure, you hide the truth. The words that drip from your mouth are like poisoned honey." I feel lead in my stomach.


    "You can not be trusted."


    "Well, hold on!" I say, doing my best to salvage the situation with the building. "I''m... hold on! That''s not..." I want to deny, to tell her that''s she wrong, to push back against her declaration of falsehood, but a quiet part of my mind pierces through the running loop of ''pink elephant'' to come forward. "You don''t tell the truth though, do you? Who really knows you? All of you? You are bits and pieces, fragments and masks to so many different people..." says my mind. "You''re not being fair!" I say, in response to myself and the Unum. "You don''t get to make judgement calls on me! You sit here as a powerful bio-engineered building, playing fucking god, while we scrounge around in the dirt?! Who the FUCK ARE YOU TO SAY I CAN''T BE TRUSTED? <em style="text-shadow: -1px 2px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4), 1px -3px 1px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.4), 3px -4px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2), -4px -3px 1px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.2), -6px 7px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2); font-style: unset">YOU DON''T KNOW WHAT I''VE BEEN THROUGH."


    "But I do, Nova," the voice rings out. "I have seen into your mind. I may know you better than you know yourself. You are a fragmented, facsimile of a person. You think you are ''quirky'' or ''interesting'', but what you are is broken at your core. Whether you mean to be or not, you are a threat to those under my care, and ultimately, a threat to the future of the system." My mouth is dry, and my vision starts to blur at the edges. I raise my arms, trying to clear away what I assume are tears. Instead, I find my eyes dry, and yet my vision continues to degrade, darkening at the edges. Beyond the haze, I can see humanoid figures dressed in strange outfits; large flat brims on their heads and vertically split masks, like the surface of a grill.


    "Oh, cool, it''s the Quills," I say in English sarcastically. "I''m about to get iced by Onkko and friends." My head is pounding, and I''m barely able to stand, something quickly remedied by the Unum. "You will be dealt with," she says, her voice knocking me to my knees. Every one of my limbs feels heavy, as though my muscles have been replaced by tungsten. "You don''t want to let me die on my feet?" I struggle out, no longer feeling the need to play nice with the murderous skyscraper. There''s no response. I struggle to lift my head, to look for the exit, but I''m barely able to see beyond a few feet in front of me, past the death slowly surrounding me.

 Two Week Notice

    The pounding pain in my head is making it hard to see more than indistinct shadows, but I don''t need the detail to know how close I am to being eviscerated. Every iota of sensory data available is filtering through my sluggish mind, as I search for anything, anything, that can be used to help me. "I can''t stop them physically, I can''t remove myself from the situation, I have no abilities, I have no weapons, I''m in an empty room with nowhere to hide, I''m entirely surrounded-" Something half way between a choked sob and a laugh escapes my throat unbidden. "This... this feels really permanent, you know? You sure you don''t want to talk about it some more? Maybe... maybe make me a j-job offer?" The crushing pain in my head and my swelling throat is making it hard to speak, but my words are the only thing left available to me, and so I continue to wield them to the best of my ability.


    "Seriously!" I say, my voice cracking. My head hurts so much, I can''t focus, my arms are shaking from the pain or maybe the adrenaline and I can''t remember... I can''t remember. "Seriously guys...!" I repeat, in hopes that I can jog my memory, but they''re moments away from being in arms reach, less than a second before-


    "STOP," I yell, in a panic. There''s no greater plan, no follow up; it''s just sheer, unadulterated begging for my life spilling out of my mouth, and against all odds... it works. The pressure in my skull has abated, and my vision is still in the process of clearing, but it is actually clearing. My limbs no longer feel like they''re stuffed with weights, and I stumble to my feet, trying my best to make myself presentable, to use the momentary respite to my advantage. "The next thing out of this mouth needs to be perfect," I think, my mouth half open as I take in gulps of air. The adrenaline still flowing through my system is making my jittery, and I''m shaking as though cold, even though the room is a touch above what I would consider a comfortable temperature. My eyes jump between masked face to masked face as I take a small step backwards to try to put as many in my field of view as possible. As I do though, I bump into the pillar directly behind me, smacking my hand on the rock hard material.


    "You''re in the middle of the room," my mind helpfully reminds me, and my already elevated heart rate jumps up another notch from the new influx of adrenaline. I try to spin around, but my sense of balance is off, and it takes me an extra two steps to make the full rotation. My hands raise in front of my face, in the vague idea of a boxer''s stance. "Thumbs outside," I think, as my mind solves the image in front of me. It''s a cool white humanoid, as tall as I am, with what appears to be clothes, although are very much not. Teal and red accents subtly adorn the figure, and small Orokin script marks the inside of it''s left hand thigh as it stands stock still in front of me. It has no face, no eyes to make contact with, and on both sides of it''s head are flat tipped horns jutting out perpendicularly.


    "Loki," I let slip in English, looking at the warframe a mere 10 inches from my face. As though in response to my word, it''s head shifts, ever so subtly, and I know for a fact that the operator inside is staring at me. "The Tenno recognize the sovereignty of the Unum," echoes out the voice of the Lotus. I feel my heart drop into the pit of stomach at the declaration. "They''re here to make sure the job is done. I''m dead twice over, it just hasn''t kicked in yet," I think, taking an unconscious step backwards. My eyes catch the flicker of movement, and suddenly I feel tension gripping my shoulder. A second later, my brain plays catch up, filling in the missing frames. I double check for posterity, and as expected, the Loki''s cool hand is on me, their grip inviolable. "However," continues the alto voice of the Sentient, "this offworlder is under our protection."


    "What?" "What?" For the second time in less than 24 hours, I find myself at a loss for words. "What the fuck is she playing at?" I think, trying to make eye contact (or what passes for eye contact) with the warframe. It doesn''t shift it''s head or make any indication that it''s noticed, however. "Her death is writ," booms the Unum''s voice. Unlike before, the sound is now actually coming from some source in the room, and I can hear it bounce around in the space, the orb above echoing in time with the words. "You will not stop me in this." At this declaration, the Quills begin moving forward again, a noticeable hesitation in their movements. Fortunately for me, and unfortunately for them, they had all stepped back when Loki appeared behind me, leaving me no longer in immediate stabbing range. "Protector of Cetus, Eyes of the Plains... I''d really prefer to not put any holes in your walls," says a voice.


    My eyes snap to the Loki. The voice sounded somewhat like the Lotus but... "Was that synthesized? Like a Lotus voice effect for the operator? Why?" The potential new revelation is placed on the ever growing pile of back burner thoughts, as I return my attention to the the closing Quills. There is a brief moment of tense silence; the Quills looking at each other and us, my eyes darting between the various masked enemies and their knives, and the Loki, who was seemingly not reacting at all. "Alright, sorry in advance," says the Loki, still utterly still. "What? What are they doing?" I think, as I look them over. "What is Loki''s kit? How could they put a hole in a wall? They have invis and switch teleport... and I don''t know what the other stuff is! Who plays Loki in 2024?!"


    BOOM


    My mind is already on the edge when an explosion goes off somewhere to my left. Fragments of bone shatter and smash on the floor, spinning and sliding along it as they make their way into the room. The sound pushes through the space, and I feel the pressure wave try to knock me over. My soul does it''s best attempt at leaving my body, and it''s only due to the continuing grip of the Loki that I stay standing. In the slowly clearing dust, a huge, brown barrel of a figure comes rushing into the room, the smoke curling around to fill the void left behind by their form. "Rhino," is the only thought that flashes through my mind, as I watch a number of the Quills whirl around to face the new threat. At the same time, however, I feel the Loki behind me shift, before taking their hand off of my shoulder.


    My neck is sore from whipping back and forth, but I do once more just in time to see Loki take a single step, before rotating around and throwing their hands out in front of them, as though shoving the air. As they do, the space in front of their hands quickly contracts, refracting light for a moment, before exploding out. The space expands out rapidly, forming a bubble, and I flinch as it passes over me, but it seems to have little effect, beyond an incredibly odd tingle. At the edge of the bubble is a light, or possibly some sort of energy, and within a single one of my frantic heartbeats, the bubble expands past the Quill members as well. The ability has a much more noticeable effect on the knife wielding adherents, however. Their weapons rapidly disassemble; blades and handles scatter themselves on the smooth floor beneath, leaving the Quills effectively neutered.


    Loki continues to rotate though, and they lower their center of mass to the ground, before hooking an arm around my waist, yanking me off my feet. "WHAT THE FUCK-" is the only thing that slips out of my mouth, before I''m thrown towards the vaulted ceiling, all air leaving my lungs as I go. I find myself about 15 feet in the air, and the rotation of my body leaves me with a clear view of the Loki gearing up for a jump beneath me. Right as I start to reach the crest of my flight - nearly within grabbing distance of the Unum orb - the Loki springs up into the air, a graceful spin to their movement, with their arms out to grab me. "Bullet jump," my mind helpfully reminds me a moment before the Loki reaches me. The second they do, I feel a sudden twist, a pull, and a squeeze, as the world is folded towards me. There''s a brief flash of blue, of e?n?d?l?e?s?s? b???r???i???g???h???t??? ??????????s???????p?a?????????r????k????????i???????????n?????????g??????????? ???????????????????t??????????w??????????????????i???????????????s????????????t??????????????i???????????n????????????g?????????????? ???????????????????????????????g????????????????????????????????????????l????????????????????????????o?????????????????????????????????w???????????????????????i???????????????????????????????n???????????????????????????????????g??????


    Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    and I find myself still held by the frame, on solid ground, behind the Quills. I desperately look around, trying to wrap my head around whatever just happened, when a new boom echoes through the space, knocking over a handful of the Quills. "Switch teleport, Rhino passive," I think, as my eyes land on the Rhino in the center of the circle, the paneled ground warped and bent underneath him. My eyes pass over the unarmed Quills squaring up with the absolute unit of a warframe, as Loki sets me down on my feet. "Sucks to suck." Unfortunately, not every Quill is so preoccupied, and as a few take a step towards us, I unsteadily glance at the Loki, whose unnerving faceless gaze meets mine. "Follow me," says the synthesized voice of Rebecca Ford / Margulis / Natah / Lotus, and the Loki sprints through the Rhino shaped hole in the wall. My legs feel numb, and my feet feel like swimming flippers, but I do my best to keep pace with the frame as they sprint into what appears to be a religious gathering of some sort.


    A number of what appears to be high ranking adherents and well dressed tourists are milling about, some looking through the hole left by the Rhino, but Loki fjords a path through them as we move. He is literally picking people up by the arms and moving them out of the way, occasionally switch teleporting with some, and creating an unobstructed path for me to follow. As I do, the adherents and company fill in the gap behind, creating less of a wide road and more of a bubble through the crowd as we make our way through the space. "If we get clear of this crowd we''re pretty much home free," I think, just as doors along the room release a flood of new Quills into the space. "Yea... that one''s on me."


    Unlike the Quills from the Unum''s chamber, these one come equipped with guns, and my breath gets short as they start to raise their weapons towards me. "Don''t flinch, don''t panic, keep running!" my mind shouts, as every muscle in my body cringes for the inevitable pain. I hear gunfire go off, a crack sound causing my ears to ring, but a quick tactile check-in finds no wounds. The crowd is screaming now; their panicked back and forth in front of me both easier and harder to navigate. "Because apparently the Rhino knocking over the wall isn''t cause for concern, but the gunfire is," I think, dodging left and right as I try to avoid getting bowled over by a tourist. I glance behind myself, and catch a glimpse of the Rhino playing the part of a mobile shield; their form literally soaking up the damage from the weapons, intentionally taking shots rather than avoiding them. "Iron skin," I think, as I return focus in front of me.


    Just as I do, I manage to see the Loki pull a throwing knife from their side, and shatter a window in front of us. "What''s he aiming a-" I wonder briefly, before ice shoots down my spine. "This motherfucker wants me to jump out the window." I get no time to consider other options; as the thought crosses my mind, I slow unintentionally, and Loki''s head spins as I do. "Hold on," I say, my hands held in front of me placatingly. The Loki takes one step towards me, then another, and then sprints straight toward the window, throwing themselves bodily into the open air. "Why?" I think, as I start to pick up pace towards the edge. I have no plans as I approach it beyond ''watch the Loki do something space ninja-esque'', but I only manage to take a few steps before that same twisting pulling squeezing feeling washes over me, and I find myself without ground underneath my feet.


    My skydiving muscle memory kicks in, and I immediately put my arms and legs out in an X position, keeping myself steady as I start to drop. I try to yell, but the sky has stolen my voice, and all I see is the sparkling ocean and the lights of Cetus. I spin myself 180 degrees, just in time to see Loki shoot past me like a bullet, falling down towards the open door of a dropship. "What sort of-" He comes to a roll, before spinning to look at me, and there''s one more twist pull switch teleport before I find myself laying spread eagle on the cool metal of the ship, all momentum robbed. "I''m gettin'' real tired of that," I think, as I scramble to my feet. Outside the ship and 30 to 40 feet above us, I see the Loki falling through the air, before angling towards the wall of the Unum. As he does, he passes by us, and I grab on to a handle bar before looking out the dropship door to see the frame connect to a section of the Unum''s outer wall below.


    He slides down the slick surface a few feet, before bullet jumping off of it, straight towards the ship. I can feel in my stomach more than I can see the ship descending slightly, and the two meet perfectly in the middle so that the Loki can take a gentle step up on to the edge of the open door, with no more effort than stepping up onto a porch. "You''ll catch a fly," I say to myself, and I make a concentrated effort to close my slack jaw and lower my eyebrows. Beyond the hum of the ship''s engine, there''s silence in the cargo bay, and I''m at a loss for words, until I feel the ship start to ascend. "Wait, wait!" I say, my voice panicked. "We gotta go back for Ko-lee! My girlfriend! We-I don''t know where she is, maybe harvesting? Or something? We need to go back! I''m not leaving without her!" The rushing wind is the only response, and I can feel the ship continuing to rise.


    "Fuck fuck fuck! I need to do something! I need something to convince them! What do I..." my head snaps up towards the Loki. "The Reservoir is in danger," I say, feeling a shudder go through me. "Card played." There is a second or two where nothing happens, before the Loki''s head calmly turns to look at me. I open my mouth to capitalize on the moment. "Not right this second, and not from me, obviously, but soon! I just needed to get your attention, and I will tell you what I know, but right now we have to get Ko-lee. I am not leaving without her." My hand aches from the iron grip I have on the handle next to my head, and I just stare at the Loki, as the wind whips around in the shuttle. I take a step towards the open door, and let go of the handle, standing freely under the power of my own two legs, a mere foot and a half from a 100+ story drop. "They''d just switch teleport me back in, but it''s the principle," I think, as I raise my foot to take another step.


    Ironically, I''m less scared about jumping from the dropship than I was about being thrown out the window, mainly due to the familiarity, but I don''t need to follow through on the threat, as I hear the voice of the Lotus once more. "We''ll grab her," they say, before smoothly pivoting, and making their way to the cabin to ostensibly speak to the pilot. I''m unable to hear any voices through the closed doors, but less than ten seconds later, the ship stops rising. I hear the sound of the engine shifting, adjusting in some way, and it slowly starts descending, rotating around the outside of the Unum to face a completely different side than the one we came from. The Loki walks out of the cabin and steps next to me, before suddenly, there''s two of them. I jump slightly, and my gaze swaps between the moving Loki and the clone.


    "I guess that is the last ability. Clone, or something," I think, as I look at the insanely detailed copy. The ship has settled at this point, facing a dark window I''m unable to see in, but my attention is fully on this clone, unsure of it''s role in the extraction. I reach out to touch it, and my hand passes straight through it, the surface simply clipping through me like a misaligned video game model. "Weird," I think, as I pull my hand out of the hologram. Not a moment after I do, the real Loki beside me vanishes with a slight pop, replaced by my girlfriend, with a frazzled look on her face. Her eyes are wide as she gets up from her hands and knees, and it''s a moment before she notices my presence. "Antimony?" she says, as I give her a hand. "Whats happening?"


    The ship starts to ascend once more, and the clone Loki reaches out to gently move me backwards, before reaching for a button to close the shuttle door. I look at the warframe, the closing door of the dropship, the slowly retreating image of the Unum, and my shocked girlfriend, feeling my mind doing it''s best to adjust to the sudden new reality. Still hopped up on a gallon of adrenaline, I bark out a laugh, and give her a crooked smile. "I think I just got fired."

 Exosphere

    All that can be heard is the rumble of the engines of the ship, as we move through the exosphere of the planet. My eyes roam around the interior of the craft, trying to match it to one I might''ve seen in-game, but I''m unable to come up with anything. "It''s like if a Corpus ship and an Orokin ship had a baby, and then they forgot what color was," I think. "I guess it''s a Tenno dropship, but I don''t remember any even being mentioned in the game. What a trip." My eyes wander over to the Loki who''s sat ramrod straight in one of the chairs against the wall of the ship. They don''t move or make any indication that they''ve noticed me, but a part of me feels a... pressure, as I stare at them. I avert my gaze, and instead look at Ko-lee, who''s stood next to one of the few windows on the ship. I make my way over to look out the tiny porthole alongside her, watching the horizon of the Earth shrink as we rise into space.


    "Are you okay?" I ask, standing off to her left. There''s a momentary pause as she breaks eye contact with the planet, before turning to look at me with a conflicted expression. "Please, Antimony. Not right now," she says, her voice quiet. "Okay," I say, but a part of me hesitates. "It''s just... I just want you to know that I didn''t know that this would happen. When I woke up this morning there was a priest who said that the Unum reques-" but Ko-lee''s firm tone stops me. "Antimony," she says, her eyes boring a hole into my soul. The momentum from the explanation threatens to pry my lips open, but I just give her a nod, before quickly stepping away. I cross the small space and sit in a seat next to the Loki. Other than the hum of the engines, there is silence, and it lasts for an entire 60 seconds before I decide to fill it.


    "So...", I say, looking at the Loki. They turn their head slightly, but don''t respond. "So, is the silent treatment standard or..." I follow up. They turn their head back, breaking what I am charitably thinking of as eye contact, saying nothing. I sigh, leaning my head back against the wall of the ship. After about 30 seconds of no thoughts, I say the first thing that comes to mind. "Thank you. For rescuing me. Even if you won''t actually tell me why." The voice of the Lotus echoes out from beside me. "I rescued you because of what I felt. A few months ago, there was an... energy, in the void. A surge of sorts. And when you encountered that warframe in Cetus, the orange and white one-"


    "The Ember?" I interrupt. Loki turns to "look" at me. "Sorry," I say, feeling my face grow red from the embarrassment. I lay my head against the wall of the ship and close my eyes, trying to focus my effort on keeping my mouth shut. There is a momentary pause before the Lotus continues. "We will speak about the wealth of information you seem to have. But yes, the Ember. When you encountered it, I felt that same energy. Since that point, we have been keeping tabs on you." I can feel my head spinning from the adrenaline crash, but her words spark a connection that cause my eyes to open. "Oh wait," I say, turning to look at the Loki, "you were the one in my room, weren''t you?" "Correct," says the Lotus. "This warframe, designation Loki, has the ability to turn invisible. I considered it the most effective choice in keeping tabs on you while you were located within the Unum."


    I feel the weights on my eyelids pulling them back closed. "Makes sense, makes sense. I''m not a huge fan of being spied on, but you and Rhino saved my life, so it''s all sort of a wash in the end. So, thanks again," I say. There''s silence for about ten seconds, before I hear the Lotus speak. "You know the designation for the other frame as well." I nod my head against the wall of the ship, my eyes still closed. Suddenly, I hear the sound of metal on metal, and my eyes fling open, only to see the Loki standing up and making their way into the center of the ship. I straighten my back and lock my gaze onto the Loki. "Are you planning on finishing the job for the Unum?" I ask, my voice flat. "If they want to kill me, there''s not really anything I can do about it. I''m in space, without protection, facing a living weapon. Might as well die with dignity," I think, as I glare at the warframe.


    "I have questions," says the Lotus. "Questions that I''d like answered. And it is hard to get answers from a corpse." "Well," I say slowly, "I''d like to not be a corpse. So it seems like our interests currently align." I see Ko-lee shift behind the frame, her head moving between it and me. "Then you will tell us everything you know," says the Lotus, taking a step towards me. Instinctively I shirk away, before I realize that I have nowhere to go, as I''m sat in a chair attached to the wall of the ship. I force myself to relax, and take a deep breath before responding. "I am willing to talk, to a point. I can''t just tell you everything I know, but I promise I''m not trying to hold information back. It''s... I don''t know if there is a term for this in Origin, but it''s what I''d call an infohazard. Basically, it''s information that is in some way dangerous or harmful to know."


    I do my best to keep my voice steady, but I can feel the drip feed of adrenaline hitting my veins once again. I''m still coming down from the previous flood of hormone, and so I can feel my hands start to shake. "This information doesn''t seem to be harming you though," says the Lotus, and a strangled sound slips past my lips. "Yea, well, the Protector of Cetus just tried to make me take a dirt nap, so I wouldn''t say this information is harm free. Not... that that was her issue exactly. She was just mad that she couldn''t future-tell her way around me. I guess I''m like a clump of sticks in the time stream or something. Everything gets messy around me and she... was trying to get rid of me." The danger of the situation hits me again, and I let out a shuddering breath.


    "But like I said, I''ll tell you what I can, when I can. I''m an open book. I''m... assuming you''ve worked with the Unum before?" I say. The Loki nods their head, once. "Okay, so, the Unum - to my understanding - can see potential futures. Like, I''d imagine it''s probabilities, and she and her Quills take action to raise the probabilities of the best future, while lowering the probabilities of the bad ones. Something to do with Eternalism, I''d guess." Before I can continue, the Lotus asks, "how do you know that term?" I give a shrug, trying to look apologetic as I do. "Infohazard. Anyways, unlike the Unum, I don''t see potential futures. I see the future. Singular. Broad strokes I know what will happen, and as long as that future isn''t too wildly disrupted, it absolutely will come true. I''m like, her opposite."


    "Go girl, give us nothing," I think, as I look at the expressionless warframe. "How far out can you see?" asks the Lotus after a moment. I respond with a shrug. "I don''t know the timeline on some of these things, and yes, I see the irony in that. I have events, information in broad strokes, but I''m missing some of the minutia. I don''t know exactly where we are in the timeline, but the more time passes, the more information I''m likely to have." Lotus is silent once more, before saying a single word. "Alright." The Loki takes a step, and sits back down next to me. I feel tension I didn''t know I had release in my shoulders. "Jesus, it''s like having a conversation with a sentient loaded gun. But at least we''re all on the same side now. More so than I think I ever was with the Unum. It''s sort of frying pan, fire here, but I''m navigating well enough. I really really wanted to do this on my own terms, but I''m 80% confident she''s not gonna ice me," I think, very intentionally not looking at the warframe.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    There''s a crackling sound, before a tinny voice echoes into the space. "Anyone not strapped in, now''s the time to do it. We''re just about out of atmo, and we''re going to kick it into gear. We''re gonna lose grav here briefly and I don''t really want you floating around in there, you''ll scuff up the paint." I look around at the scuffed, worn interior, before I catch Ko-lee doing the same. I give her an eyebrow quirk, and she just rolls her eyes, before strapping in next to me. About a minute after she does, the gravity of the ship begins to increase, pressing down on our chests. I regulate my breathing, and eventually, our momentum matches the ship''s, and the gravity begins to fall off. Just as we start to float in our chairs, a high pitched whining sound rings out, and gravity is reinstated, adding in what we had just lost. "Like one of those roller coasters with a false drop," I think, trying to get comfortable in the seat.


    I look over at Ko-lee, and find her pale. "You doing okay?" I ask, reaching out for her hand. She grabs it in her seat, breathing shallowly. "Yea, my stomach didn''t like that," she says. "I didn''t know you got motion sick," I say, my thumb rubbing the back of her hand. "I didn''t either. Have you been in space before?" she asks, her head slowly turning to look at me. I shake my head. "No, but I''ve been on a roller coaster. They''re not that different," I say. There''s a moment while she just breathes, and slowly, color returns to her face. "You know," she says, "I wanted to be mad at you last night. No, I was mad at you. It was just so much to take in and... I just didn''t want to believe anything you said. It was easier to think you were crazy, or an asshole, or both. It was easier to be mad at you."


    There''s a look in her eye I can''t quite parse as she continues. "When I woke up, I was less mad, but I still felt... wrong, somehow. It was an odd feeling, and I was having lunch trying to sort that out when the warframe, the big brown one..." she trails off, and I pick up on the unspoken request. "Rhino," I provide, and she nods her head. "The Rhino showed up. I was told that you were in custody of the Tenno, that I was required to come with them and... well, I was worried. It was a lot of back and forth, emotionally." I give her an apologetic look. "Yea, I''m sorry. I... well, the whole situation with the Unum, it happened first thing in the morning for me. The jackass priest wouldn''t even let me get breakfast or anything. I told Heya that I was getting pulled away, left a message with her for you, ''cause I thought I was just going to be gone for a few hours, you know? But then there was the conflict, and then Loki saved me, and they were gonna fly off without you, but I knew that if we left, there was a chance that I would never see you again. It''s a big solar system, you know?"


    I take a deep breath before flashing her what I hope is a reassuring smile. "I wasn''t sure what was happening, but I promised you I wouldn''t leave you. And I''m not really a big fan of lying," I say, my smile turning cheeky. She gives me a smile back, her shoulder bumping into mine. "Well... thanks for that," she says, as she rests her head on my shoulder. We sit there in silence, enjoying the sensation of physical touch, before Ko-lee speaks up. "Do you know what they''re planning to do with us?" she asks, her voice quiet so as to not reach the Loki, who by this point has moved away from us and towards the bay doors. "Not a clue," I murmur back. "But anything is better than getting killed." I feel Ko-lee''s grip tighten for a moment, before relaxing.


    "She was really trying to kill you?" asks Ko-lee, a touch of doubt in her voice. "Why would she do that?" I just sigh, my breath causing her head to move with the motion of my shoulders. "It''s like I told the Lotus. I screw up her future predictions somehow. She didn''t want to work with me, or around me. Trust me, I asked. She just... wanted to remove me. I was just a problem to be dealt with." I feel an inquisitive hum vibrate through Ko-lee. "I''m not saying I don''t believe you. I doubt the Tenno would be involved if you were lying. It''s just... it doesn''t really line up with what I know about her," she says, a thoughtful lilt to her voice. "I get it," I say. "From her perspective, I mean. There is some... really bad stuff coming down the line. For everyone. Tenno, Grineer, Corpus, I really mean everyone. I mean, even the Unum doesn''t really escape unscathed. So, like, if things don''t go exactly the way she plans, then that bad stuff could become permanent. I can see how she might be willing to take some pretty drastic actions in service of her better future."


    I pause as a thought occurs to me, before giving it a voice. "Besides, I''m not Ostron. I lived in Cetus for a bit, worked the mines as a skinner, but I wasn''t really one of hers, you know? I doubt she was shedding tears over me. I was just some random lady, as far as she cared." Ko-lee snorts. "Yeah, that''s what my dad thought too," she says. She''s silent for a moment, before sighing. "I miss him." I lean over to kiss her on the top of her head. My lips linger on her forehead for a moment, before I speak. "Yea, he was a pretty cool guy. I... I like to think that he''d be proud of you." I feel Ko-lee shift, and I glance down to find her looking at me. "For what?" she says, and there''s a hint of tension in her voice. "For surviving," I say simply. "It would''ve been so easy at so many points to fall apart, to give up. After Sharip, after the Conclave. You could''ve given up and lived on the stipend provided by Cetus. You could have said no when the Rhino approached you."


    "I''ll be honest, it''s been rough so far. And I think it''s going to get rougher. I can almost promise that, unfortunately. I wish I could tell you that from this point on it''s going to be smooth sailing, but like I said, I don''t like to lie." I look Ko-lee in the eyes, trying to impress upon her how I feel from just my gaze. "But I don''t think you''ll ever give up. I don''t think you have it in you. That''s... that''s what I think he''d be proud of." I can see a shine in her eyes, just the barest hint of tears, but she looks away before they coalesce, staring out the porthole from our seat. "You barely knew him," I hear her murmur.


    "I know," I say back. "I wish I had more time to get to know him. To tell him how wonderful I think his daughter is, and how much she means to me. How her focus, her drive is so inspiring to me, and how it makes me want to be a better person." I raise her hand to my lips, and kiss, before continuing. "I didn''t get that chance though. It''s not a fair universe." We''re both silent for a moment, sitting in our respective chairs, both lost in thought. "I should tell you more about him," says Ko-lee. I nod my head, before resting it on the wall of the ship behind me, closing my eyes. "I''d like that." I let my mind drift as I feel the gentle rumble of the ship through it''s frame. I can feel disparate, random thoughts and ideas flit though my mind, like wisps in a swamp, but I don''t pay them any attention. "Just neurons, randomly firing," I think to myself.


    <hr>


    A crackle sound breaks the silence after some amount of hours. "60 seconds until dock. Get seated, or hold onto something," says the tinny voice. I crane my neck to try to see out of the tiny porthole window from my seated position, but all I can see is the endless black of what I know is space, but just looks like the night sky. Ko-lee let''s go of my hand, and we both grip on to the grip bars next to our seats. There''s a moment of turbulence, and I can feel the momentum of the ship changing for the first time in hours, until a loud KATHUNK, KATHUNK reverberates through the ship. I hear the various sounds that have been our companion for the last 4 or 6 hours wind down, leaving us in relative silence. Ko-lee and I both unbuckle and stand, and as we do, the door of the ship opens.

 Welcome To Strata Relay

    At first, all I can see is light; the glare reflecting off metallic surfaces too much for me to see past. However, as my eyes adjust and I stare out into the space, an odd bubble of emotions forms in my gut. "Alright, not what I was expecting," I think, looking out into the unrecognized hangar bay. Having visited not only the Strata Relay, but nearly every relay in the game hundreds of times, a part of me is expecting to see the ever familiar spawn location with the Liset landers and circular docking pads. Instead, we are in some other place, one I don''t recognize at all. "It''s giving... No Man''s Sky dock. Or like, Star Wars. Or Halo," I think, looking around at the expansive space. Our ship is parked on solid ground, surrounded by a handful of other similar looking dropships.


    As I make my way out into the hangar proper, my eyes trace up to the roof, nearly a hundred feet above our heads. As I do, I see a ship slowly hovering up and over all the parked ships, moving towards what appears to be a missing wall, open to the vacuum of space. "I mean, not really literally though. If it was open space, we''d be dead," I think, as I try to discern what exactly is preventing us from getting jettisoned out into the inky black. The continuous novelty has me buzzing, and even though my life was in danger mere hours ago, I can''t help but feel excitement in my veins. "We''re in actual, literal space! This is insane! Holy crap," I think, doing my best to resist the impulse to explode as Ko-lee and the Loki walk out of the dropship behind me. A few moments later, a fourth person I don''t recognize also exits the ship. They''re dressed in a skintight blue and grey suit, with a visor over the eyes.


    He gives a glance to me and Ko-lee, and a quick nod to the Loki, before quickly making his way off somewhere. "See ya Joker," I think in reference to the Mass Effect pilot, as I watch him disappear between two parked ships. Without a word, the Loki starts walking off, and Ko-lee and I quickly fall in line behind them. We make our way past various parked ships, until we reach a door on the wall of the huge hangar bay. The Loki passes through, and we find ourselves in a more proportionally sized hallway. "Honestly, even if they threw a bag over my head and didn''t tell me where I was, I''d probably still pick up on this being the relay right away. The design is very Tenno," I think, as I scan the somewhat simplistic design of the hall.


    "It''s weird to think, because like, originally the design was very 2000s, metalheart sci-fi. But now, that''s not what this is. The design evolved from something else, something in the real world. It wasn''t created by a game designer following trends, and yet it is literally those trends. God, this is so trippy." As my gaze roams around the rounded corners and smooth surfaces, a thought occurs to me. "It''s like, an evolution of the Orokin design. Or a devolution, maybe. Same vibe, but less gaudy gold and lights and marble, and more Y2K Futurism." We pass a few more people as we make our way down the hall, all wearing the same suit that the pilot was wearing, and I see the chance to get an answer to a question I had always thought of when playing Warframe.


    "What''s with the getup?" I say, as I sidle up next to the Loki. "What getup?" I hear the synthesized voice of the Lotus respond. "The skintight suits that everyone we''ve passed are wearing." "Oh," says the Loki. "They have a bunch of technology in them. I think you''re going to get fitted with one." I chuckle. "Oh, am I part of the Tenno now?" I joke, but the Loki stops walking as I do. "Were you considering working against us?" says the Lotus. "Oops, I''m pretty sure that''s actual space mom now." I raise my hands placatingly, shaking my head. "No, no, absolutely not. Just... trying to follow along," I say, doing my best to appear at ease. There''s only a moment''s pause before they continue walking, and a minute later we enter the Concourse.


    "So much has happened today, and yet," I think, as I find myself breathless by the space. There''s a Rhino statue in the center of the Concourse, and various greenery dotted all around. Holographic signage mark pathways, indicating various things like the docks, food, weaponry, training spaces, offices, and more. Soft blue light fills the air, as people make their way back and forth, intention in every step. As I scan the space, however, I find my gaze getting pulled towards the Rhino statue. I feel a part of my mind raising a flag, and I find my eyebrows scrunching as I look at it. "I swear this is supposed to be an Ember statue. Some changes make sense, like a bigger Cetus, but... why would this statue be different? Am I mixing up my relays?" My memory has never been the best, and so eventually I shelve the thought, and continue to look around as we pass through the Concourse.


    As we do, I can''t help but compare and contrast the relay to what I can remember of the one from in the game. "I mean, clearly my memory is dogshit anyways, so who knows if what I''m even thinking of is the right thing T B F, but it''s kinda sorta like the thing with Cetus. Bigger to fit more people and more stuff, but ultimately still the same. How big is a relay supposed to be, anyways? Was there ever even any lore for that?" I muse, as we pass by various people. A good portion of the people give a wave to the warframe as we do. Some are clearly Tenno, wearing an outfit identical to the one of our pilot, but some are wearing normal clothing; Cetesian and otherwise.


    "Where are all the syndicates though," I wonder, looking around the space. "Are they just not here? Or was that a game thing. I mean, it doesn''t really make sense for every syndicate, especially ones that pretty much hated each other, to have little rooms right next door." I figure the fastest way to get an answer is to ask, and so I take a step up to close the distance to the Loki. "Question. Do you know who Cephalon Suda, Ergo Glast, and uh..." I trail off, as I realize I don''t actually know what the names of the other notable syndicate leaders are. "Actually, scratch that. Do New Loka, Steel Meridian, Arbiters of Hexis, and a few other groups have a presence here on Strata Relay?"


    "Yup," responds the Loki. I wait for elaboration, but none comes, and so I continue to press. "Well, I don''t see any in the Concourse." The Loki just nods their head, and I bite my tongue before saying something acerbic. I fall back in line with Ko-lee, who gives me a questioning look. I just shrug, unable to give a concise explanation for that particular line of inquiry. "I guess I''ll just have to wander the Concourse at some point. Or maybe the whole relay, see if I can''t spot them. I think there was a point pre the syndicates existing in the game, but it wouldn''t really make sense for them to not be around and then suddenly be around I R L. They have history and stuff, so... yeah. I dunno, maybe there''s no point really. The whole reason to be friendly in game was for the mods and stuff, but it''s not like I really need those."


    I back burner the thought, and return my focus to the Concourse as we continue to pass through. As we walk, I hear various conversation between people, but I''m unable to parse any one particular dialog over another. I hear snippets about Earth, about the Tenno, a number about us and the warframe, about money, lunch, training, and a million other things. "So weirdly... human," I think, before we finally reach a door and exit the space. The chatter of the Concourse is muted as we find ourselves in a stairwell. The Loki continues leading us, and we go down three floors before entering a new hallway, even smaller than before.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    "Tight quarters. I guess this one isn''t a main path or something," I think, as we pass by numerous identical unmarked doors. The hallway is wide enough for only two people to comfortably pass by each other, unlike the one we were in before that could easily fit 4 or 5 people shoulder to shoulder. The hall has a slight left lean to it, and we are walking down it for minutes, seeing nothing but more evenly spaced doors. The space is undecorated, and our footsteps are the only sound available as we wordlessly make our way down the wall. We pass at least one junction before finally, we stop at what feels like a completely arbitrary door. Without any motion from the frame, a light in place of a door handle flashes green, before the door automatically slides open in front of us.


    The second I see inside, the entire walk is recontextualized in my mind. "It''s basically a single room studio apartment," I think, as I step inside. On the left hand side of the room is a small desk, bolted to the ground. A chair is slid underneath it, and a single lamp rests on top of it. On the right side of the room is a countertop, with a few pieces of tech that I can only assume are food devices I don''t recognize, as well as a single cupboard. At the far back of the room, opposite of the door and inset into the wall, is a bed; only a smidge bigger than the one in the Unum. Underneath the bed, and part of the wall itself, are the handles for a number of drawers, and finally, the back right hand corner of the room contains a door, which is currently closed. "You''re staying here for now," says the Lotus, or possibly the Loki with the Lotus'' voice. "I wish there was an easier way to tell who''s speaking," I think, looking at the weapon.


    "I had planned to speak with you about various information you seem to possess, but I am currently occupied with other matters. You will be summoned when you are needed," says who I am now confident is the Lotus. "Cool, the waiting game again. And it ended so well last time." "Can I ask how long that might take?" I question, doing my best to keep the acid out of my voice. "I will likely request your presence sometime tomorrow," says the Lotus. "Oh." "Well..." I say, feeling somewhat off kilter. "Until then? Are we supposed to stay in the room or something?" There''s a momentary pause before the Lotus speaks, and her words contain the barest hint of what can be almost described as mirth. "You may go anywhere you like within Strata Relay. If there is somewhere you are not allowed access to, a guard or a locked door will let you know."


    My mouth moves before I have a moment to think about it. "Aren''t you afraid of us running off or something?" The Loki shifts, ever so slightly, and I begin to feel a growing pressure pass over me. A shiver runs down my spine, as I stare at the expressionless face of the Loki, the pressure weighing down on my shoulders. "No," they say, before vanishing in front of my eyes, the pressure disappearing along with them. "Alright Batman, no need to stunt on me," I mutter in English, before taking a deep breath. I turn to look at Ko-lee, who is only just now stepping into the room, and as she does so, the door automatically clicks shut behind us. I stare at the closed door for a second, before stepping over to verify that we are indeed, not locked in. The second I''m within arms reach, the light shines green, and the door slides open. I take a step back, and it shuts, silently sliding along in a fraction of a second.


    "What are you doing?" asks Ko-lee. "Just... just checking," I say, looking at the door, before sitting down in the chair at the desk. Ko-lee walks over to sit on the bed, resting her back against the inset wall, facing me. "Why do you need to check? The Tenno are the good guys?" she says, her expression one of confusion. "I know, but I also thought the Unum was one of the good guys, and, well..." my voice trails off, and her expression softens. We both just sit in the silence of the room for a moment, doing our best to relax. As I sit there, moments flash into my mind; the near escape from the tower, the gunfire from the Quills, the absolute certainty in the Unum''s voice, the fall after being switch teleported out the window, the panic in my veins as I effectively threatened the Lotus with my knowledge. I can feel my mind running over the memories, trying to find a solution, something to learn from, improve from, and finding nothing.


    "Honestly," I say, my mouth dry, "I think the only reason she didn''t kill me on the spot is because I''m not particularly threatening. If she had known about Loki, about the Lotus keeping an eye on me, I think she would''ve had a Quill put a bullet between my eyes the moment I entered the chambers." I give a quick mental once over; all I have on me is a handful of credits shoved in my pocket from this morning, and the clothes on my back. My gun, and every other thing I own is still at Goldstone sitting in a drawer. I have no outward injuries, and besides the exhaustion from the adrenaline running out, I''m perfectly hale and whole. "And the trauma of near death doesn''t seem to be hitting nearly as hard this time. Woo, call that character growth I guess," I think sardonically.


    I pull out of my mind to look over at Ko-lee, and from a quick visual, she seems to be fine as well. Still, I decide to check in anyways, especially since I''m unable to read her mind. "What about you love, are you doing okay?" She takes in a deep breath, and lets out a small chuckle. "I... don''t know, Antimony," she says, a small frown on her face. "Like I said earlier, I was still in the middle of processing what we talked about yesterday. And I definitely wasn''t prepared to be drafted by the Tenno. Some... childish part of me is maybe okay with that, but... and then the Unum? I mean, you told me how she tried to kill you, and the Tenno agree, but... how could that happen? How could the Protector of Cetus try to... kill you? It just... I don''t really know how I''m supposed to feel about all of this, you know?" She sighs once more, but her frown turns up, slightly.


    "Still, I think I''ll be okay," she says, as she looks at me. I can see the unasked question in her eyes. "Am I doing okay?" I''m unsure of how to formulate an answer. My knee jerk reaction is to blow it off, to claim that I''m entirely fine, that I''ve no injuries and that we are both technically a step closer to our goals. But there''s another part of me that is saying how fucked up this all is, and how not fine I am, or should be, and I can''t tell which part is true. So instead, I say nothing, focusing the attention back on Ko-lee. "Did you want to talk about it?" I ask. She shakes her head, her hair scrunching up against the wall as she does so. "I don''t think I can do another talk right now. I just need some more time," she says with an apologetic look. I nod my head, before murmuring, "Yea, makes sense."


    I stand up from the chair, looking around the room briefly, before realizing there''s very little privacy. I make my way over to the door on the right hand corner of the room and it slides open as I approach to reveal a small bathroom. "Yup, things are definitely looking up," I say as I pop my head out of the bathroom. "No more needing to share a bathroom with everyone else." Ko-lee''s head is resting against the wall, her eyes closed, but I see a smile cross her face at my words. I leave the bathroom, and check all the drawers and cupboards in the other corner of the room, but find every one empty.


    Eventually, I turn my attention to the few items sat on the counter itself, but I''m unable to discern their purpose from a glance. I reach out to touch them, trying to activate, or in some way interact with the devices, but nothing I do seems to have an effect. "I feel like an old person trying to operate a Keurig," I think, a grin stretching across my face. I open my mouth and turn to ask Ko-lee if she knows their purpose, but after a glance at her resting form, I decide against it. "I gotta get out of here. She needs privacy, and I''m gonna go stir crazy trying to keep my mouth shut," I think, looking at my girlfriend. "I think I''m going to go for a walk," I tell her. She gives a small nod in response. I walk through the door, and it flashes green, before sliding shut behind me.

 Pale Blue Dot

    As the sliding door closes behind me, I find myself in the quiet hallway, without a goal in mind. "Not that I know where anything is, even if I did have a plan," I think, looking at numerous identical doors stretching out in both directions. As soon as the thought crosses my mind, however, my stomach growls in protest. "Alright, scratch that, I guess I do have a plan, I just don''t know where I''m going. God, what has it been, like, 12 hours? That jackass priest never let me have any food. Probably because he knew I''d be dead in an hour anyways." The moment it occurs to me, a thought pops into my mind. "I should kill him the next time I see him."


    I stand there for a moment, blinking, before shaking my head as though trying to dislodge the thought. "No, I''m not doing that," I tell myself. I don''t feel particularly convinced, but I do my best to shelve the thought regardless. As I do, the lights in the hallway start to dim. I watch them lower to night-light levels before it dawns on me what is happening. "It''s gotta be a day slash night cycle, to help with people''s circadian rhythms and stuff." As the lights settle, I look to my left and my right, before arbitrarily picking a direction to wander down. I start to head back towards the Concourse, but on a whim as I approach a junction, I decide to turn left at it.


    As my footsteps quietly echo, a well worn thought passes through my mind. "God, I wish I still had music to listen to." I grin, and start to mutter under my breath in English. "So, you got isekai''d to a video game world," I say, mimicking the tone of a news reporter. "What would you say was the hardest part?" I respond to the faux interviewer in my natural voice, saying, "Oh, it would for sure be the lack of Spotify. Music on demand is so important to me, and their family deal is just so affordable! 12.99 a month for three people? How can you pass up such an incredible deal!" I''m mostly speaking to fill the void, effectively letting a stream of consciousness fall from my mouth. The mock interview dies on my lips as I notice a door to my right with a green light, standing out among the sea of red.


    "She said guards or locked doors would keep me out if I''m not supposed to enter," I think, looking at the green light. "It''s probably fine." It takes me a few moments more to convince myself, but I eventually take a step towards the door, where I watch the light flash, before the door silently glides open. I enter the room, and look at what is effectively a handful of seats, facing a large window. However, my eyes are glued on the blue, white, brown and green marble some 22 thousand miles away. "Huh," is the only thing the crosses my mind, and my feet autonomously lead me to a seat. "To be fair, it''s less of a marble and more of a... exercise ball?" I reach out my arms, as though trying to measure the diameter of the planet in front of me, before dropping them back into my lap.


    "What''s the name of that thing that happens to some astronauts in space? The one where you feel like all the problems of the planet are small, or something like that? I think that''s where I''m at right now." I watch as clouds slowly drift across the surface of the planet, getting a clearer look at the globe than I was ever able to get in the dropship. "It''s just... ineffable," I think. Even the endless chatter of my mind is quieted, as every part of me takes a moment to soak in the view. I''m sitting here for what could be 30 seconds, or 30 minutes, before a realization dawns on me. "There''s no city lights." My eyes scan the shadowed portion of the earth, but the expected glitter of modern life is nowhere to be found. The scale of war, the loss that humanity has faced is sobering, and yet I can feel a tiny part of me saying to dismiss it.


    "It''s not my home, not really. Like, it''s sad and all, but I''m not staying here. It''s just some other place with people and problems that don''t really have anything to do with me. There''s nothing wrong with not wanting to be a hero," says the voice. It''s addicting; this idea that I can put aside the worries of those around me. To mentally place myself above it in some way, and separate myself from the dystopia of the system. "No, that''s not right. Right now, I live here, with these people and these problems. This is my home," I think, in a rejection of the philosophy.


    "For now, anyways, and possibly for a long time. And even when I leave, a part of it is always going to be with me. I can''t just... ignore what''s going on around me. There are people here, people who are suffering and... have a lot of suffering ahead of them, honestly. If I can do something, anything to help, I have to. I don''t know if I''d be able to live with myself otherwise." My thoughts trail off, but I can feel the ghost of the premise in my mind; a dark specter that tells me I am better, that my life is worth more, that it would be okay to use those around me if it helped me get what I wanted because I''m more "real" in some ephemeral way.


    I turn my attention to back to the planet, in an attempt to discard the thought, but I can feel it''s tendrils hovering in the darkest corners of my mind, waiting for a more vulnerable moment to reappear. As I stare at the planet, doing my best to ignore what''s in my head, a few interesting landmarks start to resolve themselves in front of my eyes. "There''s like... circuitry or something on the planet," I think, watching globe slowly spin. "Some sort of arcology or something? The ruins of humanity, of the Orokin have to exist somewhere on the planet. Like, in game we get bits and pieces, and I know it''s been some huge amount of time since the Orokin era, but there should still be huge... city ruins left behind. It would make sense that they''re somewhere. Maybe they''re just not valuable to the Grineer, or something. Or maybe the game devs just didn''t want to make a tileset. Or the Orokin era was even longer ago than I realized and it''s all been worn away by the relentless march of time. Or or or. Shit, I don''t know, it could be a million things really."


    I take a few more minutes to enjoy the scene, before standing and stretching. "I''m in space," I say out loud, just to really drive the thought home. The words send a shiver of excitement down my spine. "So much has happened today that I never really stopped and just thought about it. There''s only like a meter of metallic alloy between me and the vacuum of space. Real, actual space. Like NASA type shit. That''s just so insane," I think with a smile on my face. "And yet..." Part of me doesn''t want to put it into words, the unspoken feeling that had been tainting every moment. As though speaking it out loud, or forming it into a thought would somehow actualize it. "...and yet, I''m a prisoner. Me and Ko-lee. I mean, I can go anywhere I want, do anything I want to do in the relay. I''m just not allowed to leave. A gilded cage for real."


    "Plus," I think, "I can only imagine that mine and Ko-lee''s continued existence is predicated on how useful the Lotus finds me. I''m basically getting drafted here, and I doubt I can file for exemption." My smile drops off my face, replaced by a frown as the mood is soured. I turn away from the window and leave the observation deck, finding myself back in the hallway. I continue on my original path, still not particularly sure where I''m going. Luckily, after only a couple more minutes of walking, I notice a sign carved into one of the walls denoting the direction a mess hall, and so I orient myself towards it. It only takes a few minutes more before I find myself in what looks not that far off from a school cafeteria. There are a number of people there - just under half of the seats being filled - and nearly all are in the suits of the Tenno, all still with the upper portion of their mask on.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    "That can not be comfortable, eating while wearing one of those," I think, remembering the few times I had tried to snack while wearing my VR headset. I make my way over to the counter to get some food, and the server looks at me, the mask obscuring their expression. "Are you visiting?" he asks, and I can''t help but snort. "No, I''m going to be hanging around for a while, I think. According to the Lotus probably, I''ve been ''recruited'' to work with the Tenno," I say, making sure to give air quotes as I say the word recruited. There''s a moment of silence, and I can feel the tips of my ears start to heat up. "Oh woops, maybe the Tenno guy serving me food is not the right person to be complaining about this to," I think. Eventually, he places his hands on the counter in front of him. "The Lotus? Or the warframe?" he asks, and I give a mental sigh of relief.


    "I don''t know, to be entirely honest," I say, shrugging. "Is there supposed to be a way to tell?" The server gives a shrug of his shoulders. "For you? You''d just have to go by the tone of their voice. Maybe their words. The Lotus is more serious, in most cases," he says. "Why for me?" I ask. "Well, you don''t have a suit yet," he says, tapping the side of his headset, before passing his hand over to my side of the counter, touching a device of some sort. It beeps briefly, before flashing green, and he cuts me off before I can ask. "I''m spotting you," he says, and I feel my eyebrows threaten to raise into the stratosphere. "Uhm, thank you," I say, "but can I ask why?" He gives me a shrug. "I''m guessing you just got here?" he asks, and I give him a quick nod. "I won''t ask what happened to you. But you''re in familiar company," he says, giving me a truly indecipherable look.


    "Well, thank you again," I say, as the growl of my stomach demands attention. He just gives me a nod, already scooping up a meal. After only a minute or so, he hands me a tray with a number of things on it, and I give a flash of the pearly whites before finding my way to an open table. As I plonk down in the seat, I look over my meal with an appraising glance. "Hmm, healthy," I think, taking in the small portions of some rice like grain, fruit, and fish, along with a generous serving of veggies. I grab the provided chopsticks from the plate, and raise a bite to my mouth, not entirely sure what to expect. The fish is familiar, almost definitely having been sourced from the waters around Cetus. The grain is good, if unfamiliar, and the veggies are surprisingly tasty, if not equally mysterious.


    "You could put a gun to my head and I would have no idea how to explain this taste to you," I think, taking another bite of the vegetable. "Like if a potato and an asparagus had a baby, but it looked like off-brand brussel sprouts? Food do be weird." I take another bite, trying to determine how much I really liked it. "To be fair, I think anything would hit when I''m this hungry," I think to myself, doing my best to resist shoveling the food into my mouth. "And fruit is never gonna taste bad. Sugar is sugar is sugar." As I do my best to pace myself, I watch people, mostly Tenno, drift in and out of the mess hall. Nearly every single person I see is wearing one of the headsets, even while eating, and only a handful of people don''t seem to be wearing one of the Tenno aligned suits.


    I see a pair that is recognizably Ostron, as well as a few with odd outfits that I recognized from the market. "For as much time as I''ve been here," I think, "I really have no idea what cultures or groups there are in the system. I mean, beyond the Grineer and Corpus, and those over in Fortuna, the game doesn''t really have anything else. There''s the syndicates; Red Veil and Cephalon Suda and stuff, but like... Baro Ki''teer makes a comment during the Inaros quest about having lived as part of a Mars colony. I would assume people like that are still kicking around. What do they look like, what''s their vibe?"


    I manage to spot a Corpus or two as I people watch, but by the time I finish off the rest of my food, I never see a single Grineer. "I guess that makes sense. Like, to be fair, the subset of Grineer that aren''t crazy xenophobic are Steel Meridian, and Kahl once he makes his little camp. And... that''s pretty much it," I think. "You know what''s odd though? Loki said the syndicate''s were floating around, but not a single one popped up in here. What are the odds of that?" I double check, on the off chance I mixed up one of the Tenno for one of the other syndicates, but I don''t notice anyone wearing the somewhat similar outfits. "I''m gonna have to ask someone about that, honestly. After I do a quick scan of the Concourse."


    I try to mentally trace the path we had taken from the Concourse to our apartment, but the lack of landmarks makes it hard to be sure of the exact route. "I mean, it was a mostly straight line. I''m pretty sure I''d be able to find my way back," I think, before giggling at the thought. "Yea right. This place is huge. I''m 100 percent going to end up lost." I file the plan away under the "when I''m bored and have nothing better to do" folder in my mind, before getting up from the table and leaving the cafeteria. As I pop back out into the hallway, I head off in the direction I''m 80% confident that I had originally come from. After a few minutes of walking, I find the sign, and after a few minutes more, I spot the junction.


    I turn to the right, and it only takes a couple minutes after that to find what I am confident is the door to the apartment. "To be fair, it''s the only one glowing green," I think sarcastically, as I approach the sliding door. As it glides open, it reveals a darkened space, and the dim levels of light from the hallway only stretch a few feet into the room. My eyes take a moment to adjust, and eventually I''m able to see the shape of Ko-lee on the bed. "She''s still here," I think, looking at her gently breathing form. I hadn''t truly expected her to find a separate room to sleep in, but a small, anxious part of me feared the idea of coming home to an empty room.


    I quickly get ready for bed, before carefully climbing under the covers, doing my best to not wake her as I do. As my weight presses down onto the mattress, she shifts around, and I freeze momentarily, until finally, she settles once more. I fully get under the sheets, and take a moment to breathe, focusing on relaxing each one of my limbs in turn. "Sorry Heya, but this bed is 1000 times more comfortable than the ones over at Goldstone. Honestly, memory foam type beds are just above and beyond spring mattresses any day of the week," I think, as I adjust my position. "I hadn''t realized how much I missed my Purple until just now. Ah, well, this is close enough."


    I turn to my side, and start mentally connecting the freckles on Ko-lee''s exposed back. "I need to talk to Ko-lee, tell her about my plan to get home. I don''t know how close I am, really. It could be months, or years before anything really pans out. But I don''t want to wait until the last moment," I think. "Besides, I... think I want to sell her on the idea of coming home with me. There''s no life to be built here, not really. There''s no living happily ever after in a solar system that is constantly embroiled in war. Just... sparks of light in endless shadow." I feel the exhaustion of the day start to creep up on me, and I close my eyes.


    "I''m not sure I could leave without her, either. I don''t know what I''d do if she said she wanted to stay." I sigh, my forehead pressing against her the skin of her back. "This is such a stupid fucking problem. It was the whole reason I didn''t want to get romantically involved with anyone in the first place. And of course I literally fall for the first person I lay eyes on. Willpower the strength of tissue paper, honestly." My arm snakes under the covers, and wraps tight around her waist, as I pull her against my body. "No, it''s not that, not really. I was doomed from the start; pretty girl who could literally kill me, who laughs at my dumb jokes and has freckles? There was no shot." The thought makes me grin, and it''s only a few minutes more before the sandman comes to claim me.

 Suit Up

    KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK


    I blearily open my eyes to the sharp sound. I feel my sleep addled brain still trying to form connections as I slowly look around the room. "Did Heya renovate while I was or the priest is knocking but he died trying to kill the-" the soup of ideas gradually forms into coherent thoughts as I blink. "The Unum tried to kill me. I''m on the relay. That''s not the priest knocking." I call out groggily, doing my best not to disturb Ko-lee, who is somehow still asleep next to me. "One minute," I say, as I swing my legs over the side of the bed. I drag myself over to the table, where I had discarded my clothes in the darkened room the night before, before giving them a sniff test.


    "Sweat and adrenaline, disgusting," I think, before pulling them on anyways. "Not like I have anything else to wear, anyways." I approach the door, and it slides open in front of me, revealing a faceless Tenno. "Morning," I say, trying to blink the sleep from my eyes. Their masked face betrays no emotion, and the only reaction I see is some sort of fidgeting motion with their right hand. "There''s no way they''re nervous. What are they doing?" I think, my eyes getting drawn to the thumbstick like motion. "Are you Antimony?" they ask, mispronouncing my name. I go to correct them, but hesitate, unsure of their demeanor from just their vocal tone.


    "Yea... yes, I''m Antimony," I say, stressing the second syllable instead of the first. There''s a moment of silence before I follow up. "How can I help you?" The entire conversation is making me feel somewhat off-kilter; having to immediately try interacting with someone mere moments after waking, combined with being unable to read their facial expression is putting me on the back foot, socially. The chatter between me and the operative has also woken Ko-lee, and I hear her shuffling around in the room behind me. "I''m here to fit you for a TEPA suit," the Tenno says, their voice muffled through the mask. I feel the air shift behind me as Ko-lee approaches. "Are we both getting fitted?" she asks, her words strong and clear, with no hint of sleep warping them.


    The operative shakes their head. "Someone will come gather you when they''re ready. Please stay in your room so we don''t have to track you down," they say to Ko-lee. The Tenno takes a step to one side of the door, one hand extended to the side with their palm up, in a clear gesture for me to follow. I give them a quick nod, before turning 180 degrees to plant on Ko-lee''s lips. I linger for just a touch longer than is appropriate, and she raises an eyebrow when I break it off. "Last time someone came and knocked on the door and told me to follow them, I got swept into some stuff. So... you know. Just hedging my bets," I say, giving her a cheeky grin. She just responds with a scoff, a shake of the head, and an eye roll while leaning against the door frame, as I step out into hallway. "Onwards and upwards," I say, as the Tenno begins to make their way down the unmarked hall.


    We''re walking for about a minute before I start to speak, partially just in an attempt to fill the silence. "So... doesn''t the headset bother you?" I ask, looking at the Tenno. "Headset?" they respond inquisitively. "Or goggles, or whatever you call them," I say, making a pointing gesture towards my eyes. I can''t help but draw a parallel between the device I''ve seen every Tenno wear, and my Oculus headset from back home. "It''s not heavy heavy, but that thing for sure gets on my nerves after a couple hours. I can''t imagine wearing something similar all day, every day." The operative makes a sound of understanding, before shaking their head. "No, that would defeat the purpose," they say. I wait for them to elaborate, but they don''t, and so I prod. "And what is the purpose?" I ask.


    "Constant, dual way communication. Visual and audio feedback. Friend or foe identification. A whole bunch of stuff, really. If they were uncomfortable, we''d be more likely to take them off in our downtime. Then, in the case of an attack on the relay, we''d lose precious seconds having to reequip our gear. So, they''re designed so that we don''t want to do that. They''re crafted according to the shape of our face, and made using lightweight materials. Honestly, I even forget I''m wearing it sometimes," they say. "Do you also have a bridge you wanna sell me?" I think, but outwardly, I just smile and nod. "Is that something that happens often?" I ask. "Attacks on the relay, I mean."


    The Tenno gives a small tilt of their head. "Sort of. Thing is, the relay is a high value target, but both sides are aware. We generally have a few warframes nearby, and in the case of an attack, we usually have more that will fly in. Also, in space you tend to get a lot of warning. It''s not like they can sneak up on us through the trees, you know?" they say. "But combat can and does happen. It rarely directly reaches the relay, if that''s what you were worrying about." I nod my head, but something on my face must''ve read as apprehension or disbelief, because the Tenno follows up. "Seriously, you''ll be fine. They relay''s have been here forever. They''re not going to be destroyed."


    Their words are like sticking my finger in an outlet. "Oh, fuck, that''s right! Strata Relay gets blown up, and then Steel Meridian helps rebuild it! That''s why the Concourse looks so weird," I think, feeling a shot of adrenaline run through me. "Shit, I don''t even remember when that happens! Fomorian events happen all the time in game, but the specific one that blew up Strata? Shit, I''m not sure I was even playing at the time." The tension must''ve been apparent in my body language, because the Tenno looks at me with what I assume is concern on their face. "You doing okay?" they ask. "Yup. I''m fine," I respond, my words clipped. It effectively ends the conversation, and we continue walking in silence, until the Tenno stops at what appears to be a completely random door. As they approach, I see them fidget once more, moving their thumb as though fiddling with an invisible joystick. A small beep sounds out, and the light of the door changes from red to green, before the door slides open. I peek my head inside to see an empty closet.


    "Uhh..." I say, but the Tenno just gives a gesture for me to enter. I do so, and the door slides shut behind me. At almost the exact same moment, a holographic display pops up on the wall, laying out instructions. "Please remove all clothes, and stand in the center of the room, arms down at your side in a resting position? Is this some sort of weirdo future TSA?" I give a quick glance at the door behind me, but it''s still firmly shut, and before I can convince myself otherwise, I start to strip down to my birthday suit. As I do, a small, previously hidden cubby pops open in the wall, and I place my clothes inside before shutting the door. Two footstep outlines glow on the floor in the center of the room, and I make my way over to them, feeling oddly exposed as I stand there naked.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    "Ten bucks says there''s gonna be a ''problem'' with the scan," I think derisively. I briefly hear what appears to be the high pitched whine of a mechanical motor, and some lights appear on the wall and floor, but I have no context for any of them. Moments later, I hear a sharp ding, and the pitch of the motor drops down. "Huh. Guess not," I think, reaching into the cubby to pull out my clothes. As I put them on, I watch the instructions change to a hyper detailed readout of apparently every minute physical detail on me. "Look at me, my cholesterol is in range." I hear a knock on the door, and I quickly throw on the last of my clothes before stepping over to open it. It slides open, and the Tenno speaks the moment it does.


    "Your hormones production seems to be lower than expected. Were you aware of that?" they ask. I shrug, trying not to look to frustrated. "Yea, I''m aware. I used to take a medication for it, but... that''s just not been an option recently." They give me a nod. "Common for those from lower tech situations. I wish we could send some of the technology we have to settlements and the like, but the Grineer will just destroy it, and the Corpus will strip it for parts." I can imagine a rolling of the eyes as they shake their head. "Anyways, there''s a series of injections we can give that will convert your endocrine system to produce the appropriate hormones in range. It''s a six week schedule, once a week. Is that something you''d be interested in? If not, we can likely replicate the medication you were taking."


    The whole thing is said with the blas¨¦ tone of someone letting me know that they''re picking up groceries after work.


    Rote.


    Simple.


    Barely worth mentioning.


    I feel something tickle my cheek, and reach up to find liquid. A tear. "You... you can just do that?" I ask while brushing it away, doing my best to match their calm energy. They respond with a nod, their expression still fully hidden. I take a deep, unsteady breath, feeling my face break out in a huge smile. "Yea, I think I''ll do that, then," I say, my voice just on the edge of cracking. They stand there for a moment more, before taking a few steps past me. "Follow me," they say, purpose to their walk as they head off farther down the hall. I half jog to fall in line behind them, and it''s a few turns more before we end up in front of a new unmarked door.


    "Do they just have all of these doors memorized?" I wonder, still slightly reeling from the reveal that I''d soon be back on HRT. Part of me wants to react, in some way, but another part doesn''t, as though I might accidentally break some sort of fragile spell by acknowledging it too hard. Instead, I just shelve the buzzing thought, doing my best to focus on the immediate now. I look into the room, and unlike the one I was previously just in, the machinery of this one is out in the open. The large device is chunking and whirring, and I can see textiles and wire and filament passing though various locations. They get heated, pressed, sewn and more, but I''m unable to get a clear idea of the final product until it comes to a stop, depositing a Tenno suit near the bottom portion of the machine.


    "Is that one mine?" I ask, and the Tenno I''m with nods their head. I reach out for it, feeling the material, unsure of what exactly it''s made of. I''m expecting a cotton feel, but instead it''s incredibly smooth, like a ten thousand count bedsheet. I tug on it, and it has give, more than I had guessed. I try to fray the fabric with a fingernail, but my cautious attempt gives way to a genuine struggle to leave any lasting mark on the suit whatsoever. "Alright, bet. This is actually kinda wild," I think, as I lift up the suit to examine it more fully. "Tough, comfortable, and flexible. Other than the fact that it looks like it''ll be a pain to get in and out of to pee, it''s pretty neat. Even covers my hands, feet, and head. Trippy." I turn to look at the Tenno, who is calmly waiting for me to finish my inspection.


    "Should I put it on now?" I ask, and they nod their head. "I can walk you through it. It''s not immediately obvious," they say. "Pssh, how hard can it be?" I think, but I do my best to bite my tongue. It''s a good thing I do as well, as I''m caught off guard by the magnet zippers used to open/close it up, or how to tighten and loosen various parts of it. "Thank god they mentioned how to open it for the bathroom as well. I really didn''t want to have to ask." Finally, after nearly five minutes, I''m fully suited up, and I take a moment to move around the room, getting a feel for it. The suit is form fitting, nearly a second skin, but the flexibility of it prevents it from tugging or pulling as I put it through it''s paces.


    The material is also light and breathable; I was expecting to start sweating the moment I fully sealed it up, but I''m not even slightly warm. As I do a little interpretive dance, the Tenno hits a button on the machine, and I hear something depressurize. A chamber opens up, letting out a puff of gas, revealing a headset and mask. I stop moving around, and look at the piece of tech, as the Tenno reaches in to unclip it from the machine. The device now freed, they turn to me while holding it, pointing to the side of the headset and mask. "This portion clips into the head. Like the TEPA, it can be a little tricky to put it on for the first time," they say, as they reach for their own mask. It takes them a few moments before they get it off, and for the first time since meeting them, I have the opportunity to see their face.


    They have dark eyes and a warm smile, and I can''t help but give them one in return. "Here, watch me," they say, as they begin to walk me through the steps to connect the headset to the head covering. The process is somewhat involved, and I can''t help but remember their previous words from less than an hour ago. "Alright, I get it, this would absolutely be a pain to put on if the relay was exploding," I think to myself. It takes me a few tries; I''m able to watch them do it, but on my end I have to feel it out since I can''t see the attachment points next to my face. However, I''m eventually able to get it fully clicked in, covering my eyes and my mouth in their entirety. "It''s pitch black," I say, and I hear a muffled sound of affirmation from the Tenno. "Yea, I need to activate it for you, just hold still."


    I stand there for a moment, until a light in the headset flickers, causing me to instinctively shut my eyes. "Keep your eyes open please, I need to calibrate," they say. "If you need my IPD, you can just ask. No need to flashbang me," I think, as more lights and colors dance around in my field of view. "I wonder if you''re just not allowed to be a Tenno if you have epilepsy." Despite the ocular assault, I do my best to keep my eyes open and straight. "Alright, that should be everything," I hear them say after about thirty seconds. "Let me know if everything is clear on your end." The headset is still pitch black, and I''m about to open my mouth to let them know, when suddenly, it springs to life.

 Five Man Band

    The first thing I notice is how unobstructive the headset is. Not only the physical weight, but the clarity and visual fidelity as well. "Holy shit, there''s literally no screen door effect at all. I literally can''t even see a single pixel," I think, utterly flabbergasted by the technology. "And the FOV is beyond reasonable. I literally can''t even see the edges at all." I find myself stretching to look to the left and right, up and down, trying to gain any sense of awareness at all that I''m looking through a device and not just looking at the real world. "This is actually insane." The hyper clear visuals are so realistic, that for a brief moment I can''t help but raise my hand to my face to verify that the headset hasn''t actually just opened up entirely or something.


    My hand reaches up, and I find that the headset is still fully enclosed, no seams or openings to be found. I cup a hand around the headset, just to see if I can block the camera in any meaningful way, and all I can see is the palms of my hands in shadow. "This is so weird. It''s like the camera view is literally coming from my eyes, and not something on the front. There''s no disconnect or anything. How... how? No like, actually how though?" The mere act of placing my hands in front of my eyes is causing my brain to short out, the technology beyond anything I could have previously imagined.


    "Uh... wow," I say, unable to form anything more coherent. The nerd portion of my mind desperately wants to rave about the technology; the seemingly missing visual offset, the lack of color banding or ghosting, the absolute clarity of what is dawning on me might not actually be a screen, but I know that it would be lost on the Tenno. I turn to look at them, to ask about the next steps, but I find that their face is fully uncovered. "Why''d you take your headset off?" I ask, quirking an eyebrow more out of habit than anything. They don''t respond, but there''s an amused twinkle in their eye. "I didn''t," they say, and I just roll my eyes.


    "I''m literally looking right-" I start to say, but it suddenly clicks. "Wait. Wait, no, hold on. Is... you''re still wearing it?" I ask, and they nod once more, their humor barely hidden. They hold their hand out, and I hesitate before I realize what it is that they want. I offer my hand, and they grab it, gently moving it towards their headset. As they do, a visual effect makes it bleed into reality around my hand, allowing me to see what it is that I''m touching. As my hand pulls away, the effect disappears, once more revealing their face. "Damn, that''s real trippy," I mutter in English. Eventually, my gaze wanders past the Tenno and towards the machine. "Wait a second," I think, looking at the various instructions and holographic panels and signage decorating the device. "Wait a second, I''m not this kind of crazy. There absolutely was not all this crap everywhere."


    My eyes roam around, as I move towards the various bits of text, and I see an identical effect to the one that played out with the Tenno''s headset play out here in reverse. As my hand passes through where the text resides, it fades away in just the same manner, to let me see the machine underneath it. I turn to look at the Tenno, whose face is still showing obvious mirth. "Alright, this is super cool. I get why you don''t feel the need to take the headset off," I say, an impressed look on my face. They chuckle, before speaking. "Once you''re ready, we''re going to head over to orientation. The halls can be a little... overwhelming, for newcomers. Just as a heads up." I nod my head, as I take a step towards the door. "No problem, I''m ready."


    I in fact, was not ready. The moment we step out the door, I''m floored by a visual feast, decorating what appears to be every inch of the hall. Lines on the floor with floating text denote paths to various places, and digital posters on the wall advertise meetings and operations and game nights all right next to each other. The Tenno is patient enough to let me soak it all in, before I''m ushered down the hall to the next location. It only takes me a few moments to realize that the path we''re following is one literally highlighted for us. NEW CONSCRIPTS, it says, in big clear letters above the line. I want to ask a million questions about the headset, but it''s obvious that I''m literally on my way to get some answers, and so I do my best to keep my mouth shut, as I passively take it all in.


    A few minutes later, and we arrive at a small room with a circle of chairs, where two people are already sat. As I enter the room, I pass by the Tenno, who puts their hand out in front of me. "This is where we part ways. It was nice to meet you, Antimony," they say, placing the emphasis on the correct syllable this time. I give them a warm smile, and a wave, and they step away, the door shutting in front of them. "I probably should''ve asked for their name," I think to myself, before turning my attention to the two conscripts in the room. The two of them are already chatting, but as I move towards one of the chairs, the bigger of the two turns to look at me.


    "Opinions on meat," he says, his dark eyes boring a hole into my soul. "Uhm. Good? I guess? Positive opinions," I say, not entirely sure of his line of questioning. "That''s what I''m saying!" he says, on the verge of shouting, as he turns back to the other girl, whose trying to shrink away in her chair. "Listen, I am telling you, now that you''re not with the hippies, you have got to try some meat. Everyone likes meat!" I take my chance during his proclamations to look the two of them over. The man has mixed black and Asian features, with long black hair tied up in a man bun, and is absolutely ripped. "Shit, he''s gotta be 6''4" or something," I think, trying to estimate his height from his seated position. His energy is intense, but it doesn''t read as particularly aggressive.


    "More like one of those big dogs that don''t realize how terrifying they are when they play growl at you," I think with a grin. The girl on the other hand is small in every sense, almost waifish. She has little body fat, and can''t be more than 5 feet tall. Her eyes are a bright green, and her long brown hair is currently braided in an elegant pattern. "I wonder how long that takes every morning." The pair of them are near polar opposites, and I take a moment to listen to the conversation before joining. "It''s so good! And, it''ll put some meat on your bones! Which, you don''t have, cause you don''t eat any meat. How do you think it gets there?" says the big man. He raises a single arm and flexes it, showing off his admittedly impressive muscles.


    The girl murmurs something, but the guy doesn''t seem to notice, steamrolling on. "Also, I don''t want you to miss out on all the good stuff. For example, I''ve already eaten food at eight different places on the relay, and there''s a bunch more that I think we should go try together, but if you don''t eat meat, well then I''m not sure where I''m supposed to take you." There''s a look of genuine confusion on the man''s face, as though the idea of vegetarian food is something he''s never encountered before, but the mousey girl is clearly frustrated by the big man''s personality, so I take the opportunity to step in. "Hey there! My name is Antimony Nova. What''s yours?" Rather expectedly, the big man introduces himself first.


    "I''m Reaser Thomoni! Rease to my friends. You can call me Rease!" I decide not to comment on his assignment of "friend" after only being in proximity to each other for barely 100 seconds. "My name is Ellavanar Tygg," says the girl, much quieter than Rease. "Hey there Ellavanar. Do you have a nickname?" Her four syllable name isn''t the most complicated thing in the world, but it is a bit of a mouthful. "I guess you can call me Ella," she says, after a moment of consideration. I give them both a nod. "You can both call me Annie then. So. I guess we''re doing orientation, probably once these other seats are filled." I look at the two empty seats, and before any of us gets to make a comment, the door at the back slides open.


    Ko-lee steps into the room, and as her gaze meets mine, I see a touch of tension leave her shoulders. I feel a grin stretch across my face, and I give her a wave as she makes her way to one of the empty seats. "Well fancy meeting you here," I say, giving her a cheeky smile. She sits next to me, and I lean over to give her a kiss, before an awkward bonk reminds me that we''re both wearing headsets. "Oh, wow, I forgot about this thing so quickly," I say, leaning back and touching the headset once more. I can see Rease gearing up to say something, but I quickly cut him off. "Rease, Ella, this is Ko-lee. Just Ko-lee, no last name... unless I''ve seriously messed up as a partner," I say. "We came in together." My hand reaches over for hers, and I see a light-bulb go off in Ella''s head, while the gears turn in Rease''s. "Yea, he''ll figure it out eventually," I think with a grin. "Ko-lee, this is Reaser Thomoni and Ellavanar Tygg," I say, pointing them each out in turn.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    She gives them both a smile and a nod, before her gaze moves to the final empty chair. "We''re missing someone," she states, and I shrug. "Yea, probably. I imagine they''ll pull up at some point soon. We were just discussing the finer points of meat, in the meantime." Ko-lee gives a small grin. "I would say I am somewhat familiar with meat," she says, flashing me a knowing look. Rease''s face lights up, and he begins to give us a rundown of the menu''s of every single food place he''s found on the relay. "I''m honestly surprised that there''s this much variety at all. I kinda assumed that it was all just going to be mess hall, cafeteria type beats, but maybe there''s a bunch more public facing stuff up near the Concourse," I think, as Rease rambles on about the value of a protein heavy diet.


    As Rease waxes poetic about space food, the door slides open once more. A guy with vaguely Nordic features and short shaggy blonde hair saunters in, giving us all a lazy wave, before plopping down in the final chair. He stretches both arms high into the air for a moment, before placing them behind his head, as he leans back in his chair. "Damn, I didn''t know they''d be waking us up this early," he says, a relaxed tone to his voice. "Corpus tattoo?" I wonder, looking at the geometric, asymmetric V shaped tattoo on one side of his face. "Anyways," he continues in a chill tone, "you can call me Caz-V." I raise an eyebrow at the name. "You pronounce the dash?" I ask, and he gives me a nod. "Sure man, that''s why mom and pops put it there," he says offhandedly.


    Before Rease has a chance to grill the man on his dietary choices, the door slides open one more time, revealing an older man with a severe look. As he approaches, I sit up, and Ko-lee does the same beside me. Ella doesn''t need to, as she hadn''t been slouching to begin with, but Rease doesn''t seem to notice the general shift in the atmosphere. Caz-V does seem to notice, giving us all a look, but chooses to continue relaxing. The man makes his way towards the circle of chairs, standing directly behind mine, and I pick it up and turn it around as inoffensively and quickly as I can.


    He takes us all in for a moment, before speaking. "I am Primark Alarez," he says, looking down at us. Primark Alarez is an older man, but his gray eyes are sharp, and I can''t help it as my gaze is drawn to the prosthetic in the place of his right arm. "You are all Tenno recruits," he continues. "You are at the bottom of the totem pole. After three months, if you are still here, you will no longer be at the bottom of the totem pole. After three months, if you have not given up, you will be functional soldiers. After three months, if all goes well, you will be able to serve the Lotus as a true Tenno. Are there any questions?" Rease raises his hand, and I can''t help but cringe slightly in expectation.


    "Yea, I got a question," says Rease, not waiting to be called on. "Should we call you Primark? Or Mr. Alarez?" The Primark gives him a scathing look for a moment, before answering. "Primark is my rank. Second Primark, to be specific. If you refer to me at all, it will be as Primark Alarez, Second Primark Alarez, or Sir. Do I make myself clear?" Rease just nods his head, seemingly satisfied, and completely unperturbed by the intensity of the Primark. "Good," he says, after a moment. "Now, I am going to send all of you your schedules for the next three months. These schedules can not be changed, they can not be rotated, and they can not be swapped. You will show up to your classes on time, every time, period. I don''t care if we are under attack by the Board and the Queens themselves, unless you are told otherwise by someone above you, you are required to be there. Are we clear?"


    "Sir, yes sir!" I say, entirely by myself. The Primark quirks a single eyebrow at me, and I can feel a pit form in my stomach. "Oh no, oh fuck. Too many movies. Is that not a thing, is that not how you respond?" I think with dread. Luckily, after a terrifying few moments, the Primark moves on without comment. "To access your messages," he says, "you will need to use the neural interface that is part of your gear. This is not a case of thinking hard. You do not need to strain yourself. Instead, you only need to intend to open the message. That intent is what is read by the interface, and is how you can navigate the various menus." The idea is simple enough, but it''s clear I''m not the only one struggling with the concept.


    "God, I feel like I''m trying to flex a muscle I''ve never used before. I don''t know how I''m supposed to intend to open it without having at least opened it once. What does ''intent'' even feel like?" I think to myself, as I stare uselessly at the blinking icon in my field of vision. As I''m sat there trying to send my intent, I hear a gasp from someone behind me. I turn to see Ella''s face lit up. "Oh, I get it! Intent," she says, as we all give her a look of confusion. "It''s like, you are going to open the message. The decision to do it is what causes it to trigger." Ko-lee gives her that familiar look of focus. "How exactly are we supposed to decide to do it, if we don''t know what we''re doing?" she asks, her gaze locked on Ella.


    Ella takes a moment before responding, clearing trying to think of a way to explain the process. "Uhm... imagine you are about to reach for something in your pocket. It''s not the actual reaching that you''re trying to do, it''s the moment right before your hand moves. So, you don''t need to actually reach in this case. You just need to do the thing before it." I''m still lost, but the explanation seems to be enough for Caz-V, because a moment later, he gives a casual, "got it." The last three of us look at Caz-V, but he just shrugs, either unwilling or unable to give any hints on his success.


    "Intend to do it. I don''t need to actually mentally open it. There''s no muscle to flex. I just need to make the decision to do it. Like a flex of willpower," I think. "Oh, wait, is that what it is?" I look at the blinking icon letting me know there''s a waiting message, and suddenly, I''m able to read my schedule. "Ohhhh, I get it," I say, looking at the other four. "It''s an intentional shift in the mind. Like when you''re laying in bed, and you tell yourself you need to get out of bed. That exact moment where it goes from something you''re just saying, to something you know you will do, even if you haven''t done it. That moment where the decision clicks, that''s what you''re doing. I am going to open the message, and so it does." Caz-V looks at me bemusedly, but Ella has her lips pursed, clearly considering my explanation.


    Ko-lee looks first to me, then to Ella, and then Caz-V, and Rease in turn. She sighs, and closes her eyes for a moment, before reopening them. I can see the exact moment she locks in, and the second she does, her face lights up. "Alright, I get it. Antimony... your explanation was dumb," she says, looking at me. "Of course you would make an analogy about getting out of bed. But it did help, so..." I give her a cheeky grin. "You know what they say. If it''s stupid and it works, it isn''t stupid." She just quirks an eyebrow. "Who says that?" she asks. I just give her a non committal wave of my hand. "You know. Them," I say with a dismissive tone, my grin still plastered on my face.


    It takes nearly 20 minutes more for Rease to get a handle on the process, the Primark watching us all the while. Ultimately though, he makes the connection, and the moment his schedule opens up, the Primark makes a noise, drawing everyone''s focus. "If there are no further questions, you are all dismissed," he says. Before Rease gets the chance to actually ask one, I grab his attention. "Hey, Rease, you said you''ve been to a bunch of different places for food? You should bring us to the closest one for lunch." A look of extreme concentration crosses his face, as the Primark leaves the room. "Hmm... I think I know a good place. I don''t know what sort of food they''ll have for Ella though," he says, giving her a look of concern.


    Ella just puffs her cheeks slightly, in a look of incredibly cute frustration. "Rease, I was trying to tell you, but you wouldn''t shut up and listen. I eat meat! I''m not a vegetarian," she says. Utter confusion crosses Rease''s face, and Ella looks to the rest of us haplessly. "I was telling him a story about the colony I grew up in, and he totally misinterpreted what I was saying. But I do eat meat, here and there. Less than most people do, but mostly because we didn''t have a lot where I lived. Too much of it will make me sick," she says.


    I nod my head. "Well I got food last night, and there was a lot more than meat on my plate. I''m sure we''ll be able to find something for everyone''s palettes," I say, standing up from my chair. Rease pops up excitedly, and begins to leave the room. Me, Ko-lee and Ella follow somewhat closely, and a few moments later, Caz-V drags himself out of his chair to trail after us.

 Icebreaker

    Ko-lee, Ella, Caz-V and I all make our way down the hallway, with Rease leading the pack. "Now, if I had to rate the different places I ate at, I wouldn''t put this one at the top of the list, but it''s definitely up there," he says, his hands gesticulating as he talks. I give Ella a cheeky grin, before leaning in conspiratorially. "He''s enthusiastic, isn''t he?" I say, nodding my head towards the broad shouldered recruit in front of us. She looks at him momentarily with an exasperated expression, before giving me a soft smile. "I was sitting with him for 30 minutes before you showed up. Before he was informing me on the specifics of steak, he was talking about how to repair an engine. In. Excruciating. Detail," she says, scrunching up her nose at the memory. "Cute," I think, but out loud I just chuckle. I give him a look as he chatters to Ko-lee, before turning my attention back to Ella. "An engine for what?" I ask, and she just gives me a shrug.


    "No idea," she says. "Honestly, a lot of it went over my head." It only takes a few minutes more before we all find ourselves in what I would be generous to call a restaurant. "Do any of you have any money," asks Caz-V from behind, causing me to flinch. I turn to see a smug look on his face, and I just roll my eyes at him. "It''s not a power play to be a loner you dip." Next to me, Ella nods her head. "I believe we should''ve all gotten a stipend as of this morning," she says, drawing the attention of Ko-lee. "How do you know that?" Ko-lee asks, her gaze locked on Ella. "Uhm," says Ella, looking a touch flustered under Ko-lee''s intense gaze, "I made a friend who started basic training before we did. They uh... sort of convinced me to join." A touch of color hits her cheeks, seemingly embarrassed by the explanation.


    We all make our way to the table, and the moment we seat ourselves, Rease begins to give us a thorough dissection of the menu, explaining what he considers the best options available. "Woah, he likes the three meat surprise? That''s so crazy, I never would''ve guessed that," I think bemusedly, while I half listen to him as I scan the menu. My eyes scroll down the list, before stopping on what seems to be some sort of pasta like dish I''ve not heard of before. I set my menu down, and listen as everyone eventually make their own choices. Ko-lee decides to order one of Rease''s recommendations, while Ella gets something healthy sounding. After a shockingly effective application of puppy dog eyes from Rease, she also gets a side of some sort of stuffed vegetable. Caz-V gets what sounds like alcohol and a greasy breakfast meal.


    The orders are entered into a pad attached to the table, and after we finish, I turn to Caz-V, quirking an eyebrow. "It''s a little early to be drinking, isn''t it?" I say. He just rolls his eyes and gives me an unimpressed look. "What are you, the fun police?" he says, his words dripping with sarcasm. I scoff. "ACAB," I say in English, but he just looks at me with confusion on his face. "No, man," I follow up in Origin. "Not a cop." I hear a small noise, and both mine and Caz-V''s attention shift over to Ella. "Well... we might not be a local security force, but as Tenno, we''ll be protecting the system. That sort of does make us police, doesn''t it?" Rease gives a wide grin, and gives a fist pump. "Haha, that''s awesome!" he exclaims, bumping his shoulder against Ella, nearly knocking her to the floor. "Well, not yet we aren''t," says Ko-lee, looking at Ella. Her arm is outstretched, not quite touching the girl, but it''s clear Ko-lee had moved to prevent her from toppling to the floor. "We still have to get through training."


    "More like, if we get through training," Caz-V mutters. "What, you don''t think we will?" I ask, and he rolls his eyes. "Who knows, but Captain Hardass didn''t seem to have a lot of faith in us. I''d imagine he has a better idea of the success rate than we do." I shake my head at his words. "First of all," I say, doing my best to keep a grin off my face, "it''s Primark Hardass. Or Second Primark Hardass. He was very clear about that." I watch as Caz-V tries and fails to not smile at my dumb joke. "Nah, I think he did it on purpose," I continue. "It''s supposed to be an intimidation tactic. It''s meant to weed out those who aren''t committed." Rease''s eyebrows are scrunched, the question clear on his face. "How would you know something like that?" he asks. "Like, from movies?" I say, giving Ko-lee a covert glance. "Movies are a thing, right?" I try to ask with my eyebrows. It takes her a moment to translate my look, but eventually she gives me a subtle nod of the head. "Hmm, I''m not sure what movies you''ve seen," says Ella, looking thoughtful, "but I''ve never heard of anything like that."


    "What, your parents never shown you the classics?" I say. I notice the energy shift immediately. Everyone is dead silent, and before I have the option to backpedal to try to salvage the situation, our food arrives. We all remove the lower portions of our mask, and dig into our respective meals. For a few minutes, there''s nothing but the sound of chewing, before Ko-lee speaks up. "It was the Grineer for me. I''m... I was part of an Ostron clan. Sharip. We had... an understanding, of sorts, with the previous Grineer. Major Ferrah. But she got promoted, and the new guy... he was a little more hot headed." All meals are fully ignored at this point. Everyone else in the squad is fully engaged, listening to her tell the story, but my focus is on her. "She''s remarkably steady. It would be asinine to say she''s healed from the trauma, but... she''s come a long way from the dugouts," I think, as I look at my girlfriend.


    "I was the daughter of the Chief," she says, looking around the table. "I tried to tell him that we needed to be more... proactive. Even tried to get him to hire a warframe." She gives a bitter smile, before continuing. "He didn''t agree with me. Me and Antimony are alive because we were in the forest at the time, training." The only sounds are the ones of the restaurant, the noise of the kitchen and of the other patrons around us. Nobody is speaking, and I desperately wrack my brain to come up with a way to shift the topic, before Ella sighs. "I get it," she says. "They... they''re assholes." The expression of anger on her face looks misplaced, as though the muscles aren''t used to forming such a shape. She takes a deep breath, clearly trying to form her words before speaking. "My parents were part of a Corpus debt colony, but they ended up fleeing to a New Loka settlement."


    I catch Caz-V shifting uncomfortably at her words, but he doesn''t say anything, and Ella doesn''t seem to notice. "My parents loved the whole ''low technology'' thing we had going on," she says. "It was never really for me, even having been raised in it. So... well, I was off in a cave when it happened. It was just a little spot I found years ago as a kid. I had some scraps there I''d tinker with and... I guess they didn''t know the colony was there? Or maybe they just didn''t care." Her gaze turns down towards the table, and I have to strain slightly to be able to hear her words. "They were burning the forest. I think they were trying to clear space, or something. But they... they flew over in one of their ships. Dropped some sort of sticky chemicals on the trees. It was..." she takes in a shuddering breath, as she relives the moment. "It was so hot. It didn''t just burn the trees, it melted the stone. I couldn''t leave the cave. If it weren''t for the pool of water near the back, I think I might''ve died from the heat."


    She sighs, her eyes coming up from the table to look at each of us in turn, before ending with Ko-lee. "Anyways. After a day and a half, I was able to make my way out. I headed towards the closest Ostron colony... and that''s that." I look at Ko-lee to see gears turning in her head. "Do you remember the name of the colony?" she asks, and Ella nods. "Yea, it was Hotas." Ko-lee hums to herself for a moment before responding. "That''s... not that far from where Sharip was, actually. Maybe... 60 miles to the west?" says Ko-lee, before her expression sharpens. "That shouldn''t have been part of his territory, but I wouldn''t put it past Colonel Jar to have overstepped his bounds." Ella''s face shows a mixture of empathy and frustration at the information. "I will kill him, Ella," says Ko-lee, her voice cold and hard. "I know it won''t fix things, for you or for me. But I will kill him. And I will make it hurt."Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    There''s a quiet intake of breath from Ella. "I mean, who doesn''t think about vengeance after a tragedy. But she didn''t have a target before, and now Ko-lee is giving her one. This... it can''t be healthy. But also, who am I to tell someone not to seek revenge?" There''s a brief moment as I feel a thought surface to the top of my mind. "And honestly, I want to hurt him too. God how I wish I could just..." my thoughts come to a halt, or more realistically, a collision, as my id and superego collide. I''m aware of the logic that violence simply begets more violence; that to encourage this behavior is to engage in the othering of the Grineer. "It doesn''t solve anything! They''re humans, people! They need medical care and deprogramming, not systematic slaughter!" And yet... I feel the heat of the fire of Sharip, smell the ash, hear the bang the thud <em style="font-style: normal; text-shadow: -1px 2px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4), 1px -3px 1px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.4), 3px -4px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2), -4px -3px 1px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.2), -6px 7px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2)">the screams-


    A deep voice rings out across the table, interrupting my mental spiral. "Being stuck... not knowing if they lived. That''s probably the worst part," says Rease, his usual jovial tone missing as he gives Ella a look of deep, painful understanding. "Me and my parents, we... well, I guess it doesn''t matter now. We were rail agents," he says, to a variety of reactions. Ella gasps quietly, and Caz-V raises his eyebrows at the claim. Ko-lee, on the other hand, just looks focused, likely trying to determine the meaning of the term from context clues. "Same same," I think, turning my attention back to the big man. "I know some tractor jockeys are real assholes... but we weren''t like that. Mom is... mom was always saying that we needed to put more light in the universe than we soak up. We never moved weapons or anything dangerous, and we only ever charged enough for the next trip." His expression darkens.


    "I told her, I told Dad that we needed to get a better lifeboat. That the bucket we had could only fit one person. He just kept telling me that we''d squeeze in if it came to that. He didn''t even try," Rease says, growling out the last word through clenched teeth. He''s squeezing his utensils in a death grip, his hands shaking from the force. "Hey," I say, keeping my voice calm and light. "We get it. You don''t have to tell us if you don''t want to." He shakes his head, small frantic movements causing his top knot to bob back and forth, before taking a deep breath. "Nah, I''m good, I''m good. There was some spat up near Centauri between the Corpus and the Grineer. We were just bugs caught in the crossfire. I doubt they even knew we were there, and I definitely have no idea what they were fighting about," says Rease. I interject before he can continue. "Sorry, Centauri? Like Alpha Centauri?" I ask, and he gives me a confused look.


    "No, as in Centauri Junction. The Solar Rail between Venus and Earth," he explains. "Oh... what? They definitely didn''t have names in game," I think, as Rease continues talking. "Anyways, that''s where a Tenno operative found me. In the lifeboat, nestled against the Rail, where I had been for the last three days. I can''t really be sure that they''re dead but... they would''ve been able to follow the distress signal. They would''ve found me," he says, with heart wrenching conviction. The table falls silent after Rease finishes telling his story, and one by one, our attentions all shift to Caz-V. "What?" he says, his eyes narrowing. "I wasn''t aware it was a requirement to spill our guts to each other to pass basic." Ella looks at him, her expression soft. "It builds camaraderie," she says. Caz-V scoffs. "Yea, well, my Dad''s still alive, he''s just a moron," he says with a dismissive roll of his eyes.


    "And your mom?" asks Ko-lee, her words firm but kind. "Dead. Hopefully," Caz-V responds with a lazy tone. The table is left completely silent, and so I decide to pivot the conversation. "Your tattoo''s are cool. Are they Corpus?" I ask. Caz-V is in the middle of a drink, and so we all watch as he takes his time to finish. "Beecloud Robotics, Principle Solutions Data Associate, Macro Engineering," he says, a hint of pride in his words. I see Rease''s expression tighten, but Caz-V is too busy looking at me to notice. "I was actually about to hit Advisor in a few months. My parents were both Senior Engagement Officers, so..."


    "Literally no idea what that means bud," I think, before taking a random stab in the dark. "So, did you guys get attacked by the Grineer?" He barks a short laugh. "Yeah right! Our MOA''s are best in class. Axio base, magnetic propulsion systems, Muon batteries powering high capacity shields. If it was those tuberats, we would''ve squashed them like bugs," Caz-V says, almost wistfully. "Well, what the fuck else could it be? Inter Corpus drama maybe? There''s only three-" It hits me like a ton of bricks. "Oh fuck," I say, the words slipping of my mouth in English. He gives me a wan smile, picking up on the meaning, despite the language barrier. "How can you fight something like that?" he croaks. "They corrupted our systems, turned our meat crews against us." He tilts his head to the ceiling, placing his hands behind his head in a facsimile of nonchalance. "We got hazard pay, you know. About six hundred thousand of us managed to get off board without any issues."


    "That''s not too bad," I say. He just chuckles. "Yea, well, an Auron-class ship usually holds a crew size of three to five million, so you do the math." "Fuck me, 2.4 million dead on the low end? 4.4 on the high?" I think. The numbers are too massive for me to visualize, and so all I manage to say in response is, "Oh." He nods his head, his eyes closed. "Oh is right. I''m one of the lucky ones. Me and my Dad. We were working together, about as far from the epicenter as we could have been. Mom... wasn''t. Still, I''ve heard the warframes are immune. So I guess one day I might be able to bury what''s left of her." It''s clear that he''s finished explaining, and so I watch as Rease leans over to Ella, whispering. "Wait, what is he talking about?" "Infested," says Ella, whispering back. Rease''s face grows a shade paler. "Oh," he says, in a moment near identical to mine. "Neato, we''re all damaged OC''s," I think sarcastically.


    "I think this is the right place for us," says Ella, breaking the silence. We all give her odd looks, but to her credit, she forges on regardless. "Well, what I mean is, we all got here through rough paths. But... being a part of the Tenno? I think... well, I know we can make the system better. All of us, together." Nobody immediately responds, and her face starts to grow red, so I swoop in to rescue her. "Together," I say, giving her a genuine smile. Rease''s face splits into a grin. "Hell yeah! Together!" he follows up, a touch too enthusiastically. We get a couple odd looks from some of the other patrons in the restaurant, but they don''t manage to dampen the mood. "Together," says Ko-lee, with a simple nod. "Sure," says Caz-V, offhandedly. "Yea, that''s probably the best we''re going to get from him," I think, mentally rolling my eyes.


    "Awesome!" I say, the mood brighter than it was mere minutes ago. "And on that note, we should probably head off to class." I stand up from the chair, and everyone else follows. "Oh, uh, do we have to do anything to actually pay?" I ask Ella, the moment before I start to walk off. "Nope, we already paid for it," she says brightly. "Great! Let''s delta," I say, and we all filter out of the restaurant and into the hall. "We should come up with a team name," says Rease, to varying levels of enthusiasm, as we start to follow the line to our next destination. "I think we should call it Ella and friends," he says, causing her face to regain it''s color from only a few minutes ago. The idea is shot down, with a grateful look from Ella, but we bounce ideas back and forth all the way to class, and we even manage to get Caz-V to chime in once or twice.

 Braton

    All five of us leave the restaurant headed towards our first class. The text for our highlighted line says WEAPONS TRAINING, making it very clear what it is we''re in for. "I wonder how it knows to highlight the line for us. Like, is it the neural interface or something? God I hope not, I''m sick of buildings being able to read my mind, for real. ...actually, now that I think about it, it probably just knows my schedule and where I am with a local GPS or something. I''ll take Big Brother over mind reader, I guess," I muse as we make our way down the wide hall. There''s general chatter amongst the group, but I''ve missed the context, and so it takes me a minute to pick up on what exactly Rease and Ko-lee are talking about.


    "Yea, a little bit, but it was just small arms. Grineer tech that was salvaged. Technically it had been given to my dad, but he wanted to get rid of it, so I took it," says Ko-lee. "Oh, I was raised with a gun in my hand," says Rease, proudly. "My parents wanted to make sure that I could protect myself, no matter what. You never know what sort of people you''ll run into on the rails." His gaze drifts off as he talks, clearly lost in a memory. "Sometimes, you meet with your client to give him what he ordered, but then he changes his mind on paying for it, and then when you tell him you''re not leaving the ship without flash in hand, he tries to suck you out the air lock." His gaze refocuses on Ko-lee as he gives a cold grin. "Yea, you get good at handling a gun." Ko-lee looks skeptical, but doesn''t call him out on his claim.


    "Someone tried to suck you out into space!?" says Ella, seemingly horrified and intrigued in equal measure. "Oh, more than once. But I''ve got killer grip strength," he says, flexing his fingers. Caz-V snorts, but Rease doesn''t seem to notice, his gaze wandering between Ella and Ko-lee, and very occasionally, me. "Subtle as a brick," I think, but I still can''t help but grin every time he goes to glance my way only to realize that I''m already looking at him. "Fuck it, we ball. Full harem; me and Ko-lee and Ella and Rease. Caz-V can... I don''t know, sit in the cuck chair." I snicker at my own thoughts, and luckily, nobody seems to care. The chatter continues to bounce around for the next ten minutes it takes for us to get to the classroom.


    The door slides open, and we see a guy opposite the entry, standing next to a table with what looks like a gun on it. "Teacher, twelve o''clock." The man is wearing a TEPA suit like the rest of us, but it looks well worn, and the grays and blues on his suit are more saturated than the ones on ours. "Bro is giving mid 40s Aizawa. I never realized bags under the eyes could literally be bags," I think. My gaze wanders past him to the rest of the space, which is effectively just a rectangular room, and then to what is clearly a gun range off to our right. "Welcome to weapon''s training," he says, as the last of us finish shuffling through the door. "I am Third Deacon Ravon." He looks over all of us as we awkwardly stand there for a moment, before continuing.


    "In weapons training, I will teach you to use weapons. In many cases, these weapons will be firearms. Can anyone tell me what the objective of using a firearm is?" Without raising his hand, and barely loud his regular speaking voice, Caz-V says, "Killing things." "Close," says the teacher. "But it''s a little more generic than that. The objective is to destroy a target. Your target may not be a person. It may not even be alive. You might want to shoot a virmink when in Orb Vallis. You might want to blow out the window of a Pillar-class Corpus ship. And of course, you might want to shoot a Grineer Lancer. But regardless of what your target is, your goal is to destroy it." He reaches towards the table behind him, picking up the red, black, and white rifle on it. "I''m like 99% sure that''s a Braton," I think, as he lifts the weapon.


    "Whether you are using a big gun, or a small gun, whether it shoots projectiles of laser or lead, whether it fires fast or slow, explodes or ricochets, the only way to destroy your target, is to hit it. Therefore, for the first month of classes, we will be covering the fundamentals of marksmanship. You will be learning how to point your weapon correctly, and how to fire it correctly." Rease raises his hand, but doesn''t wait for the teacher to call on him. "Well, all you gotta do is point the round end at the target, and then pull the trigger," he says, with a confused tone. "And what if you point wrong, Recruit Thomoni? What if you miss the target, alerting them to your presence, when your objective is to stay undetected? What if the projectile recoils, and you hit something, or someone, you don''t mean to hit?" Rease doesn''t respond, clearly embarrassed.


    The teacher turns his head to look at the rest of us. "There are four golden rules when firing a weapon. Along with practice, it will reduce the chance that you make any one of the mistakes I just informed Recruit Thomoni of. Does anyone know what any of these rules are?" My hand shoots up into the air, and the teacher looks at me. "Recruit Nova, you know the four rules?" he asks, his tone betraying his skepticism. "Well, probably not all four, but I think I know two of them. Don''t point your gun at stuff you don''t want to shoot, and... uhm. Keep your finger off the trigger until you''re ready to shoot." For a brief moment he regards me, before nodding his head. "Yes, actually. Rules 3 and 2. Do-" I can''t help but interrupt, suddenly remembering another one.


    "Oh! Wait! Also, treat all guns as loaded!" I say, before feeling a wave of shame rush over me. "Uhm. Sir." I can feel the eyes of my squadmates on me, but I make an intentional decision to not look at any of them. The teacher gives me a smile, and he puts the Braton back on the table, crossing his arms. "Not bad Recruit. Do you know the last one?" I give a small, quick shake of the head. "No, sir," I say. He just chuckles. "You know 3 out of 4 of the rules, and use the proper address when referring to a superior officer? I was told that you were pulled from Earth," he says, in a leading tone. "I was, sir. I wasn''t raised Tenno, I just... picked it up, I guess," I tell him, not wanting to shoot myself in the foot. "As far as proper address, Primark Alarez was very clear about how we should refer to a superior officer. Sir."


    His tired eyes grow thoughtful for a moment. "Second Primark Alarez? For your onboarding?" he asks, partially to himself. I nod, and catch similar movement out of the corner of my eye. "Hmm. Interesting. Well, in any case, that''s not relevant to this class. Back to the fundamentals... we never covered rule four. Know your target. If you fire your weapon, be aware of everything around it and behind it. How far will the projectile travel? Will it hit something and ricochet? I want you to all be aware that we will be covering these rules every class. So, memorize them. Carve them into your mind. I don''t care if you''re unconscious, I want you following these rules no matter what. They can make the difference between you coming home from an op or not." The class is entirely silent from the intensity of his words, and he takes a moment to look into our souls before he continues. "So. We were talking about pointing your gun."


    I watch as he reaches over for the Braton on the table as he speaks. "How can you be sure that the projectile will go where you want? We utilize a feature of the weapon called sights." I watch as he grips the gun by it''s handle, tilting along the roll axis to show us the sights on the top of the gun. As he does though, I see his finger slip onto the trigger, and I can''t help but sharply intake some air as he does. He stops and looks at me, his eyebrows narrowing. "Do you have something to say, Recruit?" I open my mouth, but no words come out. "Fuck me I haven''t been to school in so long and I''ve literally interrupted him like twice in 2 minutes I mean he literally just said to follow the rules and then went and put his finger on the trigger anyways..." I swallow. "You... uhm, sir. Your finger." He stares at me for a moment, before relaxing and giving me a smile.


    "Well spotted Recruit Nova. That''s exactly what I want you all to do if you see anyone break the rules. That includes me. Don''t wait for someone to say something. Be that someone," he says, taking his finger off the trigger. "This is a training Braton, which means it can''t fire any projectiles. I would still like you to treat it as a real weapon. Everyone understand?" There''s a round of nods, and he gives us one back. "Good. So," he says, pointing to the top of the gun. "Sights. We have a lot of different technology these days, but a sight is a sight is a sight. We''ve got two portions." His pointing finger moves close to the barrel. "We have the front sight," he says, before his finger travels closer to the stock, "and we have the rear sight. Now, the goal," he says, as he draws a line with his finger, "is to make a line from your eye, through the rear sight, to the front." His finger lifts up from the gun, and points to the screen behind him, as it springs to life.


    On the screen is a simplified representation of an iron sight, aiming at a Grineer soldier. "If your sights are aligned, then everything will be on top of each other." The screen changes to show the same image, but this time with the forward and rear sight misaligned. "If your sights are not aligned, they will look like this. You see how it''s askew?" He flicks back to the previous image, and then back to the incorrect one a few times, before looking at the class. "I''m serious, if you don''t understand it, please ask. This is your opportunity to do so." The squad is silent, and he takes a deep breath before jumping forward two slides. This one has two pictures side by side; one with a blurry foreground, and one with a blurry background. "Alright then. Next, we make sure we are focused on the sights, not the target. I''ll repeat this again. We are focused on the sight. Not the target. Can anybody tell me why?"Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    Ella raises her hand after a moment. "Recruit Tygg," says the teacher, looking at her. "Uhm, is it because when we look at the target, the sight gets blurry?" He nods his head once, prompting her to continue. "Oh! Uhm, and... that''s cause your eye can only focus on one thing at a time?" Every statement ends in the upswing of a question, as though she''s not fully confident of her answer. "You''re not wrong, but more specifically, I want to know why a blurry sight is a problem," he says. "Sir, is it because we''d be unable to tell if the sight was aligned?" asks Ko-lee. The teacher gives a grin. "That''s exactly it. The sights are there to tell us where the projectile goes. Ergo, if you lose focus of the sights, you are no longer aiming, you''re dreaming. We don''t need dreamers here, we need soldiers." I bite the inside of my cheek, trying desperately not to grin at the statement.


    "Once your eye and sights are aligned, you''ll want to keep your eye in the same place every time. For a rifle, such as the Braton, this is easier, because we can practice something called stock weld. Any guesses as to what stock weld is?" Rease raises his hand unsteadily, looking around at us as he does. "Recruit Thomoni. What is stock weld?" asks the teacher, and Rease gives us all one last confused look before facing forwards. "Well... it''s gotta be... where you weld. Your stock." The teacher raises his eyebrows. "Weld the stock to what, Recruit?" Rease takes a moment to think, before answering. "Uhm. Your face?" Caz-V snickers, and the teacher turns to him, his expression stone. "Something funny, Recruit Caz-V?" Caz-V''s smile drops off his face, and there''s a tense moment. "No, sir," he says, his expression betraying nothing. The teacher lets the moment drag out, before turning to look at the rest of us, his expression warm. "Recruit Thomoni is correct. You''re welding your face to your stock."


    He raises the rifle up to his shoulder, then presses his face against the stock as though trying to make an imprint on his cheek, facing the wall. "From a position like this, when the gun moves, so does your face, and so does your eye." He simulates the recoil of the weapon, his face moving along with the gun. "However, if you''re gentle, the weapon will slide as you shoot, and you will lose alignment. If you lose alignment, what happens? Shout it out." "You miss your target, sir," says Ella, in a squeak. "Correct, Recruit Tygg. Again, no resting. I don''t need dreamers." He takes his face off the stock of the weapon and turns to look at us. "Finally, your fingers. Where are they?" He looks straight at me, and so I answer. "Off the trigger, until we''re ready to fire." He gives me a smile, before looking at the rest of the class. "Correct. But now, I''m ready. I''ve put my finger on the trigger. I''m ready to fire. I know my target. I''m aligned. How do I pull the trigger?"


    Rease raises his hand again. "You just do," he says, in a semi-confident tone. "I''d like specifics," says the teacher. "Fast? Slow? Hard? Soft?" No one responds, and the teacher waits a moment before answering his own question. "We pull smooth, Recruits," he says, drawing out the oo sound in ''smooth''. "We pull smooth, because if we jerk the trigger, we can pull the gun out of alignment. Even if you only move it a few millimeters, that can be inches by the time your projectile reaches it''s target." He sets the training gun down, and looks at the squad. "How many of you have fired a gun before?" Me, Ko-lee, and Rease all raise our hands. "That''s fine," he says. "We''re going to do some basic firing today. Nothing fancy, I just want you to experience the weapon."


    He crosses over the tiled floor demarcating the different rooms, and stands next to one of the lanes. "Now listen to what I''m about to say, because this is the most important thing you''re going to hear all day. Once you enter your lane, you will not pick up the gun, you will not do anything until I''m next to you. You will make one move at a time, as I tell you to make them. If you do anything I tell you not to, I''m throwing you out. If you don''t do what I tell you to, I''m throwing you out. If you are incredibly lucky, you won''t be kicked out of basic. Do you all understand?" We give him silent nods, and he scans each of our faces. "I''m deadly serious here. I''ve done it before, and I''ll do it again. I don''t want recruits that will shoot each other, or themselves, or for Lotus'' sake, me. So follow. The. Rules."


    Nobody says anything, and he gives us a tired smile. "Great. Everyone, to a lane." We all split, and I make my way to the one furthest to the right, looking at the gun in front of me. "Holy shit, a Braton. I mean, I know I''ve messed with the Kraken, but this is like, classic Warframe gun. I''m mean, if I was gunna be picky, I''d ask for a Burston, but still! Braton! And it has a Prime variant, and a Vandal variant I think and maybe also a Wraith Variant! Plus, the Braton has an Incarnon once the Zaramin pops up, so like... staying power," I think, doing my best to keep my hands off the weapon. I hear the teacher talking to someone in a different lane, and moments later, gunfire, although it''s strangely muted.


    After an excruciating 10 minutes, he walks into my lane. "Recruit Nova. Thank you for being patient. I''m going to have you fire the Braton, but before you touch the weapon, I''d like you to recite the four rules," he says, standing behind me. "Finger off the trigger until you''re ready to fire, know your target, uhmm..." I freeze for a moment, unable to remember the other two. "Don''t''... oh! Don''t aim at anything you don''t want to destroy." He waits for a second, then raises an eyebrow. "And the last one?" I sigh. "Yea, I don''t remember," I say, giving him an apologetic look. "That''s alright, we did just learn them. The last one was always treat the weapon as loaded."


    "Fuck, I knew that too," I think, outwardly nodding in response. "I want you to keep them in mind during this exercise, please. Now, you may pick up the gun." I pick it up, making sure to keep the barrel downrange, my finger off the trigger, and to not pass anything in front of the barrel. "Alright, next I''d like you to load the magazine into the weapon," he says, pointing at a magazine on my left. I reach over, and place it in the Braton, feeling a satisfying click. "Thank you for not passing your arm in front of the barrel. Are you left handed?" he asks. "I am, sir," I respond. "Do you know your dominant eye?" he follows up. I shake my head. "I''m assuming that if you''re asking me, it''s not just whatever hand I use."


    "It usually is, but sometimes I''ll get a recruit that prefers to use the other eye. But in your case, that makes things easy. Now, please aim down the sights, but do not fire until I say so." I place my cheek against the stock of the Braton, doing my best to keep my hands steady as I aim down the range. "Good," he says, after a couple seconds. "Now, on my mark, you may begin firing the gun. ...mark." I pull the trigger for only a second, and a quick sprrt of bullets flies out of the barrel. "Alright, it''s got a bit of a kick," I think, as I look at the line drawn on the target. "Why did you stop firing?" asks the teacher. "Rule 3, sir," I say, my face still locked to the stock. "Excuse me?" he asks. "I have no intent to destroy the ceiling, sir," I say, deadpan. There''s a few seconds of silence before he responds. "Fair enough. Keep firing until the magazine is empty. I won''t interrupt again." I pull the trigger four more times in rapid succession until I hear the gun click.


    "Alright, now, before you put the gun down, I''d like you to do two things. First, remove the magazine." I follow his instructions, and he continues. "Next, I''d like you to rack the slide." His hand comes into my vision, and he points to a bar I had seen move while firing. "Pull it twice, please." I do so, and nothing happens. "Good. We''re clearing the chamber," he explains. "I know you fired every shot, and you know you fired every shot, but we practice redundancy. I promise it''ll save your life. One more thing. Pull the slide back one more time until it clicks into place. Then you can set it down." I follow his instructions, and finally, set the weapon down on the table. "Adrenaline," I think, noticing my arms shake. "It''s a lot more than the Kraken." I step away from my lane to join the semicircle of my squadmates who were all apparently watching me.


    "Alright, class is nearly over. You all did well, and by that I mean I didn''t have to kick any of you out, which I appreciate," says the teacher, giving us a grin. "Also, I didn''t tell you this because I wanted you to focus on safety, but your performance was scored. I''m going to show you the scores in a second, but please, don''t worry about your squadmate''s scores. The goal is to improve your own score every class. If you do that, I''ll be happy." The screen next to the table with the training Braton flicks on, and I quickly scan everyone''s scores. Surprisingly, Rease is at the top, with a score of 140 out of 225. After Rease is me, 121 to 225. Ko-lee had 103, Caz-V had 87, and Ella was last with 74. "Hell yeah, second place," I think, right as I notice Ko-lee give me an intense look. "You scored better than me," she says, and I raise my hands placatingly. "I taught you to fire a gun." I can''t help but giggle. "Well, no, I''ve fired a rifle before, with my family. As an American, we''re born with a gun in one hand and Mickey D''s in the other," I say.


    "I thought your last name was Nova?" asks Ella from behind me, causing a spike of nerves to run up my spine. "Ah, fuck. I should probably watch what I say around the squad," I think, as I give Ella a shrug. "I am. America is where I''m from. It''s the name of the colony I was born in," I say, trying to impress notes of uninteresting, boring, rote in my voice. There''s a moment where she scrunches her eyebrows, and she opens her mouth no doubt to ask another question when she''s interrupted by the teacher. "Alright, that''s all for today. I''m pretty sure you all have a class to get to. So get."

 Six Minute Mile

    We all leave the gun range, and begin following the line towards the next class. "You never told me about shooting with your family," says Ko-lee, matching pace with me as we walk. I give her a shrug. "Well, I don''t think I''ve talked to you about my family all that much." She tilts her head, her gaze laser focused on me. "Why not?" she asks. I sigh. "I don''t know. My family is complicated. My mom remarried a few times, so my family is a bit scattered. And we all moved to different places, so I don''t think about them very much. We get together here and there for holidays, but other than that... they''re just not really part of my life." There''s a moment of confusion in her eyes. "You... don''t live near them?" she asks, trying to piece something together in her mind. I shake my head. "No, we moved far away from each other. It''s... a culture thing, I think. I think pretty much everyone here lives with their family for one reason or another, but where I was... I think I''d need to give a whole breakdown for it. Maybe later," I say, looking at the others.


    Ko-lee nods her head, my unspoken words understood. Me and her fall silent for the rest of the walk, listening to the others for the few minutes it takes to get to our next class. As we walk in, my eyes wander the large open space. "God damn it, it''s PE," I think, looking at the racks of equipment, and padded floors tapped off to denote various spaces. "RECRUITS!" yells a huge woman. "THIS IS PHYSICAL TRAINING. WE ARE GOING TO GET PHYSICAL HERE. IT MAY HURT. YOU WILL NOT COMPLAIN." We''re all dead silent. "Good! You understand! It''s time for warm up!" She points to the track that rings the room. "I want you all to run three times around the track!" We all look at each other for a second, before she startles us into action. "MOVE!"


    We take off, and at first, Rease pulls way ahead of the rest of us. But it''s not long before his lead begins to shrink. "All those muscles and no endurance," I think, making sure to breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth. Ko-lee is keeping pace with me, likely out of habit, and eventually she starts to pull away from the group. I hazard a quick glance behind to see Caz-V and Ella right next to each other, but I can tell from how casual he is that Caz-V is doing it on purpose. "Well well well, how the turn tables. Looks like Dick van Douche actually has a heart of gold. Or he wants in Ella''s pants. Truly a mystery for the ages." I''m unsure of how long the track is, but it takes about five minutes for us to make a full circuit on it, according to the clock in the headset.


    "Def shorter than a mile then. I''ve never been that fast," I think. By the second lap, I''m getting winded, but so is Rease, and so we stay pretty much in lock step the whole time. Ko-lee, on the other hand, is nearly half way around the track from the rest of us. We keep pushing, and by the third lap, I''m really starting to feel the burn. I''ve stopped paying attention to everyone else, because at this point I just want to make sure I''m pacing myself. "There''s more to come. She said warm up," I repeat over and over in my head. I''m so distracted, that I barely notice when I cross the finish line. It''s only as Ko-lee waves at me from the sideline that I stumble slightly and come to a stop. Around 30 seconds later, Caz-V and Ella finish, Caz-V looking much fresher than his running companion. "Great, you all look warm. Time for stretches," says the teacher, who I''m suddenly realizing never gave us a name.


    She leads us through excruciating stretches, and I feel muscles I didn''t know I had getting pulled in ways I didn''t know they could be pulled. "This is it. This is hell. Hell is yoga," I think, my arms shaking as I perform what the teacher was calling the "escalator" stretch. "Aahh, good. Now slowly rise back to a standing position, making sure to take in a breath as you do," says the teacher, as we all untangle ourselves. We stand there for a moment, and she glares at all of us, saying nothing. "To be fair, I don''t know if she''s glaring, or if her face just looks like that," I think, waiting for her to speak. She doesn''t. The silence stretches on for so long, that I start formulating something to say when she finally opens her mouth.


    "We are not warframes," she says, making sure to lock eyes with all of us, one at a time. "Again. We are not warframes. A warframe''s goal is to slaughter a military compound. A warframe''s goal is to sabotage a ship engine. A warframe''s goal is eliminate highly protected targets. But to accomplish those goals, they need information, and it''s up to us to make them as effective as possible. That is what we do as Tenno." She starts to pace in front of us as she talks, only occasionally giving glances. "When you''re assigned to an operation, you may need to spy. You may need to infiltrate. And yes, you may need to kill. But you''ll learn how to do those things in your other classes." She stops pacing, and turns to look at us. "Here, I''ll be making sure your body is capable of doing those things you learn about. I''ll teach you to navigate a Corpus duct system. How to climb a Martian ruin. How to take and throw a punch."


    "My goal is to make sure that your body can cash the checks your mind is writing. And we''ll start with combat. Now, I want to be entirely clear here. You won''t be grappling a Grineer prosecutor, or suplexing an Infested charger. Again, we''re not warframes. But you''ll need resilience to perform as a Tenno, and this will help build that resilience." She claps her hands, once, loudly. "Right, so I want everyone to line up." We shuffle around for a moment, forming a line on the mat. As we do, she grabs some sort of device off a nearby table, and the moment we finish moving, she hands each one of us one of the devices. It''s smooth and metallic, and has a teardrop shape to it, if a bit flat. "There''s a spot near your waist that this should attach to. Bring it close to your TEPA, and you should feel a pull. It''ll guide itself in," she says, as she finishes handing out the devices.


    I hold the device to my stomach, and feel the device try to leave my hands in the direction a specific spot near my waist. I guide it over, and as it gets closer, the pull gets stronger, until finally, I let go and it gets sucked in. "Magnets, how do they work," I think, watching a blue light flash on the device. "This will help prevent you from getting seriously injured during training," says the teacher, watching us all attach the device. Her eyes scan us, and eventually they land on Rease. "Recruit Thomoni, come here." He takes a step out of line, closing the distance, and she looks him up and down for a moment. She''s roughly my height, around 6''1" or 6''2", but Rease is still a couple inches taller, so she has to tilt to make eye contact with him. "Recruit, I''m going to beat the shit out of you for three minutes. I don''t want you attacking back. Think you can do that?"


    His mouth hangs open for a moment, but her expression doesn''t change. Eventually, he closes his mouth and just gives her a short nod. "Great!" says the teacher, her expression lighting up for what seems like the first time since we''ve entered the class. She takes one step towards him, just enough to get him within arms range, then grabs him by the suit and fully lifts him off his feet, before slamming him down on the ground. "What the fuck was that!" I think in shock, as I watch Rease pick himself up from his prone position. "She threw him around like a bag of dirty laundry! Does she have like... enhancements or something?" She waits until he makes his way back to his feet before sending a jab right at his face.


    He instinctively flinches, and she pulls her hand back right before making contact with him, tutting. "Recruits, that is what I want to break. Did you see how Recruit Thomoni closed his eyes? It is vital that you keep your eyes open in the field." She sighs for a moment, and Rease squints before fully opening his eyes, looking around confusedly. "You''re going to get hurt in the field. It''s going to happen. But when it happens, it''ll likely be because you and your squadmates are in danger. But those moments of danger are when you need to be at your best. This pain?" She swings her other fist at Rease''s face, and this time, it connects. As it does though, I can perceptibly notice the fist slow as it hits his face. "Still looks like it hurts though," I think. "I want you to know it. Feel it. Move past it," she says, striking Rease all the while. At the end of her phrase, her leg swings around and connects with his midsection, causing him to bend over, letting out a "Ooof."If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    "Know it. Feel it. Move past it," she says, as Rease attempts to get air in his lungs. Eventually, he takes a deep breath, and straightens back up, his expression hard. The teacher smiles, although it doesn''t quite reach her eyes. "Good!" she says, before taking another swing at him. The beat down goes on for roughly another 90 seconds, before she suddenly stops. "That''s three minutes. Well done Recruit Thomoni. Seriously. It takes guts to come up here first," she says to the bruise that was once referred to as Rease. "Go and sit down on the bench. Take a breather. You get 12 minutes as I work my way through the rest of your squad." Her gaze turns to me, and I feel a spike of adrenaline rush down my spine. "You ready Recruit?" she asks. I shake my head no. "Yes, sir," I say. She laughs, a much softer laugh than I was expecting. "You''re funny, Recruit Nova." Then she swings.


    <hr>


    Roughly 15 minutes later, and the entire squad is sitting on the bench, in various states of exhaustion. The teacher towers over us, looking down, ever so slightly bouncing on the balls of her feet. "Alright recruits. This was the heaviest setting for the kinetic dampeners. Over the next month, we''ll be decreasing the sensitivity until it has no effect at all," she says. I''m too tired to worry. "I''ll give you all a few more minutes, but then I want you to pair off. The rest of class you''ll be hitting each other. Every ten minutes, I want you rotating through, and we keep going until everyone''s had a chance to fight everyone else." Ella raises her hand, her arm wavering slightly. "Uhm... I''m sorry, sir, but... I don''t actually know how to fight." The teacher nods her head. "I''m aware, and it''s alright. Right now, this is just a chance to blow off some steam."


    "So go ahead and do whatever you think will be effective. Swing, kick, smack, whatever. If I see something genuinely problematic, I''ll step in. Eventually, we''ll transition into something a little more structured, but this is an opportunity to get a little aggressive. And remember, you have the kinetic dampeners, so none of you will get seriously injured." I hear Caz-V scoff next to me, and the teacher''s head slowly turns to lock eyes with him. "Do you have something you''d like to share with the class, Recruit?" I can see the fight in his head, but it seems like his frustration wins, because he bites out, "Yeah. We all have injuries. I don''t think the dampeners work." A malicious grin grows on her face. "Do you have serious injuries, Recruit?" He stares at her for a moment, before losing his game of eye contact chicken. "No. Sir," he says, begrudgingly.


    "Exactly," says the teacher, before looking at the rest of us. "Now I want everyone to pair off, except for Ella. Ella, you were the last one to fight, so you''ll sit this round out." I look over to Ko-lee sitting a spot away from me at the same time as Rease does, and unfortunately, he''s sitting right next to her, so I''m left with Caz-V. I look at him and give him a shrug, and he just rolls his eyes and makes his way to one corner of a mat, leaving me to make my way to the other. We both reach our corners, and the teacher says "Go!", but neither of us move. "Alright, Bateman, why don''t you drop the act and put your damn hands up," I think, as he stands there motionless. "You know I''m going to swing on you here in a second, right?" I ask him, doing my best to keep the tone light.


    He just shrugs once more. "And I''ll swing back," he says, with an unconcerned tone. "Alright, can''t say that I didn''t try." I raise my hands in a boxer''s pose, and he doesn''t move his at all, although he does widen his stance slightly. "Am I just supposed to... walk towards him?" I wonder, feeling incredibly awkward. I''ve never been in a real fight before, just some scraps here and there. As well, I''ve had bits of training over my entire life, but it''s all mixed together to form a congealed mass of unusable knowledge. I half skip, half walk towards him, and the moment I''m within arm''s reach, I throw a jab towards his face. Much faster than expected, he dips to the left of my swing, then grabs both hands onto my outstretched arm, swinging me around. I reactively try to take a step to keep balance, but his foot is planted in the way, and I immediately trip over it. I rotate midair to avoid smashing down on my face, and some remnant of muscle memory kicks in so that I don''t just fall flat on my back.


    Instead, I hit the ground and roll, throwing my feet up over my head, maintaining the momentum from the fall, so that I instead end up in a crouch a few feet away from him. He gives me a smirk. "You look like an idiot," he says, and for the first time in a while, I can''t come up with anything to say. "He let go of my arm on purpose. He probably just stood there while I rolled. I didn''t get away, he probably just let me. Fuck," I think, slowly standing up. My eyes are glued on him, on his feet, but he doesn''t make any move to approach. "He for sure has some sort of training. I can''t just go at him, because then he''ll counter me, and he moves a lot faster than I do. But I can''t wait for him to come at me, because he never will." His smirk falls off his face, and he rolls his eyes at me. "So, are you planning on glaring me to death, or were you going to try to hit me at some point today?" Caz-V asks with a bored tone.


    "I''m working on it," I say. He just sighs, and crosses his arms, looking as unprepared for an attack as possible. "He''s fucking with me. He has training, and I have scattered fragments of training. He probably has a counter for most common shit under the sun," I think, staring at my opponent. "Although... what if I just do something really stupid? Is his training formal? What I just... go at him like it''s a bar fight, instead of, like, a boxer?" I take a step towards him, and I see his muscles tense, his eyes scanning my form. I raise my hands in a similar manner as before, but then instead of approaching to take a punch, I just book it towards him, throwing my arms forward to grab him in a bear hug. He''s quick enough to see it coming, and he knocks my arms to the side, doing his best to step out of the grab, but I throw my considerable weight against his smaller frame like a battering ram, knocking him to the ground.


    I see his eyes widen as we collapse into a pile of limbs, but I''m marginally on top, and I quickly start slamming any part of my body capable of doing so into his. "What-" I hear him exclaim, right before my skull comes down on his nose. A swing with my fist is stopped by his hand, and my foot flails ineffectively, but his position is compromised, and my general flailing is making it hard for him to throw my weight off. Eventually I manage to get into an actual position on top of him to start swinging more effectively. The second I straddle him though, he knees me in the back, bucking his hips simultaneously. I tip over, my hands reactively falling in front of me to catch myself before I faceplant on the mat. The instant my hands touch the ground above his head, he place both of his near my right elbow, shifting one of his legs to the outside of mine.


    "Woops," is the only thought that manages to cross my mind, before he bucks once more, this time rolling with the motion, causing me to be on my back, with him on top. My position isn''t nearly as bad as his was, since he''s not fully straddling me, but he starts raining down punches, and I''m too busy trying to protect my face with my arms to use them to pull myself free. I try to use my legs to push him off and away from me, but he plants his legs in the ground to prevent me from doing so, and we''re locked like this for what feels like either five seconds or five hours before I feel him go flying. I take a peek from between my arms to see that he''s just standing above me, breathing heavily, looking at the teacher.


    "Oh, he just got up. We''re probably done," I think, as I slowly bring myself to my feet. "You took Associate Safety," the teacher says, and I''m briefly confused until I realize that she''s not talking to me. She gives Caz-V an indecipherable look, but he doesn''t do anything other than nod, and eventually she turns to me. "Not bad Recruit. You had him for a moment, after you made a choice to drop whatever it was you were trying to do the first time," she says, looking ever so minorly impressed. "Not that you knew what to do once you had him there." I just shake my head. "I don''t know that I ever had him, sir. I think he was just unprepared for me to come at him like a wild animal. The second I did something he recognized, he put me on my back. Literally." She nods.


    "True, but your willingness to try something new when you realize your old strategy isn''t working... it''s a good mindset to have. If you keep slamming your head against a brick wall, your skull will break, not the stone. With a bit more training and experience, you might be a half decent Agent," she says, before turning away from me, and to the rest of the class. "Alright, new partners! Caz-V, you''re out, Ella, you''re in!" I see Ella turn slightly pale, as Rease approaches her, but my attention is pulled away as Ko-lee steps next to me, with a malicious glint in her eye. "You did pretty well in weapon''s training," says Ko-lee. "Better than me, even." I give her a cheeky grin. "Yea, lots of video games," I say. She makes her way to the opposite corner of the mat from me, and bounces slightly from foot to foot. "Well, let''s see if they can help you here," she says, and the second the teacher says "Go!", Ko-lee closes the distance.

 Better Than Pockets

    I feel like one solid bruise as we all hobble our way out of physical training. "I don''t think your ability to beat my ass was ever in question, love," I say to Ko-lee. She gives me a grin, stretching out her shoulder as she walks beside me. "Yeah," she says, chuckling, "but you had a huge smile on your face the entire time. Don''t lie, you had fun." "Amongst other things," I think, running my eyes up and down her body. She catches the look, and gives me a wink, and I feel a wave of goosebumps run down my arm. I cough, trying to pull my mind out of the gutter, before I continue speaking. "Yeah, well, I never realized how fun it could be to beat up my friends." Rease takes a step up behind me and Ko-lee. "So, we''re friends?" he asks, in a purely curious tone. "Well, yeah. I mean, if we''re not friends, then we should be," I say, looking around at the other four members of the squad. "Listen, I don''t know how the rest of basic training will go, but I''m pretty sure that when it finishes, we''ll end up as a squad for operations and stuff. If we''re going to be stuck with each other, then shouldn''t we be friends?"


    From a glance, it seems like opinions are mixed. Ella and Ko-lee are thoughtful, and Rease seems excited. Caz-V, unsurprisingly, looks dismissive. I shrug. "Well, it was just a thought that got knocked loose from when Rease had his hands on me," I say, causing him to laugh. It''s a much softer laugh than I expected from such a large guy. He reaches a hand over and slaps me on the back, causing me to stumble slightly. "Happy to help!" he says boisterously. We roll into the next class, but unlike the previous two, the room is devoid of a teacher. The space looks vaguely reminiscent of a traditional American classroom, if a bit smaller, with the desk and chairs facing towards the screen at the front of the room. "Where''s the teacher?" asks Ella, her eyes scanning the space. There''s nowhere in the room for them to be hidden, and the only door is the one we had just come through, so after a few moments of confusion we all eventually make our way to the seats.


    The moment the last one of us sits down, the screen in front of us springs to life. "Welcome, recruits!" a cheerful voice says, as a digital avatar appears in front of us. "Holy shit, a cephalon?" I think, my eyes wide. The avatar of the cephalon looks like an icosahedron; a sphere made out of glowing light green hexagonal panels. The panels occasionally lift away from the ball to rotate, before settling back in place, and when the cephalon speaks, various panels are lit up. "Hello... sir?," says Ko-lee, after a moment. "This is equipment training!" the cephalon responds brightly. "You may call me cephalon Scientia! As a cephalon, I am unable to hold rank, so no need to refer to me as sir. Today we''ll be covering the TEPA suits!" Ella raises her hand, and Scientia rotates as though to look at her. "Yes, Recruit Tygg! Did you have a question?" Ella nods. "Should we be taking notes? Will there be a test?" she asks, a look of focus in her eyes.


    "No worries class, there won''t be a test on the information I''ve given you! However, if you have questions, or do not understand the material, please ask! It''s important that you learn the operation of not only the TEPA suit, but all the equipment that we discuss, as your life will likely depend on the information!" says Scientia with an upbeat tone. The casual atmosphere in the room turns serious at her words. "Haha, we all literally just locked in... ''cept for Ella I guess. And Ko-lee. Whatever, 3 out of 5," I think to myself. "Are there any other questions before I begin?" asks Scientia. The room is silent. "Fantastic! So, as mentioned before, today''s class is about the operation of the Tenno Enhancement, Protection, and Adaptation suit, or TEPA for short. The suit is really a collection of three different parts. The suit body itself, the optical system, colloquially known as the ''eyes'', and the primary filtration system, colloquially known as the mask. Starting with the suit, it is a polyfibric material, consisting mostly of high tensile polymers interwoven with isomorphic circuitry..."


    As important as the information is, I can feel my mind drifting off as Scientia explains the minute details of the suit. "I mean, it''s kind of sort of interesting, but it''s not actionable. This is a spec sheet, not anything I can do something with," I think, as my eyes wander over to my squadmates. Ella and Ko-lee are fully focused as Scentia is talking, while Rease mostly looks confused. At a first glance, it doesn''t seem like Caz-V is paying attention, but the longer I watch him, the more I realize that he''s just pretending not to. "Come on man, who are trying to impress? Whatever. This is the ADHD, I gotta actually pay attention." I do my best to yank my focus off my squadmates and back to Scientia. "...by the other factions. In regards to the protection of the suits, they have a moderate impact and piercing resistance, but moderately useful slashing resistance, and no elemental resistance, which is something we will cover in tactics in the future. So, if you''re stuck between a hammer and a sawblade while out in the field, I suggest choosing the sawblade. You will survive a moment longer, and the extra data uploaded during your demise will help improve the capabilities of our next suit model!"


    There''s a tense silence in the room, and it feels like it stretches on for 17 years before Scientia breaks it. "That was a joke, class," Scientia says, and Caz-V lets out a snort. "In reality, your shields will be your primary method of defense reduction. Please raise your hand if you are aware of how a shield system works." My hand is in the air for about a second, before I really consider the question. The only other person to raise their hand is Caz-V, and he gives me an odd look as I lower it. I don''t bother giving him a response. "Very well class! So let us discuss the basics of a shield system," says Scientia. The avatar disappears, and a cartoon representation of some sort of tech appears on the screen. "When a projectile encounters a shield system, the system attempts to disperse the kinetic energy of the projectile back into the atmosphere. The energy released manifests as light, sound, and heat, as well as a number of other effects unnoticeable by standard humans."


    "When the battery powering the shield system is drained, the system will no longer be operational. However, after a moment, the system can recharge itself, as long as it is not under fire, and the battery is not compromised. Depending on the density of the shield system, this can take up to a few seconds to fully recharge. Direct damage to the batteries will prevent the shield''s from recharging. However, there are a number of auxiliary batteries located within the TEPA suit, so you are much more likely to perish before the shield systems do," says Scientia cheerfully. "There are many variations on the shield system, many being created by the Corpus and their various merchant guilds, but the basics are the same nearly everywhere. Even our vaunted warframes have a similar system! Does everyone understand?" There''s nods around the room, and the cartoon display of a shield getting shot fades out to be replaced once again by Scientia''s avatar.


    "Great! There are some limitations to be aware of. Some elementally charged projectiles will overtax the battery system causing it to lose charge much more quickly. This includes electricity, and magnetics." My hand shoots up into the air before Scientia says anything else. "Yes, Recruit Nova?" they ask. "What about elemental toxin? Can shields stop it?" There''s a brief moment before Scientia responds. "The specifics of the elements will be covered in a later class, but yes, toxin will penetrate shields." Ko-lee gives me a nudge, and I look over to see a questioning look. "Later," I mouth at her, and she gives me a nod. "Beyond protection, the suit also contains a number of biofeedback systems. They are currently not enabled on your suits, but we will switch them on during tomorrow''s class. We had received some feedback on the overwhelming amount of information presented to new recruits when a suit was first equipped, and so, to reduce mental load, portions of the suits capabilities are currently dormant."


    "The biofeedback system will let you know various things about your current physical health, and will report that information to your commanding FO, or field officer, as well as a simplified numerical representation of the health of your squadmates." It takes all my willpower to prevent myself from reacting. "Holy shit boiiiissss, WE''VE GOT HEALTH BARS. I''m dead, I''m literally dead, that''s the fuckin'' funniest shit ever. I mean, sure, video game, I''ve bought in. Maybe alternate world or whatev. But like, literal red bar with number? I can''t, that''s so funny," I think, doing my best to simultaneously freak out and pay attention. "The granularity of the display can be adjusted both for yourselves, and your squadmates, as needed," continues Scientia. "This can be helpful in cases such as attempting to treat injuries in the field. Next is the MCS, or magnetic clamping system."This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.


    "The magnetic clamping system allows for a level of adaptability to the TEPA suit, hence the A in the name," says Scientia. Even though the avatar didn''t have anything even remotely resembling a face, I felt like I could hear a smile in their words. "If you require extra ammunition, armor panels, insulation, or more, the MCS allows you to do so." Scientia''s avatar disappears again, this time revealing a person wearing a TEPA suit, with the animation showing various things being attached and unattached around the body. "From my information, you''ve already utilized the MCS once today, to attach a kinetic dampener! As you''ve no doubt realized, operation of the MCS is quick and simple, and can even be utilized in high stress environments. Some operations will require Tenno to utilize the MCS for a specific purpose, but more often than not, you are allowed to exercise your own judgement."


    "If wish to do so, you may look into the various attachments during your free time. There are a number of different items available to spend credits on." I watch Caz-V''s ''chill guy'' persona fall apart the moment the word ''credits'' is mentioned. "How much are we paid?" he asks, his pupils wide. "As recruits, you are only offered room and board," says Scientia, and I see his shoulders slump slightly. "However, as operatives, you are paid a base stipend. The specifics will be covered in your tactic''s class in the future. To simplify, the higher your rank, and the more commendations you have, the more you will make. The base rate more than cover''s your daily needs, however." I can see the gears turning in Caz-V''s head, but he doesn''t ask any more questions. "Now, the TEPA suit has three main ''functions''. Adaptation, protection, and enhancement. We''ve covered the first two, with the MCS and the shield system. Last is enhancement, which comes in the form of modules."


    I feel a shock of excitement run through me, and I can''t help but sit up. "Who here knows what a module is?" asks Scientia, and my arm shoots up so fast it feels like it''s going to yank out of it''s socket. "Please, please please please tell me this is what I think it is," I think excitedly. I notice Caz-V and Rease also have their hands raised, although Rease is flying his at half mast. "I''ve recovered modules before, mostly for you gu- or... for us, I guess. But I don''t know how they work or anything. Seen ''em though," says Rease, as we all lower our hands. "That won''t be an issue Recruit Thomoni. For those of you who don''t know, modules are conceptually embodied ideas, powered by harvested void energy, that allows us to drastically affect how a certain object or material works. For example, you might have a low caliber weapon unable to pierce through the physical shield of an enemy. However, with the right module, that low caliber weapon could not only pierce through a shield, but even a thick wall!"


    "Recruit Tygg? Do you have a question?" asks Scientia. "Yeah, I''m sorry but... that sort of sounds like magic," says Ella, looking around confused. "It is not magic," says Scientia, "simply high level Orokin era technology. They-"


    "Well, not all of it," interrupts Caz-V. "We... the Corpus make modules too." Scientia responds in a much less upbeat tone than usual. "Yes, the Corpus do create modules based off Orokin design, although they don''t quite perform to the same specification. However, they have been able to create entirely new designs, which is very... creative, of them." There''s a brief awkward silence before Scientia speaks again; this time with their usual cheer. "Modules are one of the reasons why warframes are so powerful. As Orokin tech themselves, many modules were designed specifically for the warframes. In any case, the TEPA suit is able to utilize a small subset of these modules, to enhance Tenno safety and effectiveness." My leg starts bouncing out of excitement, and I can''t keep the wide grin off my face.


    "Recruit Tygg!" says Scientia, and I notice that Ella has her hand up again. "What sort of modules are we able to use?" Ella asks. "Modules to enhance armor or shield strength, modules to increase mobility, and more," says Scientia. "There is a default set of modules used by all operatives and agents, and they will be provided to you before your first operation. After that, if you wish to utilize different modules, you will need to purchase them yourselves." I feel the excitement begin to drain out of me, and I raise my hand for clarification. "Yes, Recruit Nova," says Scientia. "So... modules are like, really expensive, from what I know. I can''t imagine we''re getting paid that much, so I have to ask, how are we ever supposed to afford them?" The avatar of Scientia bobs up and down, as though nodding.


    "That''s a great question, recruit. The ITO, that is, the intratactical officers, maintain a pool of modules that can rented by operatives and agents. This helps lower costs drastically. As well, unplanned recovery of modules during operations can go part of the way to the cost of purchasing a module," says Scientia. "Couldn''t we just... keep one of the modules we find?" I ask, slightly confused. The cephalon laughs. "Oh, no, most of the modules you recover will not be usable by you. As well, any resources gathered by operatives and agents are Tenno property, not personal property. If you are found to be siphoning resources from your operations... well, there are repercussions for that. In any case, I believe that is just about the end of class! Tomorrow, we will cover some more functionality of the TEPA suit; more specifically, non neural functionality for the optical system. I look forward to seeing you all tomorrow!"


    Then, without any further warning, the screen shuts off, leaving us all alone in the room with one another. We look at each other for a moment, caught off guard by the abrupt exit of out teacher. "Welllll," says Rease, his arms stretching up and behind him, "I guess that''s it for today." Caz-V stands up from his chair, and we all look at him as he does. There''s a brief moment where it looks like he''s going to say something, but he just gives a casual head tilt, and leaves the room without a further word. We all watch the door slide shut behind him before turning back to look at each other. "So... we''ve still got daylight. Relatively speaking. Do you guys wanna hang out and..." my words trail off as I note a blinking icon in my headset. Ko-lee gives me a questioning look, but the rapid attention shift makes it hard for me to immediately explain. "Sorry the... uhm... I got a notification," I say, pointing towards my eye.


    I focus for a second, then two, then five, and I start to feel a little silly, before the notification pops open before me. "Very official," I think, as my eyes scan the text. "Oh shit. The Lotus wants to see me? That''s... I guess I didn''t want it to be another repeat of the whole Unum-making-me-wait-forever thing, but this is a lot sooner than I thought it''d be," I look at my squadmates, who have been silently watching me read the message. "Uh... rain check on hanging out, I guess. The Lotus wants to see me," I explain to the three of them. Ella''s eyes grow wide. "The Lotus wants to see you? Personally?" she exclaims. "Oh, yea, that''s probably really weird," I think, desperately trying to come up with some excuse. "Yea... it''s a long story," I say. "Nailed it."


    Ko-lee rolls her eyes at my explanation, but Ella just nods thoughtfully, before giving me a bright grin. "Well, good luck! Maybe you can come hang out with us later?" she asks, and I give her a shrug. "Maybe. I''ll do my best to track you all down after this. Do you guys have any plans on what you''re going to do?" I ask, as we make our way out into the hall. The moment we do, I can see a bright purple line rise off of the floor, indicating my route. Rease nods his head. "Yeah, there''s this sport that I think people are playing. Lunum or something. I thought maybe we could all go do that, or maybe just watch?" he says, looking around questioningly. The other two give him signs of affirmation, and he grins. "Well, it sounds like fun. I''ll try to catch up with you guys after this. I''m headed this way," I say, pointing down the hall. I give them a wave as I start to head off. "See you all in a bit!"

 Infohazard

    I make my way down the hallway, following the glowing purple line towards (hopefully) a productive and not at all lethal conversation with the Lotus. I feel my heart rate slowly inching up from the nerves, even as I do my best to keep myself calm. "I mean, we''ve literally already talked before. It doesn''t make sense for me to go through an entire first day of training, and get suited up, just for her to flatline me. So like, I have to assume that I''m okay. It''s less talking to the cops, more talking to... a principal? I guess?" I tell myself, the pads on the soles of my suit making a staccato sound as I walk down the moderately busy hallway. "Or maybe like talking to my mom. My... space mom?" I feel myself relax slightly as I chuckle at the thought.


    "Probably shouldn''t call her that to her face. But yea. I''m not in trouble, I just need to keep that in mind. She''s a powerful woman doing her best to hold the system together, and I''m some nobody with dangerous information, specifically related to her. I just need to be understanding about her position, but firm on mine." The path I''m led on is winding; I take multiple turns and pass through more than one door before I reach my final destination. The line I''m following leads to a door less like the one''s I''ve grown used to in the hallways below the concourse and more like a door I''d recognize from the game. It''s 8 feet tall, and shaped like a semi-circle. The door has the symbol of the Lotus painted on it in a soft purple, and as I approach it, it splits into three separate pieces; the top fourth retreating into the ceiling, and the bottom portion splitting down the middle and sliding to the left and right.


    I make my way into the room, and just as swiftly as the door had opened, it slides shut behind me, and audibly locks. "Okay, totally super normal and not at all ominous," I think to myself, before looking around the room. Inside are purple cloths draped at varying heights; some attached ceiling to floor, and some ceiling to wall. I can''t help but draw parallels to the Lotus chamber within the game, although this one has more of a Tenno design to it. "Kinda like if the Arbiters of Hexis room and Lotus'' chamber had a baby," I think to myself. As my eyes wander around, a hologram silently flickers to life in front of me. There''s a brief moment where it appears to be a vaguely purple shaped cloud of particles, but it only takes a moment for it to cohere. Beyond a touch of transparency at the edges, the figure in front of me looks incredibly life like, and I can''t help but feel a drop of nervousness creep back in.


    "Antimony Nova," says the Lotus, after the briefest of moments. "The Lotus," I say, unsure of how to start the conversation. "You are aware of why you are here, correct?" she asks. The mimic modeled after a human has a mask covering her eyes, and yet I don''t doubt for a second that she can see every bit of me, straight into my soul. "Sure. You want to know the information I have," I say. She gives me a nod, and I continue. "Well, like I said on the ship, some of the information is dangerous. I can''t really be sure of what is and isn''t dangerous, so..." I trail off, not really sure of where I''m going. She nods again. "I am well acquainted with danger, and I believe it is in our best interest for us to be on the same page. Therefore, I''d like for you to explain exactly how much you know about the reservoir, as well as how you came by this information."


    "Sure," I say, nodding my head. "I don''t really think there''s any danger in giving you information that you already know. I... I mean, I can''t really be sure but... anyways. Uhm, so, first, for context, I... know who you are." She responds before I have the chance to continue. "I am The Lotus. Leader of the Tenno," she says, with the slightest bite to her voice. "Right," I say, doing my best to not come off as accusatory. "My mistake. What I meant to say... is that I know who you were. Natah. Daughter of Hunhow. A mimic Sentient." I take a small breath, but the tension in the room makes it feel as though I''ve failed to fill my lungs. "The... uhm. The specifics of the Old War I''m a little fuzzy on. You were sent by your father to kill the Orokin, and then to kill the Tenno. But then you found out they were children? So... you modeled yourself after Archimedean Margulis, the Orokin who was the adoptive mother of the Tenno, and you hid them away on Lua."


    "And by Tenno," I explain, "I''m specifically referring to the children of the Zariman Ten Zero, who had all come back after the jump to Tau failed with spooky void powers. And the reservoir is the place where they all got put into a sort of lucid dream, I think, by Margulis? Because they were traumatized kids and their powers were dangerous, and also because a bunch of Orokin wanted to kill the kids? I''m really not sure. But more relevant is that those Tenno were found to be able to pilot around something called a warframe, which was an invention by Ballas, one of the Seven, who was Margulis'' douche of a boyfriend. And then he asked Margulis if he could use the super powered kids for his weapons program and she said no, so he killed her and did it anyways. And so that''s sort of why it''s so important it stays a secret. It''s both a bunch of kids you feel maternal affection towards and also how to control the warframes, kind of."


    I know the moment the last words leave my mouth that the information I''ve given isn''t perfectly right. I feel the impulse to try to correct myself, but I''m not confident on what the right information is, and so I just bite my tongue and sit in silence. "You know quite a lot about something from many millennia ago," says the Lotus. Her expression betrays nothing, and I can''t tell if it''s because she''s a robot, because I can''t see her eyes, or if she just has a good poker face. "Yea, well... as for how I know all of this..." I feel my mind make a snap decision, and my mouth starts moving before I get the chance to talk myself out of it. "Lotus, this may be hard to believe, but I''m from a different world. A different universe. The information I have about this universe-"


    "-is from a game. I''m already aware of this," says the Lotus, cutting me off in the middle of my sentence. I feel a wave of dizziness pass over me, as though I tried to take a step in VR but my character was stuck, or expected one more step on a staircase than there actually was. A mismatch between expectation and reality physicalizing itself in my head. "Wh... huh?" I say, desperately trying to regain my footing. Another hologram forms in between me and the Lotus, and this one is of me in a seated position, cross legged, staring off to the left. "That game that I played, in my hometown on Earth is called... Warframe," says the hologram, and any progress I made on feeling stable is torn out from under me like a rug. The hologram of me disappears, and I''m once more able to see the Lotus, who I manage to notice has the barest hint of a smile. "We''ve been observing you for a while, remember?" she says. "All of the information you''ve provided to Recruit Ko-lee within the Unum is already known to us." I can feel the puzzle pieces in my mind snap into place as I finish grappling with this revelation.


    "So... you already knew why I knew what I did. You... why did you ask me?" I question, and she gives me a moment to gather myself before responding. "I wanted to see if you''d be truthful with me, Recruit Nova," says the Lotus. The words are said entirely amicably, but I can''t help but feel the tiniest, barest hints of a threat, buried deep in her words. "I think I just passed some sort of test," I realize. "How accurate has your game and this universe been?" she asks. I do my best to shove my feeling aside and think about every moment where I''ve compared and contrasted the two. "It''s... uhm. Sorry. Good? No, uhm, they are mostly the same, I meant to say. Like... like, it feels like details are different, but the broad strokes are there," I say, as I struggle to remember how to speak Origin. "Elaborate," says the Lotus, and I give her a nod. "Sure. So... for example, Cetus is a lot bigger here than in the game. Which makes sense, because the game only really needed a bit of set dressing and stuff. It was like a representation of Cetus more than it was the real thing."


    She stays silent, and so I wrack my brain for something more concrete that I can give her. "Uhh... the conclave? That was totally new. There wasn''t any mention of it in the game at all. Or really any politics or anything. Konzu existed, as well as a few other characters, but they were static. We only knew the tiniest bits and pieces about them. Oh, and the Unum! So, she exists in the game as well, but you can''t really enter her without using a glitch or something, well, except for this one quest. But when you do, it''s in the future, and... anyways, I think it''s mostly cosmetic differences as well? But I can''t remember well enough to be sure." I watch her breathe for a moment, and before my mind can spiral down the question of whether or not she actually needs to do that, she asks another question. "And the Tenno?" There''s a brief moment of confusion before it dawns on me that she''s not asking about the Tenno as a whole.


    "You mean the kids? They''re usually called operators, ''cause they operate the warframes. Just to... so I know that you''re not referring to like, the Tenno as a whole. But yea, there''s this quest called Second Dream. It- actually... I probably shouldn''t talk about this one," I say to the hologram. "This meeting is for you to share information. If you think that it will help, then please let me know," says the Lotus, a slight downturn to her lips. "No, it''s not... I''m not trying to, like... hide..." I sigh, unable to come up with a quick and succinct explanation for why I''m not just telling her what she wants. "Listen, I know I mentioned infohazard before, but I don''t think I really explained why I think that it''s dangerous for you to know. Have you heard of the term butterfly effect?" I ask. "It''s this idea that a butterfly on one side of the planet beats it''s wings, and then the air molecules bounce against each other, more and more, until they cause a tornado on the other side of the world."Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    "You are aware that the energy-" the Lotus begins to say, but I wave her explanation away. "No, I know it doesn''t literally work that way. It''s a metaphor for chaos theory. The idea that even a tiny change can lead to a big change over a long enough timescale. Like a double pendulum. So, my thing is that if I tell you something about the future, even if it''s a small thing, then it could lead to a big change down the line. And there are these... really big events that are gonna happen, and I gotta be careful not to knock over the house of cards. My info will quickly become irrelevant, and unlike the Unum, I won''t be able to adjust. I''m not getting new info right now, I just have what I have," I say, feeling slightly winded.


    "I am located in the void, as you likely know," says the Lotus. "Any information you give to me will be kept secure, and it will not be acted upon unless I determine it to be safe." I sigh, doing my best to tamp down the beginnings of my frustration. "No, I get that, it''s just... some of the stuff I know directly involves you. Actions you take, specifically. I know I''m asking for a lot, but I''m telling you, you need to trust me on this. I am absolutely, unequivocally on your side. I can tell you other things, like side... stuff," I say, faltering on the last word in attempt to avoid saying ''side story''. "Just not the bigger things, not until the time is right," I finish, somewhat awkwardly. There''s a moment of silence, and I wrack my brain for something actionable I actually can give her, instead of just telling her things she already knew. "Okay, so, there''s a version of the operator who doesn''t make the deal with Wally. Er, Man In The Wall. Void entity?"


    She gives me a blank look, and I don''t understand her confusion for a moment. "You know, looks like... oh shit!" I curse in English, suddenly remembering the order of the quests. "Fuck! She doesn''t know about Wally ''cause Rell is holding him back. But if we wait until after the operator comes out with the whole Hunhow slash Stalker thing, then do that bit, he ends up dead. We need to rescue him before we get to that point but... I don''t know if we even can without the operator having... being able to... operate." I can feel my mind running a mile a minute trying to connect the puzzle pieces together without disrupting other parts, and every time I do it falls apart. "The operators can''t come out too early as well, because we need Teshin to enter the picture, and they need to kill Tyl Regor, and all that crap. But also, we could maybe probably go and wrap all that up regardless? Also also! If we rescue Rell, won''t he be out of his warframe? When does that happen? Then even if they aren''t operators-"


    My musing is interrupted by a soft, slightly synthesized voice. "Recruit Nova? You were saying about one of the Tenno? ...operators?" she asks, correcting herself after a moment. "Uhm... yea," I say, trying to pull my focus back to the front. "Sorry, they... there''s an operator who doesn''t get void powers. Or rather, it''s one that did get powers, but also eternalism blah blah blah. So this unpowered operator stays on the Zariman, and then... dreams up a reality called Duviri based off a children''s book. I''d imagine they''re still there," I explain. For the first time since entering the room, I see a lively reaction out of the Lotus. "One of the children is stuck in the void?" she says, a note of alarm in her voice. I waver my hand back and forth. "Well, sort of? First of all, they''re going to get rescued, I promise. The entire Zariman pops out of the void actually, but then it stays half in and half out, and sort of acts like a cork... regardless. They aren''t actually on the Zariman. The space they make is like... sort of connected, but only after some stuff happens that hasn''t happened yet, and also they''ve grown up in the place they''re in, so they''re not really a kid anymore..."


    I can''t help but mentally roll my eyes at the convoluted nature of the story, but I do my best to forge on. "Anyways, as long as things play out like they''re supposed to, they''re totally fine," I say. "I mean, everyone here needs a therapist, so no they''re not fine fine but they''re not dead, so good enough," I think, finishing the rest of the sentence in my head. "What you''re telling me isn''t helpful," says the Lotus, after a moment. "Information I already have, and information that can''t be acted upon is not very valuable." I nod, frowning. "No, I know, I want to... it''s just sticky. There''s so much stuff that-" The conversation with the Tenno who had helped me get my suit crosses my mind, and I cut myself off. "Wait, I do have something! I think, probably. So... there''s a Fomorian attack that happens!" The Lotus gives me nod, like a parent to a child. "Yes, they do tend to happen," she says, with the barest hint of humor. "No, no, like, a real one. One that destroys this relay, specifically!" I say, doing my best to convince her of my words. It works.


    "When," says the Lotus, steel in her voice. "It''s... oh fuck. When is it? I... was I even playing then..." I trail off, and I can feel nerves crawl up and down my neck as I desperately try to find where in my mind the information is hidden. "It''s... some of the timeline stuff I have is... based on updates in the game, but that doesn''t really make any sense here," I mumble. "Then do you have any identifying information? Anything that might let us determine how this attack was different from another?" she asks, and I can''t tell if I''m imagining the frustration in her voice. "Uhm, yea. I think there were multiple relays being attacked at the same time?" I say, unsure. "You think?" she says, the sharpness of the K making me wince. "Do you know which relays?" I can''t help but cringe. "No. I just... I can''t remember. I''ve got a bad memory, and like, I was never obsessed with Warframe, I just... liked it," I say. Part of my mind is lamenting the fact that I didn''t spend more time trawling the wiki, as though I could have ever guessed that the information would become a case of life or death later.


    "I know that Steel Meridian helps rebuild it. After," I say, offering up anything that could be relevant. "I would like to not need to rebuild the relay," says the Lotus, and it feels like the final nail in the coffin. "You really thought that all that information floating around in pieces and chunks would make you some sort of powerhouse in the universe, huh? And when it finally comes down to it, there''s just not a single, usable bit of knowledge in here, is there?" I think at myself. I know the reprimand isn''t particularly helpful right now, but I can''t help but feel like my ego had been inflated from one too many webnovels. "So convinced that I knew how this would all play out, that I never stopped to actually think about it. What do I actually know? I can give big broad strokes, but how is that helpful other than causing stress and paranoia? What I played, and what this world is, are two fundamentally different things, and I just... got caught up in superficial similarities."


    "You have the information, correct?" asks the Lotus, and I pull myself out of my head to focus back on the hologram. "You''re just unable to remember it?" I sigh, and give a slight shrug. "I mean, do I really have the information if I can''t access it?" She nods her head, once. "Yes, you do. If you''ve seen it before, then it''s in there, somewhere." She''s silent for a moment, and I just watch her think, until she continues. "There is a medical procedure that may allow you to access that knowledge, as well as any other knowledge hidden in your mind." I scrunch my eyebrows in confusion. "What? What do you mean?" I ask. "I mean, if you are given this surgery, you will have perfect recall of any moment of your life. Instant and clear, with none of the degradation or warping of time," she explains. I just stand there for a moment, floored by the implication. "Fully photographic memory? They can just... give that to me?" I think. "Wait, are you saying like, ever memory ever? Even from birth?" I ask. The Lotus nods. "Every moment you were awake, every moment asleep. Every fraction of a song heard, every sentence skimmed, every glance at a face," she explains.


    "Let me be perfectly clear. This is not a safe surgery. If you aren''t strong enough, either physically or mentally, then it can break your mind. You need to have the right mindset, and a body capable of taking the stress. However, we do have training program for this." The room feels huge; the air, huge. I''m standing on the edge of a precipice, a cliff. I''ve chosen between so many things in my life, but for once, I''m being presented with a Choice. I can feel it. My mind feels it, my body feels it. "I can say no?" I ask, my mouth dry. "You can. If this isn''t something you think you can do, or want to, or if you find out that you are unable to go through with the training, then I''d prefer you didn''t," says the Lotus. "Any information is better than none at all, and every operative and agent is an important asset." And yet. And yet. I can feel the unsaid words floating between us. "She wants me to do it," I think. "She wants to know what I have stuck in the corners of my mind. ...And... maybe this is just that main character syndrome flaring up again... but... fuck, I think I want to do it too."


    "How long will the training take?" I ask. "Two months. You would start the training next month, and do it alongside your basic training. After you return from your first operation, we would perform the surgery," she explains. "Am I... do I have to choose right now?" I ask. The edge calls. She gives a slight shake of her head. "No. Please, think about it. I will add the first advanced training to your schedule. Meet with the trainer. They will help you make an informed decision," she says. I take a deep breath, stepping back from the cliff, and after a moment, I give a deep bow. "Thank you for the opportunity," I tell her. While my face is pointed towards the floor, I hear the lock unlatch from the door behind me, and as I rise, I find that the hologram is gone, leaving me with an empty room and a head full of thoughts.

 Five Year Plan

    A month later, I''m in mine and Ko-lee''s bedroom making breakfast for the pair of us, using one of the machine''s I had finally learned the operation of. "Brain dead simple, really," I think, pressing the options to cook/dispense the food. "Like if a Kuerig did food instead of coffee. Although to be fair, I never would''ve guessed that without help, ''cause that literally sounds so ick." I stick one of the processed nutrient cubes in my mouth, before plating the rest of our food. "Eh, not any worse than a 7-11 breakfast." Sitting in the center of the room is a "dining" table that Ko-lee and I had procured a few weeks ago. I walk the three steps it takes to reach the table, and set down both our plates, before sitting in my seat and reaching for the chopsticks. "Ni," says Ko-lee with a bemused expression. I look over at her, the food halfway to my mouth. "Your mask?" she reminds me, and I slowly raise a hand to my face to realize that I was inches from squishing my breakfast onto the metal surface.


    "Oh... didn''t you know? I can actually eat through the mask now," I tell her, deflecting from the near breakfast related tragedy. "Yea, Scientia gave it to me during equipment training a few days ago. Based on some Orokin tech, I think." Ko-lee adopts a thoughtful look. "Wow, I didn''t realize that. Well, by all means, don''t let me stop you," she says casually. I respond with a dramatic sigh. "Yeah, unfortunately it breaks upon exposure to sarcastic girlfriends," I tell her. She shakes her head at my flawless logic, rolling her eyes. "I don''t know how it ever would''ve worked for you then," she tells me. "Fair," I think, shooting her a grin. "I''m either easy to understand, or Ko-lee is way too smart for me." I can feel the smile on my face start to wither. "For now, anyways. God, I hope I don''t just turn into some crazy fuckin'' know-it-all post surgery. I mean, literally every glance of anything I''ve ever made ever? I''m sure I''ve flicked through a language book once or twice. I''ve scanned so many Wikipedia pages. The amount of information I probably have floating around in here..."


    "You''ve seemed distracted this morning," says Ko-lee, her suit covered hand touching mine. I open my mouth, but the jokes and japes die on the tip of my tongue. "Yea," I respond, feeling conflicted. "I''m just... I don''t know. Nervous, I guess. I have that first advanced training later today. Remember when I had to go chat with the Lotus? That whole thing?" She nods her head once, her eyes locked on mine, before squeezing my hand. "You''ll be fine," she tells me, and her confidence is so unshakable that I''m unable to formulate a response. I just give her a smile, and squeeze her hand back, before turning back to my food. "Yea, it''ll be fine," I tell myself. "If I can''t swing it, then whatever. I just don''t, and then I don''t do the crazy dangerous surgery. Maybe not a win win, but like a... win tie. It''ll work out either way." I don''t feel particularly convinced, but I do my best to keep the thought in mind as I finish breakfast.


    <hr>


    "Mask of my own face... I''d wear that," I half hum, half mumble under my breath as I put our breakfast dishes away in the recessed dishwasher. "To be fair, I don''t know that it''s actually washing the dishes. It definitely isn''t making dishwashing sounds," I think, my hands moving of their own accord. "What are you singing?" asks Ko-lee from behind, causing me to jump slightly. "It sounds nice." I feel my face grow warm. "Oh, uh. It''s a... it''s a silly song by this internet guy. I just... had it stuck in my head for some reason." I can see her debating on something for a moment, before she speaks. "I don''t know what ''internet guy'' means," she tells me. "Oh, sorry!" I exclaim, turning to face her. "I thought- you know when I was telling you about how back home people are connected across the planet? How we can share music and knowledge and play games and stuff together? The thing that let''s us do that, that''s what the internet is." She doesn''t show me any signs of disinterest, and so I continue to infodump.


    "It''s pretty much everything, honestly. We can talk to people, and shop, and share pictures and videos, and so on and so on. And, because you can do everything, some people have jobs that were... are? Some people''s jobs are the internet. Their whole thing is making money by producing stuff specifically for that culture, and also sort of by... being a celebrity, I guess. It''s kind of weird without like, a lot of context on how value is determined and what not, but yeah. The song I was singing was by one of those people. A musician, but also a ''content creator''," I say, doing air quotes around the English phrase. I can see her devouring the information, but when I take a break, she doesn''t say anything else. I give her a momentary look of confusion. "You know, if you''re curious, you can just ask me about this stuff. About my home, and what not. You don''t have to wait for me to bring it up," I tell her.


    She turns away from me, crossing her arms as she does so. "I just... didn''t think it was appropriate," she says. "Why?" I ask, rotating around to make eye contact with her. "Well... you''re here, now. You can''t really go home," she explains. She takes a deep breath before continuing. "And... I just know that whenever I think of home, it hurts. I just didn''t... want to hurt you." I reach up to pull my mask off with one hand, and pull her into a hug with the other. I kiss her on the top of her head before speaking. "That''s very sweet of you love," I say, before leaning back from the hug slightly to make eye contact with her. "But it''s really not a big deal," I tell her with a soft smile. "It doesn''t bother me in the same way, cause- well, I... I guess I never really explained this. I want to go home. Or rather, I''m going to go home. I don''t really have specifics, but if I made my way here somehow, then I should be able to make my way back. So, as far as long term plans..."


    I feel Ko-lee tighten in my arms, and I lean back once more to try to make eye contact, but the moment I do, she wriggles out of the hug. "Love?" I ask. "You''re leaving?" she asks back, her voice uncharacteristically small. She''s not looking at me, and there''s a tenseness about her, so I do my best to explain the heavy topic lightly. "Ko-lee. Life here is... hard. Dystopic, if I wasn''t feeling particularly charitable. It''s brutal, and not in a way that people always survive. I... don''t want someone I care about to die. I don''t think I''d handle that particularly well." She laughs mirthlessly. "Yeah, I think I can imagine what that''d be like," she says, a sour note in her voice. "I know how hard it was for you, love. But... I think that, for as heartbreaking as it was for you, you''ve managed to come out of it... okay," I say, trying my best to find the right words. From the daggers she shoots at me, I know immediately that I''ve fucked up. "I''m not saying that it was okay! I''m just saying- I''m just trying to explain that you''re a wonderful person, a strong person. Stronger than I am."


    I sigh, reflexively trying to rub my eyes, but I''m stopped by the headset. "I just think that if someone I was close with got hurt, I''d handle it badly. I''d just be a worse version of myself, and I don''t..." my words trail off, as I struggle to put feelings into words. Her glare softens slightly, and after a few seconds, she sighs. "Ni, why not just live here, in this universe, together? After our five years of service, we can just leave. We don''t need to stay here. We don''t need to stay in danger," she says, a note of hopefulness, or maybe desperation, in her voice. I do my best to respond gently. "Ko-lee, realistically, if - and this is a big if - we both manage to survive five years of being a soldier, where would we go after?" She throws her hands in the air. "Anywhere!" she shouts. I can feel the argument heating up, and so I just bite my tongue, rather than press her on specifics. She watches me refuse to respond for a few seconds, before she scoffs.


    "So, that''s it then?" she says, anger in her eye. "It''s not safe here, so you want to leave?" I can''t help but furrow my brows in confusion. "Uhm, yeah?" I say. She stares at me with frustration and anger, and the tiniest hint of disgust. "You''re selfish," she states. "Excuse me?" I snap back, more heated than I mean to be. "There''s nothing selfish about not wanting to die, or not wanting to watch your loved ones die!" She shakes her head at me. "No, it''s the fact that you think it''s so dangerous to live in this universe, yet you''re fully willing to leave me to go back home! You don''t seem to care about my safety at all!" Her statement comes from so far out of left field, that I can''t help but laugh. "Sorry... what? What the fuck are you talking about? Why would I leave you?" I say, the ridiculousness of the situation making it hard not to chuckle. "Well... you... huh?" asks Ko-lee. I struggle to not laugh at the idea, even though it''s just so patently absurd.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    "Did you think that when I was saying I was going to go to back home, I meant by myself?" I ask, fighting a smile. "Why in the world would I not ask you come with me?" "Well, why didn''t you tell me!" she says, in what seems like the dying embers of anger. "Love! I''m literally telling you right now," I say. She takes a few steps over to the dining table, and sits down at it, putting her head in her hands. Even though it was just a spat, I can feel my heart beating hard from the adrenaline. I take a breath to help relax, to pull my body out of fight or flight. "This... you just dropped this... bomb, in my lap... and I..." she says, struggling to find an explanation. I give her a small grin. "Well, to be fair, the plan was to just finish up breakfast and mess around on the headset for a bit. I wasn''t trying to spring this on you. But I get it," I say, sitting down across from her. "I really wasn''t trying to hide anything from you. I''m just... I''m barely at step zero, you know? All I have are vague maybe''s and possibilities. Other than ''do something with the void'', I have no plan, no first step to take. And honestly... there''s a part of me that''s expecting to find out that it''s totally impossible. That it was a one way trip. That I''m..." I swallow, my throat strangely dry. "That I''m stuck here."


    "Or," I say, with enthusiasm I don''t feel, "Maybe I find out I really am crazy. That all my memories were implanted, or something. Wasn''t that one of your theories?" She looks up at me. "It was," she says, locking eyes with me. There''s something there, maybe sympathy. Or pity. "I thought you were coming up with wild ideas, honestly. But with the surgery... yeah. I didn''t know that technology could do stuff like that," I say. I feel my lips turn up in a joyless grin. "Lack of imagination on my part. But yeah, if you can do something like that, then why couldn''t you create a whole fake world? Maybe there''s no where to go. I just didn''t want to tell you all this just to have to break the news that actually... we''re stuck here." Ko-lee shakes her head, the denial clear on her face. "I never felt stuck here. I was born here. I''ve lived here my entire life. Even as dangerous as it is, this is home to me. Things like... like with Sharip. With my dad..." she trails off for a moment, and I see her eyes shine, but she manages to pull herself together.


    "It happens," she states, her voice clear. "It''s a part of life. And I... ...anyways." There''s a moment of silence between us. "I''m sorry," I say. "I wasn''t thinking. I... I''m sorry." She shrugs. "It''s okay. You were thinking about your home, not mine. I get it. Besides... my home is a little more flexible nowadays." She gives me a smile, and I can''t help but respond with one back. "That''s pretty cheesy," I say, and she laughs. Its infectious, and like a dam breaking, the next minute or so is us laughing at the entire situation. Eventually, the laughter simmers down, and after a few moments of silence, Ko-lee speaks. "Do you wanna talk about it?" she asks. "Talk about what?" I respond. "Your home." I just sigh. "I mean, sure. I don''t know what to talk about though," I tell her. "Well..." she hesitates. "I do have some questions, if you think it''ll help." I give her a grin and a nod. "Okay, so... how does your planet have 8 billion people? That''s... wouldn''t you be packed in like sardines?" she asks, clearly confused by the idea.


    "I don''t know why you think we would be. There''s probably like 80 trillion people in the system, 8 billion for a single planet isn''t that much," I respond. She gives me a funny look. "There''s not 80 trillion people in the system. Who told you that?" I immediately feel awkward. "Oh... well... no one. I just extrapolated. There''s- so, uh, my first guess was closer to 8 trillion, but then I remembered this quote about how humans are bad with big numbers, specifically in space and sci-fi contexts, and so I tacked on another zero," I explain. She wavers her hand in mid-air. "It''s closer to 150 billion, last I checked," she tells me. "What?" I say, after picking my jaw up off the floor. "That''s... how!? You have the whole solar system colonized, plus space colonies! And all the planets! It''s so... that doesn''t make any sense!" The second I make the claim though, I realize it does make sense. "They''ve just had war and war and more war. And then there''s the infested fucking up livable land and stuff. This is the scattered remnants of humanity subsisting on the dregs of it''s previous civilization. ...fuck," I think, with more than a touch of dread.


    "Yeah, ignore me, I guess," I say, waving my hand in the air. "It does make sense. I just... yeah. I wish tactics went over stuff like this. I have all these weird gaps in my knowledge," I say, with a hint of a grumble in my voice. "Well, I''ll always be here to tell you how wrong you are," says Ko-lee, with a smirk. "Aww, that''s so sweet," I tell her, rolling my eyes. "Anyways, yeah. 8 billion people. We''re just more tightly packed than you are here. Like, think Lykka Forest. Imagine if, instead of trees, it was just all Cetus. For just miles and miles and miles." I watch her eyes widen. "Or, imagine the Unum, maybe a touch smaller, but then 6 or 12 of them right next to each other," I say, and her eyes grow even more more. "Okay, I think I''m starting to get it. Did you live in one of those?" she asks me. "What? Oh, like a skyscraper?" I ask, before shaking my head no. "No, I lived in a house. Like your place in Sharip. Different build materials, but same idea. It was me, my wife, my boyfriend and a roommate." She quirks her head at me. "What about your parents?" she asks. "No, they didn''t live with me, remember? My mom lived in a different state so... like four weeks walk? Maybe? But I would just take a plane, so really it was only a couple hours away." She gives me a look I can''t decipher. "What about your father?" she asks softly. "Gone," I respond, before my immediately realizing my mistake.


    "Sorry! No, not gone! Just an asshole! He''s... well, there''s a couple guys that''ve held the title, but yeah, my mom has remarried a few times, so I don''t really consider any of them to really be my ''dad'', if that makes sense," I explain. It seems pretty clear that it doesn''t make sense, but she moves past it regardless. "Right. Well, what was a day like for you? Before you became a solider?" she asks. I snicker. "Well, it was a lot lazier than this. I''d wake up, order some food-" she cuts me off before I can finish explaining. "Order some food?" she asks. "Yeah, we have devices... actually, you saw my phone! That thing, the metal and glass thing? That could connect to the internet. I could use it to buy food, and then someone would come deliver it to my house, usually within like 30 minutes," I say. I watch as she tries to imagine the scenario, with obvious difficulty. "Did you not have a way to keep food in the house? Were there no markets?" she asks. "No, there totally is! It''s- okay, for context, I did used to go buy food from a store. But then there was this disease across the whole planet. A bunch of people got sick, and we all had to stay inside as much as possible, and I got into the habit of ordering food when that happened, and then the habit stuck," I explain.


    "Sometimes I would go to buy food from the grocery store, when I''d remember, but most days, I wouldn''t even think about food until the morning of," I say. "You still don''t," she jokes back. I try to grin but it feels flat. "Yeah. I''ve got a brain disease. Or three. But one makes it hard for me to focus. I''m actually sort of surprised that no one''s magically offered me a fix for it like everything else so far," I say. "Maybe they''re not aware. Or maybe it''s not something they''ll cover, and you''d need to pay out of pocket?" Ko-lee responds, trying to find a reason for the apparent disconnect. "Ah, money and meds. The more things change," I think sarcastically. "Yeah, maybe. Anyways," I continue, "I''d usually order some food, watch some videos, read a book. Play some Warframe," I say with a grin. "Then I''d go to work. I think I''ve explained that." She gives me a nod. "And... that''s pretty much it. Repeat ad infinitum." Ko-lee hums to herself. "Sounds boring," she says.


    I shrug. "May you live in interesting times," I say in English. I repeat the phrase for her in Origin, before going on to explain. "It''s meant to be ironic. Interesting times are not generally fun to live through. Like, an exciting thriller movie would be terrifying in real life. A book filled with action and adventure would be traumatizing. Interesting times," I say. I watch as she thinks on the phrase for a moment, before nodding. "Yeah. I think that''s what my dad was trying to teach me as a kid. Being a Tenno is interesting. Being a chief is boring. But my dad was happy, I think. And I think that''s what he wanted for me too," she says, lost in thought. I''m more than willing to let her muse on the idea, but the flashing clock in the corner of my vision lets me know that tactics is about to start in 20 minutes. "Let''s put a pin in this, love," I tell her, standing up from the table. "I''m not going anywhere. We can always talk about it some more later. But we''ve gotta head to Scientia''s." She stands up from the table as well, and we leave the room, hand in hand, to learn about something interesting.

 Rules of Engagement

    Ko-lee and I leave the room, taking a slightly roundabout path to Tactics. Our adjusted route takes us through a hallway intersection, where we find Caz-V casually leaning against the wall and Rease animatedly talking about last night''s Lunaro game. I give Caz-V a wave, and he pushes himself off the wall, alerting Rease to our presence. The four of us make our way to Tactics to find Ella already sat down, distracted by something on her headset. "Hey you," says Caz-V, eliciting a smile from the smaller squadmate, before she greets the rest of us. We each make our way to one of the seats, and like every day for the last month, the familiar avatar of Scientia blooms onto the screen.


    "Welcome to Tactics! Today we are talking about engagement!" says Scientia, the light green panes of their avatar flashing in time with their words. "And I assume it''s going to be as dense as the last week of class has been," I think to myself, turning on the recording function of my headset. "Thank god for this feature. I literally can''t take notes fast enough." On the screen, Scientia''s avatar recedes into the background, and a simplified map of the solar system fades into place. The map is color coded in a multitude of different shades, denoting which regions are controlled by which factions, along with any conflicts, current or recent. "As Tenno, we are the smallest faction within the Sol system. We do not engage in mass warfare, like the Corpus and the Grineer do," says Scientia. As each group is mentioned, their regions of space light up. The amount of space marked as fully Tenno owned is depressingly small.


    "The Corpus outclass everyone when it comes to gear and robotics," explains Scientia, the screen changing to reflect her words. "Rather than send in humans, they send in wave after wave of disposable bots. The bots are rather pricey, but what you lose in cost effectiveness, you gain in time. A MOA doesn''t take 18 years to become a functional solider. It rolls off the assembly line, ready to fire." I catch movement out of the corner of my eye to see Caz-V nodding along. "If given the option, the Corpus will put their robotic forces first. However, they absolutely still field humans. Though, even with their humans, the Corpus rely on their massive tech advantage to win their battles." The animation on the screen shows bullets tearing apart a cartoon force of Corpus soldiers and robots, and the virtual camera pans to show an squad of heavily armored enemies.


    "On the other end of the spectrum, we have the Grineer. The Grineer rely almost entirely on brute force domination and manpower. Unlike the Corpus, they rarely use tech, and their forces consist entirely of humans. Specifically, clones. The Grineer churn out clones like the Corpus churn out bots, and in the same way that the bots are preprogrammed with directives, so too are the Grineer." The animation shows words flying from off screen into a green tube, with phrases like ONLY GRINEER and SERVE THE QUEENS getting shoved into the top of it, before a Grineer solider pops out with a mean grimace on his face. "They''re implanted with memories that cause them to develop with an innate sense of xenophobia and a warlike disposition." I feel something touch my hand, and look down to realize it''s Ko-lee. Tension I didn''t know I had falls off my shoulders.


    "While the Grineer do have access to some tech, it is limited and low cost. A Grineer weapon, like the clones themselves, are cheaply made imitations, often times barely functional. However, quantity is it''s own sort of quality in this case, and the Grineer currently have the largest force in the system." A single Tenno creeps across the screen behind the Grineer and Corpus, doing their best to avoid drawing attention. "As for the Tenno, we employ a different strategy. Instead of head on conflict, we send in either operatives or agents depending on the presumed difficulty of the mission, and we engage primarily in an informational context." The cartoon Tenno reaches a terminal, and types in a password, before a big green check mark shows on the screen-in-a-screen. They pull out a datamass and plug it into the terminal, before pulling it out a few moments later, once more sneaking past the Grineer and Corpus.


    "We then utilize this information by sending in warframes for a surgical strike," says Scientia, as a cartoon Volt runs across the screen behind what appears to be a Corpus member. The warframe taps the Corpus on the shoulder, and the moment they turn around, the Volt zaps them, causing their skeleton to briefly appear, before falling onto the ground, smoking, with X''s for eyes. "As established in previous classes, our goal as Tenno is to support the warframes. Yes, Recruit Tygg." I look over to see Ella putting her hand down. "Sorry, not to derail us too much, but I have a question about the hierarchy from a few days ago?" asks Ella. Scientia''s avatar bobs up and down, and the screen is replaced to show a flowchart I''m now intimately familiar with. At the top of the chart is the symbol of the Lotus, along with some text directly stating her name, just in case we lived under a rock. Underneath the symbol is 24 shadowed figures, split into two groups. The left group is slightly darker, and the group on the right is slightly lighter.


    Above all 24 figures is the text "Tenno High Council", and below the left and right groups is the text "Shadow Council" and "Light Council", respectively. An arrow points from the Lotus to the Tenno High Council, then two arrows point down from the Shadow Council and Light Council. Underneath the Shadow Council is the text ITO and ETO, which I know from previous classes stands for IntraTactical Officers and ExtraTactical Officers. Underneath the Light Council is the text FO, for Field Officers. On the left, the ranking for the ITO/ETO''s are listed, and on the right, an entirely different set of rankings. In the middle are the subranks, and I do my best to avoid smiling when I once again notice that "Master Chief" is a completely legitimate Field Officer rank. "I gotta keep it in! I looked like a crazy person last time I laughed at that, and then I couldn''t even explain why I found it so funny," I think to myself.


    Arrows stretch from both the left and right portions to point down at a final list of rankings. Agent, followed by Operative, followed by Recruit. To the left is also a bit more text talking about the subrankings; Special and Petty, but it''s all relatively straight forward. "If it sounds cooler, it''s more important," I think with a grin. At the bottom, next to the text Recruit is a spinning star, helpfully labeled with the words, "You Are Here!" "So, from what I understand," continues Ella, "you''re saying that warframes don''t lead missions? Are they in charge at all?" My eyes wander back up to near the top of the diagram, where a single arrow is stretching off from the Lotus to point to a group of loosely floating warframes. There''s no arrow pointing from the warframes to anything else. "Correct. Warframes are not in charge, if you are on a mission with them. Commands issued by a warframe are ignorable without repercussion by your commanding FO, assuming that you survive," Scientia explains. Ella pauses for a moment, but doesn''t react. "Day one Ella would''ve been quaking in her boots. They grow up so fast."


    "So... I guess I''m confused. We support them, but indirectly? Not actually in the field together?" asks Ella. Scientia wobbles back and forth. "Sometimes, a Tenno will directly support a warframe in the field. It is uncommon, but it does happen. More likely than not, however, a warframe will perform more prominent actions in a main location, while an Agent takes action in a secondary location. For example, A warframe might draw attention by engaging in combat, leaving a Tenno to hack into a database, or to commandeer a high value resource while unobstructed." I feel a spark go off in my head. "It sounds like they''re describing a survival mission," I think. "Or sometimes, a warframe might locate and protect an asset until it can be extracted," they continue. "And that sounds like a defense mission," I note. "But more commonly, they will simply need someone to maintain and pilot their Orbiter during a solo mission," finishes Scientia. I raise my hand.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    "What about a ship Cephalon?" I ask after being called on. Scientia bobs a little slower, and their light green colors shifts towards blue. "Very few orbiters have ship Cephalons. Whatever gave you the idea that such a thing was common?" they ask. I feel the tips of my ears grow warm. "I dunno, just heard it somewhere," I mumble. Thankfully, they don''t press me on it. "Sometimes," says Scientia, "a warframe will rescue a Tenno from an operation gone bad. While it would be nice if this didn''t happen to you, statistically, you will all experience this at least once during your five year mandatory service. Luckily, you won''t be taking part in any operations that dangerous for a while, so there''s nothing for you to worry about!" Everyone in the squad gives each other side eyes, but none of us make a comment on it. "If there are no more questions about the warframe''s role in an operation...?" asks Scientia. No one responds, and they bob up and down once, like an assertive nod. "Great! Returning to our original discussion, engagement with the other factions."


    "Our main method of engagement is, in nearly all cases, to avoid doing it. A Corpus Manager or Grineer Lieutenant tend to be a much higher physical threat than any one specific Tenno. So, barring augmented Special Agents, it is recommended that all non-officer Tenno avoid engaging with the enemy, in combat or otherwise. But, sometimes, such a thing simply isn''t avoidable. In cases like that, I''d like you all to remember DIE!" The equivalent of big blocky letters pop up on the screen in blood red. "Deception, Isolation, and Extraction. If you don''t want to die, remember to DIE!" says Scientia, in an incredibly unnerving and chipper tone. Rease giggles, and Scientia glows a bit brighter before continuing. "First, Deception. In many operations, you will have a basic set of credentials that allow you to maneuver around. These credentials are often maintenance focused, opening the door to access tunnels and the like when attempting to navigate the various faction''s facilities. These credentials are more effective with the Corpus than the Grineer, but we will go over the finer details of how these credentials work in a later class."


    "Along with the credentials, you are given disguises that will be passable at a glance. In the case of a Corpus disguise, it is worn over your TEPA, while for the Grineer, you are usually given fake armor pieces that work in tandem with the MCS. These disguises are merely meant to help you blend in, and won''t stand up to even moderate scrutiny, so be sure to keep yourself at a distance at all times. With deception, the goal is to move quickly and purposefully, spending as little time interfacing with the enemy as possible. Sometimes you will need to speak, and your ocular system will feed you translations, if you request one using the tactile interface." My mind drifts back to the class from a few weeks ago where Scientia had explained a wholly separate way to interface with the TEPA; sensors on the edge of the forefingers on both hands and thumbs that enable navigating the menus with motions similar to a joystick. I do my best to drag my mind back towards the present, to avoid missing too much.


    "...deception does not work, then we move to Isolation. If you absolutely must eliminate a target to prevent them from blowing your cover, you do so in isolation. This doesn''t simply mean physical isolation; we want to isolate them from everything. This means from cameras, from auditory range of other potential enemies, from panic buttons, and anything else that might cause an issue during elimination. Now, in an active combat situation, you will all likely struggle to take down a soldier regardless of faction, but in a case where their guard is down - both physically and mentally - you will be on a more equal footing. I''m sure you have learned some of the various methods on engaging with an enemy on equal footing in your physical training class, so I won''t spend too much time on it. Regardless of whether you are able to deal with them lethally or non-lethally, isolate first." A few memories from weapons training and physical training flash in my mind; the best places to aim a shot, how to quickly deal with armor or shields, how to tell from a glance if someone is augmented before engagement, and so on.


    "Lastly, is Extraction," continues Scientia. "It''s important to know when to cut losses. Obviously, a failed operation will be a mark on your record, but we''d rather have living Tenno and no resources, than dead Tenno and still no resources. If you need to extract, you will always have access to a multiband high power transmitter, and they will allow you to get in direct contact with your overseeing field officer. The device is hooked directly into your TEPA, and can be utilized hands free with subvocalizations. If you are unable to Decieve or Isolate, then call for Extraction, and remove yourself from the situation however possible. It is preferred that you maintain cover when extracting, although it''s understood that in cases like this it is simply not always possible. Standard operating procedure for the various factions is different, but broadly the will try to restrain you and identify you, before they lethally engage with you. Yes, Recruit Caz-V." He clears his throat, casting a glance at all of us, before speaking.


    "Uh, for the Corpus... I mean, I guess it depends on where the operation is taking place, but the standard equipment is a Prova and a Plinx. But you''re also told not to use them, if possible. The rules were to activate any metal first- sorry, like, MOAs and things. So, activate the MOAs, and then, depending on training, keep them there with words. The ''hands-on'' certification is sort of pricey, and it''s a whole liability thing if they touch you and then it turns out that you''re someone important, so I''d imagine you can just... go around them. We definitely weren''t allowed to physically attack unless given the green light ahead of time, or if the suspicious personnel is believed to be dangerous, like if they hit someone or killed them." Scientia bobs up and down, shining brightly, and Rease holds his hand out for a fist bump. "Hell yeah man, insider knowledge," he says, grinning. Caz-V looks a little uncertain, but gives him a fist bump back, before once more trying to adopt his "cool kid" persona.


    "Thank you for the insight, Recruit Caz-V! First hand experience is always quite helpful. In any case, we will cover more specifics in the following week''s class. But if there''s one thing I want you to take away today, it''s to remember DIE! I will see you all in equipment training!" Then, with the now familiar abruptness, the screen flickers off, taking Scientia with it. We all turn towards each other a moment later. "Thanks for the heads-up," I tell Caz-V. He gives me a non-plussed look. "It''s whatever. We were talking about it, I knew something about it. Its no big deal," he says dismissively. Ella gives him an achingly sweet smile. "Even if it''s not a big deal for you Caz, it is for us. It could mean the difference between life and death. So... I think I speak for all of us when I say we''re very appreciative, and thank you." Caz-V''s lips twitch, as though he''s fighting the urge to smile at the compliment.


    "Transparent as a window," I think, watching Caz-V for a moment, before looking back at the rest of the squad. I notice Ella''s smile dim slightly. "I didn''t realize that we were going to be on our own for our operations though," she says, looking at the rest of us. Rease looks at her, confused. "We won''t be on our own though? I''m pretty sure we''ll be together," he says, confidence in his voice. "She means that she''s surprised that we won''t be accompanied by a warframe," explains Ko-lee. "Although, I''m surprised that you weren''t aware." Ella shakes her head. "Well, when you hear about the Tenno, you''re really hearing about the warframes. So... in my mind, they''re sort of one in the same. I knew that it didn''t make sense for them to be on every operation, but hearing it out loud, now, for the first time..." she gives a small huff.


    I nod my head. "Yeah, I totally get it. Isn''t it kind of crazy that they''re only just now telling us as well? Why wait this long?" I ask. "We only just got the information on the heirachy a few days ago," says Ko-lee to my right. "Maybe they just didn''t want to bring it up until then, so we knew how they fit into the picture." Rease gets a sinister grin on his face, before opening his mouth. "Or maybe they don''t want to talk about the warframes, because there''s some big secret about the soldiers who pilot them," he says, looking at the rest of us conspiratorially. It takes every ounce of willpower to prevent me from reacting. "Well, it doesn''t matter. Now I know. We can always talk about it more at lunch, but right now we''ve got to get to weapons," Ella says, standing from her chair. We all stand, and one by one trickle out of the room, and towards the next class.

 Zodiac Weapons

    The five of us enter our next class for the day, weapons training. Third Deacon Ravon is waiting for us next to the screen, looking as tired as the first day we had met him. The table underneath the screen - which had been empty for the last three weeks of class - now has two small guns on it, along with two cylindrical objects. My eyes widen as two neurons connect. "Holy shit, are those grenades?" I think, feeling a dash of adrenaline hit my system. My eyes wander over to the gun range, which had been modified last week to no longer have lanes, but instead to have various types of cover at different heights; waist high, full length, and so on. We had been practicing how to move in and out of cover with our weapons, how to move past a squadmate who was sharing the cover, and how to avoid shooting ourselves in the process. "It''s all just waist high cover now," I note.


    "Recruits," says Ravon, drawing my attention back towards him. "Sir," we say in response. "Today, you are picking your secondary, as well as your explosive ordinance," he says. I raise my hand, and he locks eyes with me. "Sorry sir, but we aren''t being assigned one like with our primary?" I ask. He shakes his head. "The difference between these weapons are minor, and ITO''s haven''t noticed any decrease in effectiveness regardless of loadout composition," he explains. "Infact, there''s actually a marked increase in effectiveness when recruits are allowed to pick their own weapon. Not only that, but I find it''s a bit like Stardrop''s holopad." I catch movement out of the corner of my eye, and I look over to see everyone in my squad nodding their head in understanding. "Did I miss something?" I think, before a message pops up in my headset. I open it, to find it''s from Ko-lee.


    its a childrens story. sd has a holopad that places you on a ship, and evryone on a ship had same personality.


    I shoot her an endlessly grateful look, before focusing back on Ravon. "Your combination of ordinance says a lot about who you are, and how you deal with conflict. Now, I''m no Unum. I can''t read your mind, and whatever I tell you isn''t some hard and fast rule. This is purely based on my own observations from years of experience," explains Ravon. "Recruit Thomoni."


    "Yeah, can we pick two secondaries?" asks Rease. "Or maybe even two explosives?" There''s excitement in his expression, his posture, almost hungry at the idea. Ravon shakes his head, chuckling. "No, not as a recruit or operative. After you become an agent? Well, you have a bit more freedom in what you choose to bring on a mission. But that''s a few years down the line," he says. "So," he says, stepping to the side of the table, "I''m going to have to come up to the table one at a time to pick. We''ll start with.... Recruit Ko-lee." I see the shift from casual observation to intense focus as Ko-lee makes her way to the table of weaponry. She looks down at it, her hand slowly moving to the closest weapon in reach. As she brings it up, she racks the slide, which drops the empty magazine into her hand, then places it back in, and aims down the sight. Eventually, she turns to face Ravon. "Sir. May I ask some questions about the weapons?"


    He nods, his expression serious. "The weapon you''re holding is the Lato. It''s a semi automatic handgun. Easy to handle, quick to reload, and a manageable recoil has made this a mainstay in our arsenal. 15 rounds to a magazine," explains Ravon. I watch as she examines it for a moment longer, before putting it back down. She reaches over for the next weapon, and Ravon begins to explain, unprompted. "Furis. Fully automatic, high rate of fire. 35 rounds to a magazine. It uses a smaller caliber than the Lato, which translates to slightly less damage per shot, but actually has less recoil, due to an internal damping mechanism," he says. "Like I mentioned before, after factoring in reload times and average accuracy of a recruit, the amount of damage each weapon can do tends to be about the same, so don''t worry to much about the numbers. It''s all about preference." She nods, and her attention turns to the grenades.


    "TLY-1 Fragmentation Grenade is it''s full title," says Ravon, describing the knobby looking cylinder. "Has a cook time of 5 seconds, and the fragments can be effective out to 200 meters, although damage begins to fall off after 30. Touch capacitive sensors means that the grenade won''t start cooking until it''s left your hand, although the TYL-2 has a mechanism that allows you to circumvent that behavior. For obvious reasons, we don''t hand those out to recruits," he says, with a dry expression. She shifts to look at the other grenade, and Ravon continues. "The AVT Disorientation Ordinance, also known as a stun grenade. It uses a combination of multiple stimuli to disorient and incapacitate attackers, including non human ones. Even works on Corpus bots. In the field, it tends to cause disorientation between five to seven seconds, although effects have been known to last up to a minute in severe cases. Has a maximum range of 75 meters, although it''s most effective within 50. And, obviously, non-lethal."


    I watch as she weighs the pros and cons in her head, her eyes flicking between gun and explosive, gun and explosive. Eventually, and with surety, she reaches for the Lato, and the fragmentation grenade. "Please bring your weapons over to the berm, and hang out there while the rest of your squad make their choices," says Ravon, with uncharacteristic solemnity. "Recruit Caz-V, you''re next." Caz-V saunters over to the table, and takes a quick glance at his options. I watch as his gaze drifts over to Ko-lee, and looks at the weapons in her hands, before he looks back down, and also picks the Lato and frag. The quickest expression of frustration crosses Ravon''s face, but he says nothing, and Caz-V walks over to the berm, where I see Ko-lee give him a questioning look. He leans over to whisper something in her ear, and after a moment, she just rolls her eyes at him, a smile on her face.


    I do my best to tear my gaze off them to focus on Ravon, and the next squad member. "Recruit Thomoni," says Ravon. Rease grins, and moves towards the table, his hand already outstretched for the fragmentation grenade. His other hand hesitates only for a brief second, before choosing the Furis. He turns to give us a satisfied smile, and joins Caz-V and Ko-lee at the berm. "Recruit Nova," says Ravon, and I feel goosebumps run up and down my arms. I take a deep breath and walk over, feeling the weight of everyone''s eyes on me. "Probably should''ve been thinking about what I wanted, but whatever, we''re here now," I think to myself, looking down at my options. "Alrighty, so. Lato was meh in game, if I remember, although I D K if stats really translate in the same way. I mean, realistically I''d rather a Lex, but that''s probably a later thing, if ever. Also, I might just be thinking of a mark 1 Lato, maybe possibly."


    My eyes drift to the automatic. "I definitely remember the Furis though. And the Afuris. I was literally always reloading that thing in game. Literal M R fodder. So... process of elimination, it''s gotta be the Lato." I pick up the heavy, rounded gun, feeling the weight in my hand. There''s a comfort to it, and I catch myself nodding, as though confirming my own decision. "And as far as grenades..." I reach for the stun with barely a second thought. "I''ve seen too many liveleaks of people absolutely whiffing a grenade toss. I don''t want that shit anywhere near me." Feeling confident in my choices, I make my way over the berm, flashing everyone a quick grin, before turning to watch Ella make her choice. "Recruit Tygg," says Ravon, after a few moments of inaction by Ella. She sighs, and with reluctance, makes her way over to the table. She stands there, looking at it, not really moving her eyes or head for 5 seconds, then 10 seconds, then 20, then 40, then a minute. "Recruit Tygg?" asks Ravon, taking a step towards her.


    "I know!" she snaps, before immediately correcting herself. "Sorry, I know, sir. I''ll make my choice. I''m... I was just..." She trails off, then slowly reaches her hand out for the stun grenade. It hovers there for a moment, almost but not quite grasping it. "They don''t bite, recruit," says Ravon, and Ella gives a defeated chuckle. "I''m aware, sir," she says, before grabbing the stun grenade, and a moment later, the Furis. She joins the rest of us, looking utterly exhausted, and Caz-V gently shuffles closer to her, giving her a small smile. It seems to help, and Ravon gives us all a moment before he speaks. "So, you''ve all picked your weapons. I''ll give you my rundown on what I think each choice means. Again, you can decide whether or not it applies to you." He gives us all a look. "I''m serious. This is meant to be fun, so please don''t complain."


    "First, the Lato and the stun," he says. I can feel the cool metal of the weapons in my hand. "This is someone who is economical with their tools. They want to be precise, and leave their options open. Stun a room for a non lethal extraction, or maybe use it as an opener, while picking off those unable to react with the Lato." I feel his words swim around in my head, and I find I don''t entirely disagree. "I mean, there can really only be so many choices, so... sure, I see it," I think to myself. "The Lato and the grenade," Ravon continues, "is for those who like to hit hard and fast. The grenade to open the doors, the Lato the broom to close up shop. Fast and efficient, they have a job to do, and they get it done." I look over to see two different responses. Ko-lee, like me, is clearly considering Ravon''s words carefully, by the slight furrow of her brows. Caz-V on the other hand, looks somewhat apathetic. "Although to be fair, that''s usually his default look anyways. Eh, I don''t know. It didn''t really look like he gave much of a shit when he picked his stuff, so maybe he just doesn''t think it applies to him."


    "Next is the Furis, and the grenade," says Ravon. "This is shock and awe. You want to be in the middle of the conflict, or maybe you want to spread a little chaos. Regardless of the specifics, you want all eyes on you." I watch as a dopey grin begins to grow on Rease''s face. "However," says Ravon, assassinating Rease''s smile, "remember that we are Tenno. Our job is infiltration. Information extraction. Warframe support. We are very, very rarely going to be in the middle of a firefight. There''s nothing wrong with the choice of weapon, but if you find that you have that sort of impulse, I want you to make sure you think twice about any decision you want to make when in the field." Rease looks at the weapons in his hand with a touch of what I think is frustration, before his expression softens, and he looks back at the teacher. Ravon makes eye contact with him for moment, before continuing. "Finally, the Furis and stun grenade."


    "I see this choice generally in those who, in some way, want to remove themselves from combat. Whether it''s an aversion to killing, or being unable to stomach the reality, the idea is to make distance. The AVT is non-lethal, and you can spray and pray with the Furis." I see Ella shrink a little, but Ravon doesn''t make eye contact, or any indication that he noticed. "Anyways! Now that you all have a weapon, we''re going to do a little exercise... yes, Recruit Ko-lee," he says, with a slightly exasperated tone. "Why does the primary not count for personality?" she asks. "Because as a recruit you only have the Braton, which doesn''t leave a lot of room for interpretation. Seriously, don''t think to hard on it. Anyways, the exercise. Like previous training, the targets will pop up from behind their obstructions. However, this time when they retreat behind cover, I want you to take the opportunity to flush them out with a grenade. The goal is to get the grenade behind the obstruction, not to hit the target in the face with it. I want arcing throws here, not fastballs."


    "Now, the grenades are live, with some caveats. The stun grenade has been tuned down to be less debilitating. Note that I said less, not ''none at all''. For the fragmentation grenade, we''ve removed the fragments. It still has the equivalent of half a block of explosive in there, so in the case of both of these, please, toss, then cover. We aren''t sight seeing here, and I promise the grenade will go off without you watching it. Are there any questions?" No one says anything. "Great, then let''s get started. Recruits, into cover. Start on the bell." We all assume the various positions in cover that we''d learned from the prior week of training, and after a few tense moments of silence, a tinny bell rings out. We begin popping up from behind the berm on a rotation; two, then two, then one, always keeping a consistent stream of gunfire coming from our position.Stolen story; please report.


    The sound is echoing off the metal walls, making every shot as loud as three or four, and the cutouts of Grineer and Corpus soldiers are yelling at us in their various languages. The entire situation is a sensory nightmare, but one I''ve become accustomed to over the course of the last week, and I let it roll over me, focusing only on the weapon in my hand, it''s sights, and my target. I watch the Grineer soldier I''m aiming at fold back behind cover, and on muscle memory, I start to shift my attention to a new target, when Ravon shouts at me. "Recruit Nova! Let''s see your throwing arm!" he says, reminding me of the explosive attached to my waist. I reach down for the stun grenade, sliding the small covering that''s hiding the button to trigger the arming process. I press it, and it vibrates in my hand, a small bit of feedback to let me know that it''s armed. Still, I''m caught slightly off guard, and I nearly drop the thing, before a second impulse causes my hand to clamp down in a death grip.


    "Horseshoes and hand grenades," I think, trying to visualize the arc the stun grenade will need to take before I toss it. I''m aware of how awful my non-dominant hand is when it comes to throwing things, but I''m also aware of how large a 30 meter radius is, and so mainly I''m focused on getting it up and over their cover. I swing my hand around in an arc, releasing my grip at the apex, and watch as the grenade sails through the air, before hitting the top of the cover the cardboard enemy is "crouched" behind. It hits the lip, and bounces straight up, rather than continuing over it. "Shit," I think. "Grenade!" I shout, and we all duck down. Only a second or two later, I hear the blast of the stun grenade go off, and it sounds like the entirety of a car crash being compressed into one second. "Hold fire!" says Ravon, and the range falls into a blissful silence.


    I feel Ravon''s eyes on me, and I look over to find his expression indecipherable. "Recruit Nova, do you have hearing issues?" he asks. I shake my head, assuming he''s referring to the blast of the grenade. "No, sir," I tell him. "So, then did you forget what you were doing?" he continues. "I missed something," I realize, giving Ravon another shake of the head. "I don''t believe so, sir. We are practicing with our secondaries and explosive ordinance," I tell him. "Then I''d like to know why you failed to alert your squad until a moment before the blast went off," he asks. My mouth opens, but I hesitate, unsure of how to respond without digging myself further into a hole. "...I''m sorry sir," I finally say. "I got caught up trying to see if the grenade went where I wanted it to." He gives me a look that makes me feel like an absolute moron. "Like I explicitly ordered you not to?" he asks. I just keep my mouth shut, and give him a singular nod, not willing to trust myself with the shovel anymore.


    "The grenade doesn''t need an audience!" he says, turning to look at the rest of the squad. "I know it feels odd, but once it''s left your hand, there''s nothing you can do about it. Once it''s no longer touching your hand, that''s five seconds on the clock. I promise, that is not very much time when it comes to battle, so you can not waste it watching your handiwork. Call out the grenade, then toss, then get in cover yourself. Have I made myself clear?" There''s an intensity in his voice, but he doesn''t feel particularly angry. Just... forceful, as though he''s trying to directly implant his words in our head. "Well I only need to fuck something up once. Call, toss, cover. Call, toss, cover," I tell myself, as we all return to our positions. "Alright recruits, once more with feeling!" The tinny bell rings out, and we return to firing.


    Around 10 to 20 seconds in, I hear Ko-lee''s voice over the pops of gunfire. "Grenade!" she yells. I have a momentary impulse to get visual on it, but I crush it, and fall back down behind cover, counting off the seconds. "5... 4... 3... 2... 1... ..wha-?" My counting must''ve been a touch fast, because I was just about to ask Ko-lee what happened when the explosive goes off. The bang is short and sweet, followed by what sounds like somebody running into our berm with something heavy and soft. "Fight''s not over recruits!" yells Ravon, over the mechanical voices of our targets. There''s a momentary awkward shuffle as we try to reestablish our rotation, since we''d lost track once we''d all gone behind cover. It only takes a moment though, before the sound of gunfire fills the space one again.


    "Recruit Tygg, now''s your chance!" says Ravon, and I see Ella jolt next to me, as though hit by electricity. I watch out of the corner of my eye as she jerkily reaches for the grenade at her side, pressing the button on her stun. "Grenade out," she says, her volume somewhere between regular speaking and a yell. I watch as her arm moves in an arc, and her hand holds the grenade... then continues to hold it, for just a touch too long. It hits the berm we''re crouched behind, flying back up and towards us. Everything about the moment plays out at the same speed as always, and yet, it''s like my brain is suddenly able to process more information. I see it''s new arc; up into the air, around face height, then on to the floor next to me, Ella, and Caz-V. "Face down!" yells Ravon, and I see Caz-V rotating from his crouched position and into a dive.


    "Is this like a real stun grenade? Does it explode? Or are we just going to get hit by it point blank?" I wonder, watching it spin through the air. It''s floating there, at the apex of it''s momentum, as though suspended; just a hair higher than eye level for Ella, who''s too busy flinching to obey Ravon''s command. She''s less diving for cover and more falling on her ass, and one of her hand''s is stretched out behind her to catch her fall. "That''s how I fractured my wrist," I think, although I''m unable to do anything about it. "I hope she''s okay. I wonder if we''re going to learn how to fall correctly in physical at some point." There''s a hand reaching out for the grenade, coming in at an angle that doesn''t immediately make sense to me. It takes me an embarrassingly long time to realize it''s mine.


    My left hand grabs the grenade, and I feel the warmth of the device in my hand; I feel an odd texture to it that I hadn''t noticed when throwing mine. I don''t wind up for a huge toss, because I know I don''t have the time. Even though I''ve made no conscious decision, I know exactly what my body is trying to do; it''s trying to get the grenade down on the floor on the opposite side of the berm, to shield us from it''s disorientation effects. I was already moving forward when I grabbed the grenade, and so instead of planting myself for a throw, I just keep moving forward, giving it a sort of gentle shoving motion rather than a toss. It flies out, past the berm, into the open air, aimed at nothing in particular. And then, roughly at my chest height, about 15 feet from me, the AVT Disorientation Ordinance does exactly what it was designed to do.


    It doesn''t sound like the frag grenade. In fact, at this close, it doesn''t really sound like anything. It''s more like when you''re recording a concert with a phone, and the decibels blow out the microphone. Just a single, max volume pop, and then silence. Or, in my case, the high pitched whine of my tinnitus. It''s pretty much the same experience for the visuals. I see the geometric shapes extend nearly a full inch out of the cylindrical body, a glow of possibly white inside it, and then nothing. Not black, but a brief absence of visual sensory information, as though somebody had reached into my brain and flicked the switch telling my mind to process anything coming in from the jello organs in my face. It''s only for a moment, but even as my eyes decide to come back from vacation, I''m still unable to see anything but a mishmash of colors, mostly white. Unfortunately, unlike the first two senses, I do very much feel the grenade.


    The best way to describe it is as though a gallop of horses had spawned in my veins, and beelined straight to my heart, before donkey kicking it, and scattering out every pore on my body. The incredible pressure doesn''t exactly hurt... until it moves past my skin, where suddenly it feels like I''ve just stuck a fork into an outlet. The sensation is brief, but my skin feels uncomfortably cripsy, as I stand there. Something smacks into my face, and my inner ear spins wildly, and it dawns on me that I actually wasn''t just standing there, but had been falling forward the entire time, and it''s not until my face made contact with the berm do I realize this. I make an adjustment to what I think is rolling onto my back, and then lay there on the ground for somewhere between 7 seconds and 43 years. I feel sound come back almost at the same time visuals do, but it still takes me a second to process the repeated sound I''m hearing as my name being called.


    "Recruit Nova, are you with us? Recruit?" says Ravon, hovering above me. "Yes sir," I mumble in English, before correcting myself. "Thank the Seven," I hear someone say off to my left, but I''m unable to see who. My vision is still spotty, but I watch as his expression flicks through five different feelings, before landing on a cold fury. "What the fuck were you thinking, recruit?" he growls, spitting out the final syllable of my title as though toxic. "At what point in training have I ever told you to REACH OUT FOR A LIVE GRENADE?" My head is still spinning, a fact I''m immediately reminded of when I shake my head, and so I instead opt for the vocal response. "Never, sir," I tell him. He stands there for a moment, taking deep breaths, before getting down on a knee next to me. "Recruit," he says softly. "When I give an order, what are you supposed to do?" My throat feels dry, but I give him the answer. "I follow it."


    "So when I tell you to dive face down, you don''t play hero!" he yells at me, each word escalating in volume. "When I give you a command, you don''t make a CHOICE. YOU DO WHAT I FUCKING ORDERED YOU TO DO!" His face is red, and the adrenaline from the shouting and the explosion are wracking hell on my ability to ground myself. A part of me wants to lay out exactly what happened; how the instinct to reach out for the grenade wasn''t one I was aware of, how I made the best decision I could with the information I had, how it''s something that I could now train out since I knew about it, that yelling in my face isn''t going to make me more likely to follow his instructions. Another part of me wants to yell right back; to tell him that diving face down wouldn''t have helped for me and Ella and Caz-V, that we still would''ve gotten the physical and auditory effects. And another part of me is trying to analyze and categorize his behavior.


    "He''s lashing out cause he got scared. He cares for his recruits, and he''s not handling his emotions well. He''s probably seen a lot of bright students die," my mind casually lists off. "Yes, sir," I say, unable to come up with any other response that won''t land me in hot water. He breathes heavily over me for a moment. "Recruit Tygg," he snaps, his eyes looking to someone standing near my head. "That was your throw." There''s a moment of silence, and if it weren''t for my sense of balance doing the samba, I''d look at her to see what she was doing. "Yes, sir," she responds, her voice almost clear. I watch as he glares for a second, but instead of yelling, he just sighs. "Work on your throwing arm. That''s an order. Also, you can take Recruit Nova to the med bay," he says. I see two suited hands appear in my vision, and my eyes trace them to Ko-lee and Rease. I grab them both, and they pull me to my feet, where I very unsteadily manage to stay.


    Rease lets go once he notices I''m moderately stable, but Ko-lee keeps holding onto my hand. There''s a look I feel like I should probably be able to classify, but all my focus is on staying upright, and so I just file it away for later. I give her my best cocky grin, and eventually she releases my hand. At the same time, I feel an arm wrap around my waist, and I look over to see a misty eyed Ella doing her best to support me. She leads me to the door, and I''m immediately grateful as the first few steps likely would''ve put me back on the ground had I not been able to lean on my squadmate. As we leave, I hear Ravon speaking to the rest of the squad. "Alright, shows over! Class isn''t finished, so let''s go again!" As Ella and I walk towards the med bay, I listen to the sound of gunfire slowly fade into the background.

 Bioplasma

    For the first few minutes, the walk to the med bay is done in complete silence. The sound of footsteps and the quiet chatter of the few people we encounter, along with time, is helping to clear my head, and eventually, I stop leaning on Ella to walk on my own. There''s a slight resistance from Ella as I do, but I don''t react to it. We continue walking in silence. "Holy shit, how far is the med bay anyways?" I think, after what feels like ten minutes of walking. I look at Ella, about to make a comment, and catch her expression. At some point during the trip she had traded her misty eyes and worried demeanor for furrowed brows and a frown. I take a step towards her, bumping her shoulder, causing her to jump into motion, her hands moving to catch me, before she realizes that I''m not going down. "Something wrong, mouse?" I ask, using the English word that had unintentionally become her nickname early on in the month.


    She sighs. "I messed up, and you got hurt," she states, her gaze pointed down the hallway. "First of all, I''m not hurt. It''s a disorientation grenade, and I was disoriented. That''s all. Secondly, it was an accident. No one blames you," I tell her, trying to keep my voice light. "I think Deacon Ravon does," she murmurs. I shake my head. "I don''t think so, but if he does, then he can shove it," I tell her. "But, you know. Don''t tell him I said that. ...besides, I know he told us to dive face down, but me and you and Caz-V were too close. It would''ve gone off near our feet and hit all three of us. I didn''t really make the choice on purpose, but I think it was the right call." She responds with an uncertain look. "Are you sure? Ravon seemed pretty upset that you didn''t follow his orders," she says. I shrug. "Well, to be fair," I say with a grin, "I never was a big fan of following orders. There''s a reason I never tried to join the military back home. Well... that and the whole ''not-wanting-to-kill-people'' bit."


    For some reason, this just makes her retreat into herself slightly. "Me neither," she says after a few moments of silence, with a soft, somewhat sad expression. I don''t know how to respond to that exactly, and so I just restate her words in a question, hoping she''ll open up. "You don''t want to kill anyone?" She shakes her head no, and for a moment, I assume the strategy is a failure, until she speaks. "I... sort of lied. A month ago. When we were talking at lunch? When everyone was talking about how we ended up with the Tenno?" I give her an inquisitive look, but keep my mouth shut, letting her tell her story at her own pace. I can tell she''s struggling to put it into words, but I''m unsure of exactly why. "I was... in the cave, sure, but... but I wasn''t trapped in there by the heat. The heat died pretty quickly, actually. Only after a couple hours. But I still didn''t leave for a day and a half. I... I didn''t want to kill the Grineer," she tells me.


    I chuckle. "I don''t blame you. You wouldn''t have-" I start to say, but she cuts me off with a desperate look, "No, Annie. I had a Corpus rifle in the cave, disassembled. A Dera. I could''ve put it back together, I could''ve-" something about the memory chokes her, and it takes a second for her to finish her words. "I could''ve saved them," she says, her words almost inaudible. "But I didn''t. I wasn''t scared of dying, I was scared of killing." She looks at me, her eyes pleading for absolution.


    "Does that make me a bad person?"


    We''ve come to a full stop in the hallway. I hadn''t even realized, I''m so caught up in her words, and occasionally a passerby needs to swerve to get around us; stones in the river. "Ellavanar," I say. Something about my expression must be a bit much, because there''s a flinch, but I push on regardless. "Staying hidden was the right call. Even if you rebuilt the Dera and went out, you would have died. One versus sixteen? When all you have is a rifle, and they have armor and fully automatic weapons? When they''re literally there to clear up survivors?" I shake my head. "Even a single Grineer doesn''t go down easy. It was the right choice. You aren''t a bad person." I see the rejection on the tip of her tongue, just waiting for the chance to form, regardless of what I say. "I heard them die!" she says, choking out her words. Her voice bounces in the hallway, but gratefully, most of the other Tenno don''''t pay much attention. I catch one whose expression is briefly sympathetic, but it disappears almost instantly.


    "I heard them die, and I didn''t do anything to help. Because I didn''t want to kill," she repeats, softer this time. "You are not a bad person for not wanting to kill someone," I tell her. She doesn''t look convinced. "Even Grineer?" she spits. "Even the Grineer," I confirm. "They''re not monsters, mouse. They''re... maybe monstrous, but they''re not monsters." I sigh. My feelings on the matter are even more conflicted now that it''s my reality, and not just armchair ethics for a video game. "They''re literally brainwashed. They come out of the tube preprogrammed to hate. But... that hate can be broken. Sometimes. And I want to be super clear, I''m not saying that if you hate the Grineer that you''re wrong for that, or anything. I know.... what they do. But at the end of the day, they''re just-" my mind doesn''t provide me with a word immediately, and Ella gives me a look as the silence drags on.


    "They''re just what? What single word do you use to describe people like that? People literally designed to hate; ones that murder and kill and desecrate the a rule, not the exception? Ones that might sometimes be able to be better, if they''re literally too flawed to hold onto the Grineer propaganda?" I think to myself. And then I realize. "They''re people," I tell her. I can see her chew on my words, and I give a nod towards the path, getting us walking again. "Have you ever killed?" she asks, after a few moments. I feel the weight. I taste the ash. I hear the click. I smell the blood. "Yeah," I respond simply. Her eyes grow wide. "How many people," she whispers, and I can''t tell if it''s fear or awe keeping her quiet. I try to give a grin, but it feels weak. "Just one," I say. "So far."


    I see her start and stop, two or three times. I feel confident I know what question she''s trying to ask. "What was it like?" I think. "It... it was sudden. Like with the grenade. I didn''t take the time to think about it, I just did it," I say. "And how did you feel?" she asks, her voice thick with some sort of emotion. "I don''t know. Not bad. Not good. It was just... a thing I had to do. If I didn''t, then I would''ve died. Like stepping around a branch to avoid tripping," I explain. "I mean, I ended up having flashbacks and stuff. And... I still do, sometimes. But yeah, I... I don''t know. I think I felt more bad that I didn''t feel bad about it, and then felt weird about that. In a perfect world... it''s not something anyone would ever have to grapple with. But, you know... we''re here." I hear the words I''m saying, and the moment I''m finished, my brain is asking for a redo. I can tell my words don''t comfort her the way I was intending. "I just gotta take the L on this one. Unless we can sit and have a chat about moral relativism, I doubt I''d ever really be able to explain myself super well," I think, somewhat frustrated.


    We arrive at the med bay, and a nurse greets the pair of us at the door. He looks between the two of us, then leads us over to a bed with a curtain around it, a surprisingly familiar sight. As I sit down on the bed, the nurse begins grabbing equipment off a nearby cart. "I''m nurse Meeco," he says. "Can I have you take off your mask and eyes?" I feel a spike of confusion before I remember that most people call the headset the eyes, and I reach up to do as he says. He takes a penlight, shining it first into my left eye, and then my right. "I mean, my suit probably does this, doesn''t it?" I wonder. For a moment, I''m about to ask, but something about the no-nonsense demeanor causes me to swallow my words. He starts pressing on my chest, and the clinical behavior means that I don''t feel particularly bothered by it.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    "Does any of this hurt?" he asks, and I shake my head. He reaches down for my hand, and starts touching the tips of each of my fingers. "And you can feel this? Do any of them feel numb? Or tingly?" I give him another shake of the head. "Could you stand up for a moment?" I get off the bed and stand in front of him, my face feeling oddly cold. Ella is standing on the other side, her shoulders tense. "I want you to do this, three or four times," says the nurse, tilting his head down to his left shoulder, then to his right. I do so, and on the second repetition, I find that I''m starting to list slightly to one side. He has his hands out, ready to catch me, but after a moment, I''m able to regain my balance. "Minor internal injuries. Likely from falling, rather than the grenade. Your inner ear has been damaged slightly as well, but your eyes seem fine," he says, with all the enthusiasm of drywall.


    I see Ella relax every so slightly at the nurse''s words. "All in all, standard injuries for someone standing only a few feet away from a stunner. Honestly, all this stuff would heal over time, but I''ve been authorized to give you some bioplasma," he says. "Plasma is bio? Already?" I wonder. "I just need your arm. Your choice," he says, and I offer my right. He waves a device over my arm briefly, before leaning over to take a syringe off the cart. It''s filled with a sort of strangely reflective material, but my attention is pulled away by the cuff of my suit automatically tightening. It shifts and moves around my arm, a feeling I''m very much not a fan of. "Big ick. Feels like something is trying to swallow my arm," I think. Eventually, it stops shifting, and the device he had previously waved over my arm makes a small beeping sound, a blue light shining from top top of it. He places the syringe in a tiny hole in the suit I wasn''t aware was there, then depresses the plunger.


    I''m not a big fan of needles, but stuff getting injected always feels weirder than getting my blood drawn. Still, I endure it like the big girl I am, and it only takes a few moments for him to finish, and pull the needle back out of my arm. "This should help, but make sure you get some food in you soon. More than usual would be preferable. You likely won''t feel very hungry, but I promise your body will need the fuel," says the nurse, as he packs his gear back on to the cart. I nod. "Thanks, nurse," I say. "Of course," he responds. "Now, you''re all good, but I''d like you to hang out here for a few minutes before you leave," he tells me. I give him a thumbs up, and without any further fanfare, he takes his cart off to some other part of the med bay, leaving me alone with Ella. I put my mask and headset back on, before shooting her a smile. "You know, you can always do something like him," I tell her.


    She furrows her eyebrows at me, and so I reiterate. "Instead of killing, I mean. Be medical staff. Or equipment. There''s a bunch that needs to be done that doesn''t involve having a gun in your hand," I say. She shakes her head vehemently. "No, I can do this," she says, although I''m unsure if she''s trying to convince me, or herself. "You don''t have to though. Seriously, there''s a lot of people willing to be in the field, but I''d put money on there being a lot less willing to do ''the boring stuff''," I say, making sarcastic air quotes. "There''s no reason for you to turn yourself into something you''re not." She looks sad, almost defeated, and I reach out to give her a gentle squeeze on the arm. "Hey, mouse. I''m on your side, no matter what. I just don''t want to see you squishing yourself into a box for no reason. And, obviously I can''t speak for everyone, but I''d imagine they''d all agree," I tell her.


    She nods, but I can tell it''s more of a "let''s agree to disagree" nod than anything. "I should probably head back to class," she says. "I mean, I''ll probably only be there for a few minutes..." I give her a shooing motion. "Go, go. I''ll see everyone at lunch. Oh, and thanks. For helping me here," I say, just as she''s about to turn to leave. She gives me a small, soft smile, and opens her mouth as though about to say something, but ultimately turns around without a word and leaves. I listen to the med bay door slide open and shut behind her, leaving me alone with just my thoughts. "Well," I think, listening to the roar of the silence. "That was exceptionally stupid." I wasn''t sure where the instinct to reach out for a live grenade and huck it back at the enemy had come from, and it was more than a little worrying since I hadn''t made an active choice to do it. "I was barely physical back home, I can''t imagine why I''ve got muscle memory for such an insane move. Thank god it only happened in training. If I''m gunna do some absolute out of pocket B S, I''d rather do it here than in the field."


    "There''s no learning the attack patterns here, no trial and error. If I die... I mean, that''s it. Dead dead. The odds of a second isekai are... probably better than zero, but definitely not something I''d wanna lean on. And... I don''t know what it''s like here, but injuries and vets are like spaghetti and meatballs. The odds that I''ll finish five whole years without a scratch on me, I mean... come on. ...although, I guess there is tech here that we don''t have back home," I think. My eyes wander along the hem of the curtain, casually noting the repetitive pattern while lost in thought. "Maybe I should take my own advice. Be a nurse or something. I''m sure the Lotus would be chill with it. But, if I''m being fully honest... I just don''t see myself playing it safe for five years. Or more, possibly, depending on what I actually need to pull off to get home." A thought occurs to me, and I chuckle. "Shit, if I had been pulled out of my chair back home and forced into the military, there would''ve been so much more bitching and moaning. And now I''m sitting here like ''well, honestly I don''t mind killing that much.'' Literally what is wrong with me."


    My thoughts are interrupted by the sound of the med bay door sliding open. I peek around the curtain, and see Ko-lee stood in the doorway, looking around. When her gaze lands on me, I see her face cycle through a few emotions, before landing on relieved. She walks over to me and leans down, giving me a hug. "You are such a dumbass," she says, whispering in my ear. It puts a smile on my face, and I''m about to say something cheeky, but as she leans back, I realize that she''s upset, not joking. "What-" I say, before she cuts me off. "If the grenade had gone off on our side of cover, then it would''ve been disabled at the last moment. There''s a transmitter under the floor that can disable it, literally for that purpose," she says, heated. I frown. "The only reason you got hurt is because you had thrown it past cover. All you had to do..." her words trail off, and I can see her clenching and unclenching her hands. "You''re right," I tell her, softly. "It was stupid of me." Her hands go up in the air in exasperation.


    "Then why?" she asks, sounding confused and distraught all at once. I feel bad before I even speak. "I don''t know," I tell her truthfully. "It wasn''t on purpose. I really do wish I had a good reason for disobeying an order, for pulling such a stupid move, but I don''t. I just... did it." She stares at me for a moment, then closes her eyes and sighs. "You''re an asshole," she tells me, but there''s no venom in her voice. I don''t have a response. "Class ended a few minutes ago," she says, after reopening her eyes. "Everyone else is going to Vista for lunch. I figured you''d want some company." I can''t help but feel a flush of warmth at that. "Aww, that''s so gay," I think lovingly. I get up and out of the chair. "Actually, doc said I''m good to go after a few minutes. And it''s been a few minutes, so..." I say. I hold my hand out, and she looks down at it for a moment, not reaching out. "Please don''t do that again," she says, looking up at me. I could probably stare at her eyes for a month, the amount of information I feel like I''m able to parse from that one look. "No more heroics for me," I promise. She stares at me some more, as though trying to read my mind. Eventually, she nods, seemingly satisfied with whatever she''d seen, and we both leave the med bay to meet up with our friends.

 Whittling

    Ko-lee and I walk into Vista, and my eyes immediately swing over to look at the namesake of the restaurant. A 70 foot curved window is positioned to perfectly display the Earth; sunlight creeps over the edge of the planet, lighting up the atmosphere, giving it an ethereal look. Ko-lee grabs my hand, pulling my attention first towards her, then towards our squad sat at a table close to the window, where they are waving to get our attention. I wave back, and we walk over to the table. Before I even have the chance to pull out my chair, Rease leans over and slaps me on the back. "Dude! That was so cool!" he exclaims. The other two women in the squad don''t seem to agree, based on the daggers their eyes are shooting at him. "No," says Ko-lee, her tone as icy as the surface of Venus. "It wasn''t cool, Rease." Rease just gives a shrug, seemingly unaffected by the pair''s ocular bombardment.


    "I mean, sure, getting chewed out by Deacon Ravon sucks, but the way you snatched the grenade out of midair like that?" Rease makes a quick striking hand motion, mimicking what he''d seen during the incident. "It was so fast, I barely had time to process it!" His enthusiasm is contagious, and I do my best to avoid the infection, feeling the presence of my girlfriend beside me. "Yeah man, me too," I tell him, sitting down at the table. "The whole thing happened so fast, I didn''t get a chance to think about it. If I had, I probably would''ve hit the deck with the rest of you. Just... instinct, I guess." I give the group a shrug. "Apparently," says Caz-V, "there is some sort of device that makes it so grenades can''t go off on our side of the berm. So, no need to play hero." I sigh, trying my best to let the frustration I feel bubbling roll past me. "I know, I know. Ko-lee already explained it to me," I say. I make sure to lock eyes with everyone. "Seriously guys, I''m sorry. I imagine Ravon was a bit heated after that, and this whole thing is on me. It was an accident, and it won''t happen again."


    "That being said..." I say with a thoughtful expression, "isn''t this sort of what training''s for? Unlearning bad habits and all that?" Rease chuckles at my question. "Well, I don''t know about the rest of you, but I don''t have a habit of snatching grenades out of thin air," he says with a wide smile. "Maybe that''s why you couldn''t get your hands on the ball at last night''s Lunaro game," says Caz-V offhandedly, and I feel relief as the conversation moves on from my explosive faux pas. I take a few minutes to decide on an order, then place it using my headset, no longer needing to use the screen embedded in the table. I tune back in to hear Ella talking about Tactics. "I mean, when you think about the Tenno, you think about the warframes, right? I guess I just never took the time to put two and two together," she says with a pout. Ko-lee gives her a sympathetic nod. "I get it. It''s why I wanted to be a Tenno when I was a kid. I mean, what kid doesn''t, really? You hear about these superheroes; people who can make miracles happen, perform what seems like magic. They can rain down fire, heal any wound, that sort of thing. Who wouldn''t look up to someone like that?"


    Rease nods, a lecherous grin on his face. "Yeah, I used to look up to the fire one. Every night, before bed, I''d look up at the poster on my bunk roof..." he says, his gaze off in the distance. Ella looks aghast, while Ko-lee just seems bemused, and Caz-V snickers, doing his best to hide his smile. I have no idea what I look like, but I imagine it''s conflicted. "Duuude! You... no!" I say, trying not laugh at the absurdity. "Ohh, what," he responds, rolling his eyes at me. "Everyone''s got a favorite. Personally? I like when they''re..." His hands draw an hourglass figure in the air, and Ella scoffs, before smacking him on the shoulder, to little reaction. "Don''t be gross!" she says. Rease just gives her a look. "Oh come on, mouse. Now you gotta tell us your favorite," he says teasingly. Ella just just shoots him a look of frustration, her face slowly gaining color, before she hangs her head in defeat. "The white and green one," she mumbles. We all share confused looks with each other, and after a few seconds of silence, she looks up at all of us. "The one with the... he can grow stuff? And he has the... the horns?" she says, desperately trying to explain.


    I run over the roster in my mind. "White and green? Nobody''s green, ''cept for Hydroid sort of? Maybe Titania OH-" I make the connection pretty quickly. "Oberon!" I shout, a touch too loudly. I receive a non committal shrug in return. "I guess, I don''t know what he''s called," she says. "But I had heard others in the colony talk about him. To be able to command nature like that..." Her gaze wanders, clearly lost in imagination, in a mirror of Rease from a few minutes prior. I look between the two of them, then shift to Caz-V. He just shakes his head. "Yeah, not really part of my childhood," he explains, and it takes me a second to realize why. When I do, I give him a look of sympathy. "That''s a bummer man," I tell him. "You''d probably like... " I can''t think of a warframe that would fit his hedonistic personality, and so I hem and haw, before somewhat lamely finishing with, "...one of them." I briefly consider just picking one for him when I see his crestfallen face, but he quickly covers it up, and I decide to spare him the indignity. I turn to look at Ko-lee instead. "What about you, love?" I ask. "I''ve heard you talk about your childhood, but I don''t think you''ve ever mentioned a favorite."


    "I think I''ll always have a soft spot for the one that saved your life," she tells me. I just roll my eyes at her. "Seriously." She gives me a cheeky grin for a moment, before something in her eyes change. "The tentacles one," she says, and something about the tone of her words does things to me. "Hell yeah!" yells Rease, reaching over across the table to offer a high five to my girlfriend. Her expression becomes a little more safe for work, and she high fives him back, causing him to shout once more, startling our server who had just shown up with our food. They set down our various meals, and we all start to dig in. The only sound at the table is muffled munching, until Caz-V speaks. "What about you, Annie?" he asks derailing me from my food. "You never told us who was your favorite was." I feel everyone''s focus shift from their food to me, and I grin.


    "Don''t get me started," I think, but as I open my mouth, I suddenly realize that I don''t know how to answer the question. "I mean, pretty much every frame I play came out in the last couple of years, except for maybe Trinity Prime? Trin Prime in all black and purple highlights, with the angel wings, muah! Although I D K when she came out, so eh. Really, it''s Xaku, or Octavia, and I''d look like a crazy person even trying to describe them." I chew on the thought for a moment, before another part of my mind nudges me. "Also also, can I really say that any of them are my favorite? In game, for sure, but I R L?" I do my best to suppress the shiver that runs down my spine. "When I know what they are? When I know how dangerous they are?" I respond truthfully. "I don''t know." Rease tut''s like a disappointed parent. "Cop out answer," he says, taking a bite out of his "Tri Planet Meat-ior" he had been consistently ordering every time we came here.


    I scoff. "Alright man, I''ll tell you," I say. "My favorite warframe is Xaku. They''re a pluriform, which means they''re actually the cast off remains of three different warframes, all stitched together. They''re a skeleton, with veins of void energy, wrapped in mismatched armor, and they''re literally so hot." My face is deadpan, and the looks I get are a mix of disinterest and confusion, except from Ko-lee. I can tell she''s intrigued, and I make a mental note to tell her more about some of the frames that aren''t around yet later tonight. "Dude, you can''t just make one up," says Rease, sighing. Caz-V chuckles. "You can just say you don''t have one," he follows up. I just sigh. "It''s the healer frame. The red one," I say, defeated. I catch Ella''s expression brighten. "Awww, that''s kind of sweet!" she coos, and I feel my face burn red. "Don''t ''awww'' me! I''m not cute! I''m cool!" I say, feeling oddly put out. I feel a hand on mine, and I trace up the arm to lock eyes with Ko-lee. Her expression is serious.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    "Antimony," she says, her voice solemn. "Don''t... don''t say it," I warn her. "You''re cute," she responds. I clutch my heart in despair. "No! Noooo! This is... this is the end," I exclaim, my free hand reaching out for the light above the table. They all chuckle at my antics, and with the round of questioning finished, we turn back to our meals.


    <hr>


    "You guys ready for Terror-wins," asks Caz-V, as we hang out in Vista, letting our meal digest. We had learned the name of our PE teacher only in the last few days, around the same time that we had also learned her nickname from recently graduated operatives. She was First Deacon Terrowin, but due to her sadistic streak, she was more well known as "Terror Wins"; a nickname she seemed quite fond of when Rease had let it slip in class the day prior. "No," Ella says, a frown on her face. "I feel like she picks on me the most." Rease gives her a sympathetic look. "It''s cause you''re so small," he tells her, causing her to roll her eyes. "Picks on, not picks up," she says. He just grins. "I know. I still think it''s ''cause you''re small. It''s easier for her to push you to your limits." Ko-lee reaches over to touch Ella on the arm. "You know, Rease and I play Lunaro in our downtime. You should join in for a pick up game or two, it''ll help build your endurance," Ko-lee tells the smaller squadmate. "I''m there too!" says Caz-V, a touch over enthusiastic.


    "Sometimes," Ko-lee amends, to which Caz-V just shrugs. "Well, yeah, no, not always. Sometimes I have work," he explains, partly to Ko-lee and partly to Ella. Ko-lee gives him a look between consideration and surprise. "You work?" she asks, and Caz-V just furrows his brows, as though confused. "Uh, yeah? Of course. Alcohol isn''t free," he says, and to punctuate his point, he finishes off his drink. "Wait," I say, cutting off Ko-lee from responding. "What sort of job do you have? How much do you make?" He gives me a casual shrug. "Just some spending cash. And the job is easy enough; it''s basically customs. Stuff that is going from orbit to Earth needs to pass through here, so we can make sure that it''s not weaponry and the like. ''Cause it''s going to settlements and colonies. We also check on stuff coming from the surface, but that''s more trying to make sure people don''t circumvent taxes."


    I feel a nudge, and turn to meet the eyes of my girlfriend. "What do you need money for?" she asks. "For..." I start to say, before I realize I''m drawing a blank. "Man, what do I need money for? What do I even do?" Most of my downtime was spent rewatching lectures from Scientia, or catching up on Sol history, or fiddling with the seemingly infinite options in my headset. If I was feeling particularly motivated, I''d spend a day working out, before remembering that I hated it. None of those needed cash on hand. "Other than drinking with Ko-lee and Jae in the Unum, or playing Komi with the other skinners, I don''t think I''ve ever really done anything... fun. I was working to get to the Unum, and before that I was hiking to Cetus, and before that I was training to hike to Cetus, and before that I was trying not to die in a forest. I have no hobbies," I realize. "I should take up whittling. Or... something. But whatever it is, I''ll probably need some money."


    I close my mouth and give Ko-lee a shrug. "Just a bit of spending cash, I guess," I tell her, stealing Caz-V''s line. "Maybe I''ll buy you a birthday present." As the words leave my mouth, I feel a shock go through me, and my eyes open wide. "Oh my god I don''t know when your birthday is," I whisper in horror. A booming laugh emanates from Rease. "Kubrowhouse!" he exclaims, eliciting a smile from the other squadmates. I look at Ko-lee, who just gives a small shake of the head, along with a little shrug. "I don''t know," she says, and I don''t immediately understand her response. "What? What do you mean?" I ask. "We didn''t keep track of that sort of thing at home," she explains. I''m left speechless for a moment, and from a glance at the others, I''m in this boat by myself. "Wait, do you all not know how old you are?" I ask, my voice a few semitones higher than usual. I get shakes from everyone else. "I know how old I am," Caz-V tells me. "Me too," says Ella, "although, I''m not surprised. I''ve heard some of the outer settlements on Earth just don''t keep track of the calendar super closely."


    The entire idea is so absurd to me, that for the briefest of moments I''m convinced that I''m just being gaslit by the entire group. "So, you have no idea how old you are," I say, turning my attention back to my girlfriend. She gives a so-so gesture with one of her hands. "I mean, I mostly know how old I am. I don''t have an exact number, but mid 20s," she tells me, unconcerned. "I could of guessed that!" I exclaim. "Just... how am I supposed to buy you a present," I say, feeling slightly bummed. "What if... you picked a day?" Ella says, after a moment of silence. "Something with meaning to the both of you." I feel a jolt of motivation, and I look at Ko-lee. "It''s up to you love," I tell her, trying not to unduly influence her with my excitement. From the amusement in her eyes, I doubt I''m hiding it as well as I mean to. "Okay," she says, and I do my best to keep my exuberance subdued. She goes quiet for a moment, clearly thinking, before asking, "What about the 42nd of Terra?"


    The calendar system was one that had taken me quite a bit of time to adjust to. Luckily, lots of different factions use their own, and so there was an entire tactics class about it, among other things, and -- due to it being a modified version of the Orokin calendar -- it was very easy to remember. Seven days in a week, seven weeks to a month, and seven months to a year, with 30 hour days to top it all off. The seven, seven, seven thing was reference to The Seven, as in Ballas and the other six Orokin people who I can''t remember the specifics of. "I don''t think they''re literally the head of the Orokin, but it''s something like that. Super ego''s for super pricks." Apparently the rotations of all the planets were adjusted to fit the day, while the orbit of Earth specifically was changed to fit the year. From what I can tell, the months are based on planet names, and the days are based on warframes, although I''m unsure if the second part is a Tenno thing or an Orokin thing. In any case, I do some quick math to figure out how far away we are from 42nd.


    "That was like... five months ago," I say, trying to recall if anything notable happened then. "It''s about when we left Sharip," she tells me. My eyes grow wide, and she gives a sad smile. "It was kind of like being born. A rebirth." I feel the immediate rejection on the tip of my tongue; I want to tell her that her day of celebration shouldn''t be one filled with the memory of so much death and misery. I take the impulse out behind the shed and put three rounds in it''s head. "It''s a plan then!" I say, with a smile I don''t feel. "I''ll get a job with Caz-V, and then I''ll buy you a present." Rease nods, with an expression of uncharacteristic seriousness. "And me," he says. It takes me a moment to realize that he''s joking, and the second I do, I break down laughing. "Sure, Rease," I tell him, feeling my tears stain the inside of my headset, before they''re immediately removed by some sort of tech. "You too. I can get everyone a gift for their birthday''s. Sounds like a plan."

 Hardcore Parkour

    The five of us make our way towards physical training, but Ella is the first to notice the discrepancy. "We''re not going towards the regular classroom," she says, her head moving back and forth between the line in front of us, and the intersection we aren''t turning left at. "I thought I was just going crazy," I mutter. "You are," says Caz-V, who is apparently walking only a few feet behind me. I roll my eyes, but I don''t have the opportunity to say anymore, as our line terminates at a door only 20 feet past the intersection. The door slides open as Rease approaches it, and I hear various murmurings from my squadmates before I get eyes on the space. I round the corner and my eyebrows shoot up as my gaze sweeps the cavernous room.


    It looks roughly as long and wide as an airplane hanger, and is maybe 3/4ths as tall. The space is stuffed with various different objects; ladders made out of rebar, a folded Corpus ship hull creating a sloped pit, vines and ropes hanging off various structures, tunnel through broken Grineer machinery, and straight up rock cliffs, just to name just a few. "It''s like a grab bag of every tileset in the game," I think, looking over the mishmash in front of me. While the... debris... is all over the place, it''s clear that there''s a dividing line between Grineer and Corpus stuff, whereas anything natural is just mixed throughout. Eventually, my eyes spot Terrowin sitting at the top of broken front half of a Grineer dropship, next to a pole with a wire coming off it. It takes a moment for me to process it as a zipline, due to how visually noisy the entire place is.


    The moment Caz-V enters behind me, she stands up from her seated position. I''m expecting her to grab the zipline next to her, but instead she steps over to the edge of the dropship, and shifts her weight over her toes. Before she falls off, however, she leaps off the rounded edge of the ship, jumping straight out into the open air. It only takes me a second to realize she''s nowhere near anything, and her only path is straight down onto the lightly padded floor. I can''t help but let out a gasp as I watch gravity take hold of her. "She''ll be fine," I do my best to convince myself. It was incredibly unlikely that she would have jumped if she couldn''t handle the fall, but the monkey part of my brain is telling me that I''m about to see a woman with 1 to 2 broken legs crunch down in front of me.


    She slows a hair before hitting the ground, a sign I''ve come to recognize as kinetic dampeners in effect. She gracefully turns her vertical momentum into horizontal by transitioning into a roll, and pops up into a relaxed stance only 5 feet away from us, looking incredibly entertained by her own behavior. "I wonder if her augments let her bullet jump." She hadn''t confirmed or denied my pet theory about her physical abilities, but to be fair, I had also never approached her about them. "Today, recruits, we''re doing mobility training," says First Deacon Terrowin. "As you can see, we have an obstacle course. Your goal is to traverse the obstacle course. Some parts of the course can be run solo, and some will need to be run as a squad." A top down hologram of the course pops up next to her, and as the hologram by her side lights up various obstacles, so too do the obstacles light up on the field via an overlay in my headset.


    "This is our basic course," she states, after a series of 4 obstacles is highlighted. "Over the next couple weeks you''ll be running different routes, all timed of course." Another hologram pops up, this one to her right. At the top of it are three labels; position, name, and points. Beneath the labels is a single horizontal line, followed by the name C. Terrowin, then the number four. Off to the right of the scoreboard is a list of times, along with the amount of points each one would award. Anything faster than 10 minutes is 4 points, and anything slower than 15 minutes is just 1. "After running the course, you''ll place on the leaderboard. Anyone in last place will have extra workouts to do the following day, and your position will be tracked over the course of the next few weeks. Questions? Recruit Ko-lee?" I look over at my girlfriend, who has a look of anticipation in her eye. "Are there rewards for being first?" she asks.


    "Bragging rights," Terrowin responds simply, a small smirk on her face. "Any other questions?" I consider the obstacle course for a moment. "Should I ask why there''s no Orokin ruins or Infested stuff for obstacles?" The moment the thought crosses my mind, I come up with an answer. "Actually, why would there be? I don''t think Tenno go into Orokin ruins. That''s a delver thing, like with Maroo. Or maybe a warframe only thing. And the Infested, I mean that one''s self explanatory." Nobody else asks a question, and Terrowin gives us all a sadistic grin. "Great. Let''s get started."


    <hr>


    Our warm ups finished, my squadmates and the teacher all make our way over to the beginning of the starter course. Terrowin had walked us through each obstacle for this route, explaining how to tackle them, and I felt confident - perhaps overly so - about running it. "Calling it a starter course is a bit of a stretch though," I think, looking at the obstacles in front of me. Still, I have the barest bones of parkour experience from nearly a decade ago, and unlike back then, I''m actually somewhat physically capable now, so I''m excited to try my hand at it. Then, as though in an attempt to temper my expectations, the memory of me eating shit into Lykka lake flashes into my head. "No, yeah, this is gonna go poorly," I think. Unfortunately, I''m the first to tackle the course, and I stand at the starting line, doing my best to calm my beating heart. "GO!" shouts Terrowin, and her voice is so loud that it nearly causes me to trip before I take a single step. I manage to recover, and after a few feet, I encounter my first roadblock; a literal rock wall, made from actual martian stone.


    The wall is tilted ever so slightly away from me, rather than being perfectly vertical, but I had already looked it over, and so I know that the path up is going to be an issue. About half way up the wall, I need to jump to reach a handhold, one that I''m not sure I''ll be able to place more than a single hand on. If I had to do something like it back home, it would''ve been an insurmountable obstruction, but I''m cautiously optimistic about the maneuver. I keep it in mind as I reach the wall with a bit of speed; the 30 or so feet between the starting line and the wall just about enough room for me to reach a sprint. I try to use the momentum to skip the first few handholds, taking a step or two up the wall. However, all it does is place me in an awkward position with my hands and feet all out of place, and after a few seconds of consideration, I realize that I''ll need to reset and do the climb correctly. "Ah, well. Worth a shot."


    As my feet touch the ground, I can feel the seconds ticking away, even though there''s no indication of it anywhere that I can see. My hands are somehow already sweaty, but the TEPA prevents it from messing with my grip. I place both hands on the wall, then my feet, then take the obstacle one step at a time, feeling the rough texture of the stone through the fibers of my suit. I reach the midway point, but I''m able to use both my arms and my legs to jump, reaching the next grip with ease. As I pull myself up, it almost feels as though my momentum is helping me up the wall, and I reach the top in what feels like record time. "Although if every one else spiderman''s up the damn thing I''m gonna feel real sad," I think, as I make my way along the raised platform over to the next obstacle.


    The next obstacle is a tiny ledge, about one foot out from a wall, about 20 feet in length. The wall above the ledge is rough and textured, with bits poking out that will force me to shift my weight around as I shimmy along it. I take a step up to the edge, and look down at the 15 foot drop on the other side. I do my best to tamp down the flash of fear I feel crawl along my spine. "It''s so dumb that my fear of heights really only kicks in between 10 to 100 feet," I think, trying to distract myself for the crossing. "I wonder if it''s a suffering versus instant death thing, or something else." My mind helpfully supplies imagery of my foot slipping and me unable to recover, as I careen down onto the mat head first, snapping my neck before I have a chance to react. I shake my head in an attempt to clear the thought, and place my right foot on the ledge first, my back up against the wall. Once there, I find it''s not really possible for me to lift my feet, and so I just scooch, inch by inch, along the ledge.


    The awkward, knobbly stone texture behind me jabs into my shoulder blades, and the protruding shapes feels like they''re trying to push me off, but I keep my back up against the wall as much as I can while I make the arduous crossing. Suddenly, I feel my right foot slip a little farther than expected, and I instinctively flinch to regain balance. The moment I do, I realize I''ve fucked up. Adrenaline shoot''s through my body, but it just throws off my already compromised balance even more, and gravity takes hold, as it not so gently helps me off the ledge and towards the floor. Of course, this exact scenario had been playing in my head for the last few minutes, and so I know how to react to avoid seriously injuring myself. My back gets scratched up by the ledge, but otherwise I come down onto the padded floor feet first, rather than on my hands, head, and neck. The moment I touch the ground, I attempt to transition into a roll, but the movement doesn''t play out as effectively as it did in practice from a few weeks prior.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    As I pick myself up from the floor, I can feel soreness in my thighs and legs, even with the padded floor and kinetic dampeners reducing the impact from the fall. My gaze shifts back to the rock wall, and I feel a touch of despair. A few minutes (and one miserable climb) later, I find myself back at the ledge. This time, I face in towards the wall, with the idea that any shift in my center of gravity would be away from the open air, rather than towards it. It''s unsettling in an entirely different way to have my face smooshed up against the wall, but I find it a lot easier to complete the obstacle. "In retrospect that was obvi the better play," I think, standing on the next ledge. The bumps and protrusions that had tried to knock me off my feet on the first attempt ceased to be a problem when I could fold forward around them, rather than needing to arch my back. "Two more."


    The next obstacle was one that had barely registered when we were doing the walkthrough. It was effectively just three pieces of rebar sticking out of a structure, and all I had to do was tap into my inner monkey to reach the slanted ground on the other side. I flex my fingers for a moment, then jump for the first bar above my head. The second I put my weight on it, however, I feel it start to shift, and a part of my mind does the calculations in a instant. "I need to spread my weight across the bars. If I swing, the bars will pull right out of the wall," I think, my right hand already reaching for the second one. I pause there for a moment, one arm in front and one behind, considering how best to reach the last bar without swinging. "Is there a problem, recruit?" I hear the voice of Terror Wins call out behind me. I can''t see her face, but I know it has that familiar sadistic grin stretched across it.


    "Just hangin'' out," I can''t help but retort. It gets a laugh from Rease, and I smile. "Stop, pay attention," I reprimand, and I force my mind to the task in front of me. "If I shift my grip closer to the holes..." The thought stays unfinished, as the idea is mostly based on a gut feeling and not concrete facts. I shift closer to the holes with both my left and right, then look at the final bar, tantalizingly close. "The shifting momentum is what''s gonna pull the bars out. So maybe if I just... go real slow," I think to myself. I wait for a moment to see if another idea will pop into my head, but nothing does, and I can feel the strain in my arms. "Fuck it," I mutter in English. I dig deep, then grip onto the bar as tightly as I can, before moving my left hand from the first to the third bar. My entire weight is supported only by my right arm, and for the briefest of moments I feel elation that I''m able to hold myself up this way for any length of time. The emotion is quickly overwritten by panic, however, as the burn in my muscles makes it clear that it''s an incredibly temporary maneuver. I pick up the pace with left, and finally, I have my weight spread once more across two bars.


    I take a moment to ''rest'', both my arms burning as I hang there. "Just over the lip," I think, looking at the final part of the obstacle. The slope I needed to land on was on the opposite side of a wall, and If I dropped too early, I''d be forced to redo everything for a third time. However, the wall is positioned in such a way that I have to swing to be able to clear it. "Beginner, my ass." I shift my grip, and lift my legs, trying to raise my center of gravity so that each swing will affect the bars as little as possible. I shift my weight back and forth, once, then twice, then fully extend on the third and let go at the same time. I hear the bars behind me clatter to the floor, but I pay no attention to them as I just barely manage to squeak past the dividing wall, and onto the slope on the opposite side. I crouch as I land, then slide for about five feet, until friction comes back from it''s vacation, causing me to flip over and tumble the rest of the way down.


    "Ah... well," I think, in a pile of aching flesh and bone. I take the briefest moment to relax, before pulling myself back into the configuration of a soldier, and looking at the last real obstacle. It was a small tunnel that I''d need to crawl through on my stomach. The Nutty Putty cave pops into my head, and I do my best not to shudder. "It''s a 25 foot tunnel, not a cave. It''s not even the right shape," I tell myself. I get down on my stomach, and start moving forward a foot at a time. I send one hand forward and curl one leg as much as I can, then pull and push as much as possible, before doing the same with the other side. I feel every inch of the rough stone rub against my stomach, and more than once I bang my knee into the side of the tunnel. Luckily, there are no protrusions I need to squeeze through breathlessly, or loose stone I need to push aside. Just one long tunnel that was taking more time than I wanted. I finish inching through, and stand up, before immediately breaking into a sprint, trying to clear the last 200 feet as quickly as possible.


    All I had to do was make my way back to the squad and pass a line on the ground, and I''d get my time. I don''t know what it is, but I''m literally in the home stretch, and so I push myself despite the aches. My arms scream as I pump them up and down, and I can feel my legs plotting a rebellion, but I dig deep, and nine seconds after standing up, I cross the finish line. It takes every ounce of willpower to not collapse in front of my friends and the teacher. I stand there, breathing heavily for a moment, before my gaze turns to the scoreboard. 16:41. 1 point. "Fuck me sideways," I think, but I do my best to plaster a smile on my face. "Who''s next?" I ask. The squad looks at me, then the course with various expressions; fear, excitement, and anticipation, to name a few. "Go drink some water, recruit," says Terrowin from my right. "I don''t want you throwing up on my course." I nod my head and give her a somewhat shaky "yes, sir," before making my way over to the bench.


    I watch from a few feet away as she picks the next person to run the course. Ko-lee makes it look effortless, and I definitely do not feel a stab of jealousy at my girlfriend''s time of 11:13. "It''s just ''cause I did the course first, and she could learn from my mistakes. It definitely isn''t just because she''s more graceful and in shape than I am, no sirree," I lie to myself. I try to not let it get to me; I''ve spent most of my life in no particular shape at all, and while having visible muscle definition for the first time in my life is exciting, my girlfriend still has me beat in the physical department by a long margin. "Begone, thief of joy. Everyone''s got their own things, and this probably won''t ever be mine. There''s nothing wrong with that," I think. It doesn''t solve my jealousy, but it helps quiet it somewhat, and I smile as my girlfriend makes her way over to the bench with me. I reach my hand out towards her, palm up, and she gives me a high five as she sits down, before the two of us watch the rest of our squad run through the course.


    Unsurprisingly, Rease does pretty well. While he doesn''t do as good on time as Ko-lee, he still falls in the second place range, something he makes sure to let us know he''s very excited about. Contrary to expectation, however, Ella also does quite well. She manages to finish the course in 12:35, only missing the three point mark by a few seconds. "Honestly, it''s only ''cause she got handicapped by her height for the bars and the rock wall," I think. Still, I''m impressed, as are the rest of the squad, and we give her enough praise to turn her face tomato red. Lastly is Caz-V. Like me, he''s a bit clumsy on the course, but unlike me, he''s had prior training moving his body - at least in some manner - since he was a kid. He manages to squeak into the two point range with a time of 14:44, leaving me the only one with a single point. "Recruit Nova," says Terrowin, as she makes her way over to us. "You''re last place."


    "That means when you come in tomorrow, you''ll have some extra laps around the course waiting for you. Three in total, which you can do while everyone else runs the obstacle course." She smirks at me, enjoying being the bearer of bad news. "It''s up to you on whether you want to do them before or after your own course run." I just nod, and give her a "yes, sir," hoping to avoid giving her the pleasure of seeing my dread. She turns to the rest of the squad soon after. "Alright, not bad for your first day," she says. "Like I said at the beginning of class, the courses are going to change every day. No point in thinking too much about any one course. Tomorrow, we''re doing a tandem, and the day after, it''ll be the full squad. Then back to singles. If there''s no questions, you''re all dismissed." We all look at each other, but none of us make a move to raise a hand, and without further fanfare, Terrowin walks off, leaving us alone. We all stand, with varying levels of ease, then make our way to the door, and then to our next class, equipment.

 Every Day Carry

    Ko-lee, Rease, Caz-V, Ella, and I all enter into what at this point is the second most familiar room in the station to me. Tactics and Equipment training share the same space, due to both of them being taught by Scientia, and so my wandering gaze immediately catches the new setup in the room. Directly beneath the screen at the front of the room is a table, with a handful of items laid out next to each other. "Oh, sweet, I guess we''re hands on today," I think, as I make my way to my seat. To the left of the table is a square pillar with a screen on top of it; a bit like a kiosk at an upscale restaurant. The sharp angles and minimal use of physical buttons makes it clear that the device is of Corpus make. I consider it for a moment, before shifting my gaze back to the objects sat on the desk. I try to determine the purpose of any of them, but the only things that are familiar are a rectangular metal device and one that looks a bit like a caltrop. I let the thoughts percolate in the back of my mind as the rest of the squad make their way to their seats. As we all settle in, the screen to flash to life, once more showing the familiar soft green cephalon.


    "Hello class!" says Scientia, in an upbeat, lightly synthesized voice. "This is equipment training! Today, we''ll be covering an assortment of common pieces of equipment that you will have access to when in the field. You won''t have access to every one of these on every operation, but you''ll likely have some, if not most." A sourceless spotlight shines down onto the rectangular object, and a labeled version of it pops up on the screen. "This is a cipher," they say. I feel the self reprimand immediately. "How did I not remember that?" I wonder. I do my best to avoid spiraling on the topic of memory, while Scientia continues her explanation, unabated. "Ciphers are precompiled bits of script that can be used to gain access to many different secured system across the Origin system. Operation of a cipher is quite simple; the cipher will run scripts, using a modified version of Kalog''s algorithm to automatically determine the best vector of attack. In 70% of cases, this ''automatic'' mode is all you will need to gain access to a secured system."


    "However," they continue, "the algorithm is designed for speed and efficiency. It tries as many avenues of attack as possible, and is not particularly subtle. Therefore, if these qualities are required for your use case, you may manually select which scripts you''d like to run, instead. This process is slower, due to the method of scanning and human intervention, but will leave less digital trails, which may be important for long term operations. On the table is a cipher, and next to it is a Fortunate Dawn security terminal." I catch movement out of the corner of my eye from Caz-V, but I''m too slow to see his reaction. "Please use the cipher on the terminal to view it''s operation," Scientia finishes. Rease is the quickest to stand, but I''m closer to the cipher, and so I get my hands on it before he does. Everyone crowds around me as I rotate the cipher in my hand. It''s 6 inches long, 3 inches wide, and about an inch thick, somewhat like an oversized USB drive. One end of the cipher has two metal prongs, and from a quick glance I can see an access port on the terminal with the same shape.


    "Scientia, will a cipher work in a Grineer system?" asks Ella, her attention more on the terminal than the device in my hands. "As long as a cipher has been loaded with the appropriate scripts, yes," Scientia explains. "The interface technology has been adapted from Orokin technology, and the convenience of all systems operating in a similar manner means that there has been little deviation in the last few centuries. That being said, highly secured systems may not have an access port, but the odds of encountering such technology on a standard operation is close to nil." I lift the device, which is denser than I expected, and place it in the port below the screen of the terminal. We all watch as the screen flicks through menus and options and CLIs so rapidly that it''s impossible to actually follow along, and then without warning, the screen goes black. "Fuck," I think, my hand already reaching for the cipher. I''m convinced I''ve somehow screwed up the simplistic plug and play operation, but before I''m able to pull the device back out, the screen flickers back to life.


    On the display is a Corpus admin panel; I recognize the layout from a previous equipment class. At the top are the words Fortunate Dawn Security Systems, followed by Beecloud Subsidiary, then a print out of the technical specifications of the terminal, and finally, a patiently blinking cursor sat at the bottom. "Woah," I think, as I pull the cipher back out. The entire process couldn''t have taken more than a second, and even with the device removed, we still had full admin access to the device. I hand the device over to Rease, who is doing his absolute best to avoid snatching it out of my hands, and I turn to Scientia''s avatar. "Uhm... do ciphers... expire? Or something?" I ask, unsure of how to phrase my question. Mainly I wanted to know if the ''one time use'' feature of ciphers in the game had any analogue in the real world. Scientia rotates left and right.


    "Nope! However, on a longer operation, vulnerabilities that a cipher uses will likely be automatically patched, causing the cipher to become less effective over time. Cybersecurity is an ever evolving field, and so new scripts are created by ITO''s all the time." An image of the uptight Primark from orientation sat hunched over a computer, in his fully decorated TEPA, with bottles of Code Red and bags of Doritos scattered about flashes into my mind, and I bite the inside of my cheek to prevent myself from laughing. "Makes sense," I manage to say. After a few more minutes of fiddling, where we get the chance to try out the manual mode, we all make our way back to our seats. "Next, we have fosfor flares," says Scientia, and like the cipher before it, it''s lit up on the table. "They sound familiar," I think to myself, "but I''m not sure I''ve ever used one in game."


    "A fosfor flare will be your best friend when involved in non industrial and non urban, ground based operations. A flare can be launched into the air to indicate position to a landing craft for extraction. The exothermic reaction can be used as a fire starter. And they can of course be used as a light source. This flare has had it''s propellant removed, and you may ignite it, if you wish." Rease is already moving before Scientia finishes speaking, and we all watch at a cautious distance as he twists the bottom of the flare. There''s a sizzle, then a fwomph, and then the tip of the flare begins glowing an incredibly bright white. All of us cringe back a bit, and we watch for 30 seconds or so as the flare continues to burn without stopping. Rease starts to look around for a moment, then sets the flare back down on the table, before thinking, then picking it back up.


    We all silently watch as he carries the flare to the back right corner of the room and set it there, upright, where it happily burns away. "How long will that last," asks Ko-lee. "A fosfor flare can last for up to an hour, although it will decrease in lumens over the course of that hour. If the flare is launched into the air, it will burn for only 15 minutes, with the same decrease over time," Scientia explains. We look at the flare, then Rease, then each other. "I didn''t know!" he says, his hands raised placatingly. Caz-V chuckles, and Ella frowns, her eyes darting to the screen. "A few more things to note about a fosfor flare! The flares come in different hues, for better visibility in different environments. A flare will also not go out when submerged in water, but can be extinguished if placed in an airtight container," Scientia tells us. I look around, but don''t see an airtight container anywhere. "Strike one for the TA," I think. The spotlight shifts from the empty space on the table, to a metallic device of some sort.


    It''s shaped a bit like the letter D, and on the flat side of the D are multiple vials of what looks like medication. "This is a clotra autoinjector, also known as a stim," Scientia explains. "Clotra is a mix of a few different ingredients designed to help an operative stabilize and recover from an injury when in the field. Each vial has a different purpose; to increase platelet production, to dampen nerves, or to moderate hormone production. Usage of the injector is quite simple. Simply place the device as close to the wound as possible, then press the button at the top. A biocompatible lattice will form within the wound, which will help support the wound, and keep it clear of further infection. I would like for you all to be able to demo this, but I''ve been told I''m no longer allowed to injure recruits for this purpose," Scientia jokes. We all chuckle, bar Ella, who just looks vaguely uncomfortable. The spotlight moves once again, but this time highlight three objects all clustered together.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    "These three items are TEPA Modification Modules, aka TMMs, but they are also often referred to as stims. However, unlike clotra, these do not inject into you, but instead inject into your TEPA." The devices look identical; a bit like a hockey puck with a pinched side. The devices have a ring on the outside, but each ring is lit up in a different color: light blue, orange, and red. "First we have calcifin, which is denoted by the light blue light. Calcifin will increase the thickness and durability of your TEPA, which can reduce incoming damage by a small amount. However, as a result, your movement will be inhibited. Next is adrenal, which is denoted by the orange light. Adrenal will magnify any kinetic movement, which can increase mobility, but as a side effect will decrease protection via the physical substrate of your TEPA. Your shields, however, will be unaffected. Lastly is refract, which will utilize your shield battery to bend light around your TEPA, allowing you to blend in with your surroundings. It has limited efficacy in fast situations, and due to it''s utilization of your shield batteries, will leave you vulnerable, even more so than adrenal will. You are free to experiment with these devices as well."


    Scientia finishes talking, and we all look at each other for a moment. "I''ll wait, I''m in no rush," I say to the squad. "I''m gonna try calcifin," says Rease, as he begins to make his way over to the table. Caz-V and Ella begin to talk at the same time, and I catch the word "refract" from both of their mouths. Caz-V rubs the back of his head, and gestures with his other hand. "You go first," he tells Ella. Ko-lee looks at the final unspoken for device, then back at Caz-V, a calculating look in her eye. She sticks her fist out and locks eyes with him. "First win, on one?" she asks. He nods, and she counts them down. "3, 2, 1," she says, as they both pump their fists up and down. On 1, they both throw hand signs, and it takes me a moment to remember who beats what in what is effectively space ro sham bo. Caz-V frowns for a moment, but his expression is quickly rewritten into one of nonchalance, as Ko-lee makes her way over to the table.


    Her, Ella, and Rease all pick up the devices, and Scientia walks them through the process of activating the devices and applying them to the TEPA. It only takes a few seconds, and there''s a flurry of activity once they''re all active. "Punch me!" says Rease, excitement on his face and effort on his brow as he moves his arm to get Ko-lee''s attention. "Hold on," says Ko-lee, looking unsteady on her feet. "This... huh." Every step she takes is a touch too far, and her balance keeps getting thrown off as she tries to compensate with her arms, which are suffering the same problem. Rease is a pillar though, and after 10 or 20 seconds, she gets it under control. "This is... crazy," she says, wonder on her face. "It''s like the opposite of swimming. Instead of resistance, every movement is... increased, somehow." I shift my gaze to try and catch Ella''s expression, but quickly realize I can''t see her at all. "Ella?" I ask, my eyes searching.


    "Here," she says, and a portion of the room shifts slightly. "Oh that is trippy," I think, as I watch her TEPA adjust to her new position. It''s like viewing an encoding error in real time; she''s a smudge of texture, and only visible due to the rate at which the suit is updating. "How long does this stuff last," I ask Scientia. "It depends on the usage of each TMM," they tell me. "Under moderate usage, they will last for four hours, although in the field, you will find your experience to be different, due to the underlying processes that define ''moderate'' usage. For example, calcifin will last the longest, assuming the user is taking few impacts. Adrenal, on the other hand, will be used quicker, as every micromovement will drain the TMM. Refract is always under usage, and the more often it needs to adjust, the faster it will burn out."


    "Can we turn it off?" asks Rease, who''s forehead is beginning to look a bit shiny. "You will need to disconnect the TMMs from your TEPA, and drain the remaining supply in your suits nanotubes through usage," Scientia explains. The three squadmates take the stims off, and we spend the next 10 minutes or so swapping the devices between each other, until we''ve all had a chance to use each one. Finally, after we all sit back down, the spotlight moves to the last interesting item on the table. "This is a kinetic siphon trap," Scientia says. I do everything in my power not to facepalm. "Shit, I should''ve known that one," I tell myself. "The kinetic siphon trap will drain the movement of whoever triggers it, trapping them in space. The trap only lasts for a minute, but during it''s duration, the target will be fully immobilized, regardless of where they are. Operation of the device is simple, and the triggering process is based on proximity."


    The avatar of Scientia turns as though looking at me. "Recruit Nova, Recruit Caz-V, if I could borrow you for a moment?" We look at each other, and without a single word spoken, we both know what the other is thinking. "Space ro sham bo it is. What did he do when he was playing Ko-lee?" I think to myself as I make my way down to the front. "Recruit Caz-V, I''ll walk you through deployment of the trap, and Recruit Nova, you''ll be the one to to trigger it," says Scientia, shattering my plans of using my grandmaster ro sham bo skills. Caz-V scrunches his face, and shrugs his shoulders, in a clear "what can you do/sorry you''re the guinea pig" expression, but I just wave it off. He steps over to the corner of the room, and Scientia walks him through the setup. I try to commit it to memory, since this is still very much a class, but my nerves are causing my thoughts to shoot off in a hundred different directions.


    Eventually, Caz-V steps away, and as he passes me, he sticks his fist out. I give him a fist bump of solidarity, before turning my attention back to the glowing spider like device on the floor. "Recruit Nova, I''d like for you to try to jump over the trap," Scientia tells me. I nod, and without giving myself any more time to think about it, I take two steps towards the trap, building speed, then leap over it, legs and arms outstretched. Then, I stop. The second I do, my instinct is to look down to see what happened, but I can''t move anything. Not my head, nor my arms... my mouth... my eyes. I can feel a tinge of panic begin to creep in, but I just repeat the same thought over and over in my head. "One minute. She said one minute. I''m not gunna die, I can still breathe. One minute." I would''ve liked to use other grounding techniques, but I''m unable to feel anything, except for air on the inside of my sinuses.


    I''m also unable to hear anything, even my tinnitus, and as the panic recedes, I start to find the experience somewhat relaxing. "I''d like to not have my eyes open, but like... it feels like I''m motionless in zero g. Honestly... it''s kinda like a sensory deprivation tank," I think to myself. I hang there, just... existing, for a moment... until, out of the blue, sensation comes rushing back. I come down onto the ground awkward; all the forward momentum I had had originally is missing, and so my legs aren''t in the right position, causing me to stumble slightly as I land. I look at the squad, and quickly school my shocked expression. "That was... weird," I manage to say calmly.


    The other''s eyes are wide, but no one says anything, and I make my way back to my seat without further incident. The rest of class is less eventful, and we cover things like mess kits, spare batteries, and so on. 30 minutes later, class wraps up, and we all move out into the hall. "Are we hanging out?" asks Rease. I''m about to tell him I''m interested, but a look from Ko-lee reminds me that I''m unavailable. I shake my head. "Sorry, I can''t," I tell him. "Remember when I told you guys about that advanced training? For the surgery? I have to start that today." My mouth is oddly dry, but I do my best to ignore it. "You''ll do great," Ella tells me. There''s a round of murmured assent, and I do my best to mimic their confidence. "Ya, you''re right. I''ll see you guys later," I tell them, and then turn to make my way to my next class, alone.

 Orotem

    My line leads me away my from friends, and down a path I''m nervous about following. After a few minutes of walking, I''m led to a door that looks just like one of the many doors before and after it... and yet, I can''t bring myself close enough to cause it to slide open. I stare at the little light where the handle would be, and take a deep breath, doing my best to settle my nerves. "This isn''t the surgery, it''s just training," I tell myself, as I worry away the fibers at the tips of my fingers. "What the fuck is the point of being anxious about the vague nothings of nothings? I literally don''t even know enough to be worried." The thoughts are a touch aggressive, but they bring a smile to my lips, and they fill me with the confidence to take the step towards the door. It beeps gently, and slides open to reveal a room entirely out of left field.


    There are mat''s on the floor that I''m unable to think of as anything other than futuristic yoga mats, and to the right of them are a series of cushions laid out haphazardly. In the left far corner of the room is a desk, made not out of metal or plastic, but wood. "Real wood? I mean, that had to have cost a pretty penny; you''d need to ship it up from Earth cause I doubt there''s enough greenery in the relay to carve a whole ass desk," I think. Sat at the table is a man I don''t recognize, writing on some paper, with what appears to be a pen. "As much as you can call any part of warframe anachronistic..." I think, as I watch him work diligently away at his letter. After a few moments, my attention slides off him to look around the room for a chair, but I don''t see any tucked away.


    My gaze shifts to the cushions. "Well, that''s literally what they''re for," I tell myself, even though my feet are already two steps ahead. I plop down on one, and wait for who I assume is the trainer to finish with whatever he''s working on. I listen to the comforting scratch scratch scratch of his pen for a just over a minute, until finally, he sets it down. He folds his paper closed, then scoots his chair out before turning to look at me. At about the same time, I quickly try to stand at attention, but I know that he knows that I was just hanging out on the floor cushions. He doesn''t say anything, however, and I get the chance to look at his face. He has sharp eyes; not sharp in a severe way, but like the edge of cracked jade. At the corners of his eyes are small smile lines, and his deep black hair has just the lightest speckling of white. His skin is a deep copper, and he''s built like a swimmer.


    "Antimony Nova," says the man, with a smooth lilt and accent that I can''t easily categorize. I nod, and give him a salute. "Sir," I respond, still unsure of his name. "At ease, recruit. I''m Major Imperator De''Launda," he says. I feel a spike of tension grip my shoulders. "Shit, this guy is higher rank then what''s his fuck from way back when. Primark Alcatraz or whatever," I think, trying my best to relax. The Major chuckles, although at what, I''m unsure. "So," he says, after a few moments of silence. "You''re the one I''ll be working on." I respond with a nod, not willing to trust my mouth to avoid saying something stupid. "Where are you from?" he asks. "A settlement on Earth," I respond, the lie quick to my lips. "''uhm akshually'' it''s not a lie, it''s just contextually misled. I am literally from a settlement on Earth; red, white and blue. Just don''t ask me to point it out on a map," I think to myself, my expression steady.


    I had started falling into the habit of saying that I was from "a settlement", and only when further pressed would I specify Sharip. Since it was gone, there was no real way to verify, and only by talking both to me and Ko-lee would somebody be able to notice the holes in my story. "Well, I guess the squad sort of kind of knows. I literally told them I''m from America, although they''ve either bought the ''it''s a really far settlement they go to another school you wouldn''t know them'' B S I''ve been selling them, or they just don''t care. I''m leaning more latter; I think they just find the stuff I tell them about home entertaining." I focus on keeping my breathing steady, and my face relaxed. I haven''t really been pushed by anyone for specifics before, and the thought that I might fold at the first road bump is worrisome. He just smiles.


    "Hmm. Tell me about your home," says the Major. "Uh... well," I start to say. "It''s not too far from Lykka fores-" I''m cut off by a wave of his hand. "I know you''re not from anywhere nearby," he tells me. I feel dread settle in the pit of my stomach. "While I wasn''t afforded every detail, I''ve been told that you are ''very far away'', whatever that might mean," he says with air quotes. "I won''t press you for details, since the specifics are irrelevant. I imagine you have a reason to keep that information secret, and I won''t pry." I let out a little sigh of relief, even though I know it basically confirms I have something to hide. He gestures for me to sit on a cushion, and I drop back down with a thump. There''s a moment of silence before he speaks. "Neurotemporal Access is the name of the surgery," he says, leaning against the desk behind him. "You can count on both hands the amount of times it''s been performed since I''ve been here. You''ll actually be my second patient on the table," he tells me.


    "Wait, you''re performing the surgery?" I ask him. He gives me a nod. "I need to be here for every step, not just the last one. This training is part of the surgery, part of the process." His small smile drops off, and his gaze cuts straight through me. "The success rate for this surgery is 73%." I can''t help but cringe at hearing the number. Apparently, it''s the right reaction, because he lightens up a touch, nodding. "Good. You understand," he says, before his eyes slides off me. "The reason I was asking you where you lived was because I wanted to get a feel for your Orotem. I wanted to know if you were the kind of person who felt a memory, or if it was information to be accessed." My confusion must''ve been obvious on my face, because he goes on to clarify. "Orotem. Like... how well you know yourself, your identity. Your connection to that around you. Your awareness, inside and out. Coherency. In a perfect world, you are equal parts analytical and emotional. Too analytical, and you''ll be overwhelmed. Too emotional, and you''ll lose yourself." He stares at me for a moment, searching for something. He does so for nearly 30 seconds, and I''m unsure if he finds it by the time he starts speaking again.


    "I''ll be honest, one of the reasons the success rate is so low is because very few undergo the knife. Every failure is a blow to the numbers." The room begins to feel oppressive, as he examines me with an intensity that shoots spikes into my nerves. "Those who have failed have failed here, at this step. Not the knife, not the recovery, but here, in training. They either didn''t take it seriously enough, or they didn''t push themselves hard enough, and when they finally came out of anesthesia..." he sighs, and the pressure in the room decreases. "Well. They didn''t. Not really." His eyes wander up towards the ceiling, and I just continue to keep my mouth shut. "And sometimes..." he starts to say. I wait for the next part of the sentence, but he''s clearly lost in thought, and so I take the chance to speak up. "Sometimes?" I ask him. He looks back down at me, a small, sad smile on his face.


    "Sometimes, it''s just not in the cards. Sometimes, you have a kid who seems like a perfect fit, and it all falls apart anyways. Sometimes, life happen." He stops leaning against the table, and without being told to, I can feel that this is A Moment?. I stand up from the cushions, back straight. "So. With everything I have told you so far, is this still something you''re willing to go through?" he asks me with solemnity. I nod. "Yes sir," I tell him. He doesn''t smile. "Good. I''ll ask at the beginning of every training. You can pull out at any point. If you think you need to, then do so. Do not wait until you''re on the table to start voicing your doubts," he tells me. He turns towards his desk and reaches for a cup, then pours something in it from a flask also on the desk. He turns back, and holds the cup out to me.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    "Drink," he says. I reach out for the cup, and remove the bottom portion of my mask... but something makes me hesitate. "May I ask what this is? Sir?" He gives me a bemused smile. "If I told you, would you know?" he asks back. I shrug. "Maybe, maybe not. I''d still like to know," I tell him. He takes a deep breath. "Here''s what I''ll say. When you wake up from that table, you will be overwhelmed with sensation, with memory. Every sleeping moment, every waking moment that you''ve ever experienced will be vying for your attention. Our goal in this training is to put you in a state that is somewhat similar, so that you can learn to command your mind; to focus only on what you need." The Major steps over to the yoga mat farthest from the door, and stands on it, his hands interlocked in front of him.


    "Part of it is learning to loosen the grip of your ego. To lighten your hold on what you believe is you," he continues. "If you grip too tightly, if you are the oak tree in the storm, your mind will crack and fracture. You are a collection of your experiences, half remembered, and warped by time. What happens when every moment can be called upon in an instant? Each one, hyper detailed, and ever lasting? Who will you be if all moments of your life carry equal weight? This surgery will be a change; even in success, you won''t be the same. You need to be willing to accept this change going in, or you won''t come out at all." I look down at the metal cup in my hands, then back up at him. "So it''s drugs," I say, which causes him to laugh. "Isn''t everything?" he responds. My willpower gets a workout as I do my best to avoid rolling my eyes at him.


    The thought of drinking some unidentifiable liquid isn''t exactly my idea of a good time, but I suck it up like a good little soldier, and take a small sip of the drink anyways. It''s sweet, but a chemical aftertaste lingers at the back of my throat. "Juice with something mixed in it," I think. "No ayahuasca then. Some sort of space drugs," I tell myself, before pouring the rest down my throat in a single gulp. "Good," he says, taking the cup from my hands. He places it back on the desk, then makes his way over to his mat, before gesturing for me to make my way to mine. I stand on the other, and he takes a deep breath. I mimic him. "Have you ever performed Takolen before?" he asks. I shake my head no. "I''ve never heard the word," I tell him.


    "It''s martian, so I''m unsurprised," he responds. "It''s about flow; feeling yourself feeling your body. The goal is to connect the physical and the mental. To be aware of every part of yourself." He begins moving his arms, and I need no prompting to follow along. "Seems like it''d be overwhelming," I say, with a touch of sarcasm. "''God, could you imagine'' says the autistic woman," I think to myself. He either doesn''t notice the sarcasm, or chooses not to respond. "The drink I provided will induce a state somewhat similar to the one you''ll be in after the surgery. You''ll be required to perform Takolen with me under these circumstances," he says, reaching one arm up, and one down.


    "Every class will be different. Sometimes the tasks we perform will be physical in nature. Sometimes, they will be mental. After the surgery, you won''t have the option to opt out. Your state of mind will never wear off. And as a soldier, no matter the circumstances, you will be expected to play your role. This is practice for that." I''m only half listening to the Major; the fibers of my TEPA are rubbing the back of my knee in a weird way. I start to reach for them, but the moment I do, the Major snaps at me. "Leave it," he says, his voice cold. "W... what?" I say dumbly. "Do the forms," he tells me, as he reaches for his extended shin in a forward stretch. "Oh...kay," I say, still feeling somewhat off kilter. I can''t get the feeling of the suit out of my mind, and it keeps pulling my-


    "Oh," I realize suddenly.


    "Oh," I say out loud.


    The Major doesn''t respond, but the infinite forever stretches in my mind. "This? Endlessly? I mean, not literally this, but just... thoughts always pressing in, like a flashing alarm? A thing I can''t ignore or shut out, that I have to just... deal with? Fuck me," I think with rising horror. I''m not even really doing the poses at this point, but the Major doesn''t say anything. My mouth opens, and all I manage to do is vocalize the inner voices. "It''s this," I state. He nods, fully cognizant of what I''m failing to elaborate on. I can feel my hair pushing against the back of my ear. I feel the twitch to fix it.


    The awareness of that sensation doesn''t stop


    the awareness of the knee sensation or


    the awareness in my muscles as the increased blood flow makes everything


    FEEL


    The Major''s eyes cut through me with a calm detachment. "Do. The. Forms," he orders. "Yes, sir," I comply. My hair and my suit are bothering me, and I do the forms. I feel the plastic and metal on my face, near my temples, and I do the forms. I feel my weight shifting on my feet, the pressure of the mat as gravity pulls me to the floor, and I do the forms. I think about the drug in my body, pump pump pumping around, making my hyper aware of my physicality, even more than I ever thought I could be before, and I do the forms, and I do the forms, and I do the forms and I do the forms and I do th


    <hr>


    I''m laid out on one of the cushions, hours later. I''m still coming down from the intense... body high, for lack of a better word, and I can feel the sensations that had been bothering me for the last couple hours slowly tick down to normal levels of awareness. Each new moment brings relief... and yet. "It''s quiet," I say, out loud. The Major quirks an eyebrow, his eyes closed. He''s sat on his mat cross legged in a position I couldn''t ever imagine being comfortable in. "I can play some music next time, but I promise it won''t help," he tells me, without opening his eyes. I shake my head no.


    "It''s... it was a lot, at first. All the sensation. Loud. But... I don''t know. I got into the flow state, or... or something. And then it wasn''t as bad. Like, I still felt it, but it stopped being oppressive for a bit. And now all the sensation is going away, and it''s like taking off a weight." I sit up. "Don''t get me wrong, I like not having the weight. It''s easier. But not having it is... lonely. Quiet." His eyes slowly open, and I watch as he considers me. "That''s good," he responds after a few moments, his face betraying no excitement or happiness. "Oh. Uhm. Cool. Thanks," I say, feeling a touch off balance by his response. "It''s what we want," he continues. "You''ll need to be able to handle that sort of input 30/7, so it''s important that you don''t collapse under the weight immediately. And how you''re describing it... well. I have high hopes."


    He unfolds, and stands up from his mat, and I clamber to my feet. He makes his way over to his desk, and open a small drawer, ruffling around the contents for a bit. He pulls out a small, black, opaque bottle, and holds it up. "One a day," he says, shaking it. The contents rattle around like a maraca. "It''s to help with the neuroplasticity." He gently tosses the bottle to me, and I catch it out of mid air, looking at it. It''s fully unmarked, and I open it up to find blue and white pressed pills inside. "I''ll see you here tomorrow, recruit," says the Major. His tone is commanding, and I shift my gaze back up to him. I salute, bottle in hand. "Yes sir, tomorrow." He gives me a small smile, and a nod. "You''re dismissed."

 Nine to Five

    I''m woken up by warm air ticking my ear, by shivers travelling down my arms; little sparks of desire dancing their way across my skin. "Ni, wake up," says a voice, low and familiar and pleasing. I want to sink into it, into the warm bed. I want to get closer to my girlfriend, more intimate, to crawl inside her arms and skin and press so deeply into her that we fuse into one being. "No thanks," I mutter in response to her request. She chuckles, the deep morning tenor of her voice running down my spine to the tips of my toes.


    I feel her adjust in my arms, and I loosen my grip slightly; not enough for her to leave the bed, but enough for her to change her position. I feel her lips brush mine, and I taste sweet joy before she breaks away. "You told me to wake you up," she tells me, and I can''t for the life of me remember why I''d do that. "S''not important," I mumble, pressing my face into her chest. "How are you supposed to buy me a birthday present?" she asks, a humorous lilt to her voice. I feel dominoes in my mind tumbling, slowly spelling out realization. "Oh yeah. Yayyy, work," I say, rubbing my eyes open.


    Like a 2 stroke engine cold starting, I feel my body kick into gear. My eyes half open, I lift my form into a seated position to prevent myself from drifting back off into dreamland. I fumble around for the headset on the shelf above my head, and eventually have to crack an eyelid to find the damn thing. I peek inside it to check the time, and feel confusion. "Love, I don''t work for a couple hours," I tell her, placing the headset back on the shelf. "Oh, I''m aware," she says with a smirk. "I just wanted to make sure we had enough time to take a shower before you ran off."


    She''s stood in the room, wearing nothing but confidence, and I feel a touch of heat as I look at her; at her physique (no longer quite as underfed as when we first met), her unblemished skin, her brown hair only tipped with purple, her freckles that stretch from face to neck to chest. She stands next to the door of the bathroom poised, graceful even in stillness, and my eyes wander everywhere they aren''t supposed to in public. "Are we actually taking a shower?" I ask, letting the blankets roll off me. I feel a flush of pride and excitement when I see her gaze trace me in the same way. "Eventually," she tells me. I feign casualness, but I know my eyes betray my desire. "Good enough for me."


    <hr>


    One very lengthy shower later, I''m standing in what could be considered the kitchen, making a quick breakfast before I run off to work. A few weeks after I had started advanced training, I had applied to get a job at the place Caz-V had mentioned. The turn around was incredibly quick, and I ended up starting basically the next day. "Although, to be fair it wasn''t like, ''fast turn around because shit job'' sort of a deal. It''s because it''s the relay, and anyone who actually lives here is competent. Also also ''cause it''s mostly just us tenno, and they can''t afford to be choosy. I can''t imagine it''s cost effective for Inlustris to fly people up to relays just to do basically minimum wage work," I think, operating the recombinator. "Anyways, a couple weeks of this and I don''t want to blow my fuckin'' brains out so at least I''ve got that going for me. I think it helps that I don''t need need to be working here. But 30 hours is a lot of day to fill."


    The job was exactly what Caz-V had originally described; scanning goods for contraband. I ended up picking the 2 hour shift before class, despite my frustrations at getting up in the morning, mainly for two reasons: I had no time after my regular classes due to advanced training, and because the shifts after classes tended to be the ones that had the least availability (as other Tenno would also try to fill those time slots). If I were willing to wake up earlier every day, then I would been able to work a longer shift, but not a single thing about that appealed to me. "I was lookin'' for a job, and then I found a joooob. And heaven knows... I''m miserable now," I quietly sing in English, waiting for the future kitchen equipment to finish. "Origin," says Ko-lee from the kitchen table, operating her headset via small, jerky hand motions. I repeat the lyrics for her, and she gives me a confused look.


    "What does that mean?" she asks, after I finish translating. "Which part?" I ask, unsure of her question. "The whole thing," she replies. "Uhm. Like, working sucks. But it''s also required, ya know? Gotta make rent to pay bills, it''s a necessary evil for society to function, et cetera et cetera," I explain. "And not having a job means homelessness, starvation, that sort of thing." I can tell that she only sort of gets it. "You know," I say, in an attempt to divert from The Capitalism Rant? I can feel scratching at the corners of my mind, "I could always just teach you English." Her hands come to a stop, and I can see a mix of emotions cross her face; excitement, intent focus, and maybe something like apprehension. "I wouldn''t say no," she tells me cautiously. I smile, popping a nutrient cube into my mouth the moment it''s available. "This will be great," I tell her with a bubble of glee. "We''ll do a little each morning. It''ll be nice to hold a conversation in Eng..." I trail off, as an uncomfortable awareness comes to mind.


    "What''s wrong?" asks Ko-lee, immediately cognizant of the downturn in my mood. "Nothing, I guess. I just... my thoughts have been a bit of a mishmash of Origin and English, recently. It''s... I don''t know. I''ve always known, like on a conceptual level, that it''s gonna take a while for me to make my way back home. And that''s... It''s like I''m losing a piece of home... sort of. Like, I don''t have my security jacket, or my phone, and now I''m losing bits of my language as well. Not a lot, not in big chunks, but just... bit by bit," I explain. I take a deep breath, and force myself to smile. "It''s not a big deal though. I''ll teach you, and then we can have conversations. I mean, shit, I could teach the whole squad. We''d have like, our own squad language that no one else could understand, for secret ops and stuff."Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    The smile feels fragile, but the pieces hold together, and I''m endlessly grateful for how gentle Ko-lee is with me. "Sure, Ni," she tells me. "That sounds like a great idea." I reach for another nutrient cube but find the recombinator empty. "Well. We''ll have to start either later today, or tomorrow," I tell her, as I step away from the kitchen counter. I shoot her a two finger heart, and she responds with what looks like the sign language for the letter N, which she had had to explain to me was "hugs and kisses". I step past her, letting my hand trail along her shoulder, then through the door and out into the hallway, before heading off to work.


    <hr>


    15 minutes later, I arrive at a small, stuffy room, with way too many boxes, and a huge machine meant to scan them. I see Maks sitting in a chair, his back to the door, and a hardwire connection trailing from his wrist into the huge machine. His head is panning ever so slightly back and forth, likely viewing the readout from the machine on whatever current package he''s checking. "Hey Maks," I say, reaching for a box close to the rollers. I lift it off the ground, and it''s only then that he seems to notice my presence. "Don''t! No no no! Don''t! I had... aw shit, I had them laid out in an order, a specific order!" he snaps at me. I freeze, the box in my hands midway between the floor and the machine. "Okay," I say carefully, making sure to prevent the retort on the tip of my tongue from slipping out.


    "You know you''re off, right?" He frowns at me. "Just don''t... don''t mess up the order," he grumbles, disconnecting himself from the scanner and standing up from the chair. "Sure, man. I''ll do my best," I tell the guy. "''''til tomorrow," I say as he leaves the room, muttering to himself. The second the door slides shut, I roll my eyes, before pulling out a thin but high tensile cord to connect myself to the futuristic X-ray machine. "Jackin'' in," I say in an 80s hacker voice. Something about the quality of the sound, or maybe the texture of the words tickles me, and I continue to play with the phrase, muttering nonsense as I check each package''s contents against a registry and verify that there''s no contraband. "Jackin'' off. Jack and Jill. Railjack. Keanu Reaves in... Jac-"


    "What are you doing," I hear from behind me. The voice startles me enough that the box in my hands starts to slip, and it takes a second of fumbling before I reassert my grip on it. "Oh, uhm..." I fail to respond, as I feel my face turn red. "I didn''t hear you come in. I was just saying dumb stuff," I explain sheepishly to Nessa, the only other employee who worked my shift. She''s taking packages off a cart she''s pushed in, and replacing them with the ones that have already been processed. "Clearly," she responds with an unbothered tone. I watch her move packages out of the corner of my eye, and as she reaches for one of the "ordered" packages Maks was talking about, I say in a deadpan voice, "oh, Maks doesn''t want you to move his boxes."


    She looks at me, and I look at her, and there''s a moment of silence before she snickers. I grin, and we both turn back to our tasks in relative silence. I read the screen, I compare and contrast, compare and contrast, and it takes me a hot moment to realize that Nessa is trying to get my attention. "Sorry, what''s up?" I tell her, turning away from the virtual screen and back around to face her. She gives a small huff, but repeats herself. "J''ad wants to know if you have a timeline for when you''re going on your first op. He wants you to give him a heads up a few weeks in advance," she tells me. "Yeah," I tell her with a nod. "Sure, no problem. We''ve still got like... four weeks, I think? You think I can just shoot him a message?"


    She gives an assenting shrug. "That''s what I usually do," she says. It''s a few more minutes before she finishes with the last package, and this time I notice her turn to me. "I''ll get out of your hair, Antimony," she says with small wave. "See you tomorrow." I give her a lazy salute, and she begins pushing the cart back into the adjacent room. I wait until she''s gone before I fully turn back to my work. "God, I miss Spotify," I think, scanning packages in the quiet hum of what I assume are gravity engines, or some other mechanical operation keeping the relay functioning. "What I wouldn''t give for just like... 50 songs from my liked. And I still haven''t found a way to tune into Nora Night. Literally actually pirate radio. She''s probably got some tunes. Ugh. One of these days I''ll sit down and poke at the headset, see if I can''t get in it''s code guts." I scan a package, then stand up to move it from the right side of the machine into the "already scanned section", before sitting, and letting the next one roll into view.


    "Also also... I''ve heard people humming and stuff, and some light ambiance music in like, Vista, but I really wanna sit down at some point and get a feel for literally all the music. It''s the future, what kinda future stuff do we got? Mambo Garage Ice? Neohyper Pop? Terran Martian Fusion? Uh... Jazz?" I stand and grab a package, move it, and sit back down. "Also... only a few more weeks until our first op. Which... confession time but I''m a lil'' scared about it. ''cause, it''s one thing to talk about being a soldier, or to know conceptually how war can fuck up a person for life, et cetera, but... this is the path I''m on now. Just wiggy to think about."


    Stand, move, sit.


    "I wonder what they''ll have us do. Probably something simple. I hope something simple."


    Stand, move, sit.


    "The surgery is coming up soon too. That''s like... five weeks out. Barely a month. A space month. And training has been... well. Fine, I guess. I just hate this ''calm before the storm'' type shit. The waiting is driving me crazy."


    Stand, move, sit.


    "Maybe I should make flash cards for Ko-lee. Or do I know enough of Green, Eggs and Ham to recreate it by heart? Song lyrics could be fun as well. God knows I have a morbillion of those seared into my mind."


    My focus is broken by a gentle beeping sound. An alarm from my headset telling me to head to class is gently flashing in the corner of my eye. My shift replacement hasn''t shown up yet, but Inlustris is very aware of Tenno scheduling, and so I''m not required to wait. I stretch as I stand, then leave the quiet room and all my work behind, headed to my first class of the day, thinking about everything and nothing at all.

 Modern Warfare

    After walking down the hallway for a few minutes, I find myself slowing to a stop at an intersection. It takes me a moment to realize the reason; my muscle memory is convinced I''m meant to turn left, but the guide line in front of me continues straight on. "I mean, every hallway is basically identical so I might be full of shit here, but I''m pretty sure I''m not being led towards Scientia''s," I think, looking back and forth. "Odd." I continue straight on through the intersection, ignoring the turn that would normally lead me to my first class of the day, and instead head on towards something new. I walk alone for a few minutes, with nothing but my thoughts to keep me company, until I run into Caz-V.


    "Oh, hey," he says in a subdued voice. There are slight bags underneath his eyes, and I give him a morning fist bump. "Fun night?" I ask. He grins. "Yeah, they were fun," he responds after a moment, lost in a memory. "They singular?" I question, and he gives me a shake of his head. "Nope," he says, drawing out the N sound. I snort, but don''t press him any further on his nighttime escapades. We walk for a few more minutes, picking up three more stragglers along the way. "Anyone know why we''re headed to Terror Wins?" asks Ko-lee, an inquisitive look on her face, and the last to the group. "I knew it," Rease mutters under his breath. Nobody has an answer for Ko-lee''s question, however. We round a corner, and find our line terminating at the door to the obstacle course, at roughly the same time five other Tenno approach it from the other side. As we slow to a stop, so do they.


    "Hi!" says Ella, brightly. Two of the others wave back; one with a medium build and entrancing purple eyes, and another with an easy smile. "Do you have class here today?" asks Ko-lee to the other squad. "Yes," says the latter of the pair who waved. "My name''s Aster, and this is Amarast squad," he says, gesturing to the other four behind him. "Neat, a squad name," says Rease, giving the four of us an incredibly unsubtle side eye. Aster''s smile brightens, and he continues. "Well, whether we''re both meant to be here, or there was a mix up, I''m sure Terrowin will have an answer for us." He steps near the door, causing it to slide open, and after a quick nod to the five of us, he and his squad make their way in. We follow closely behind, and find ourselves once more in the obstacle course room.


    At first blush, it appears to be the same as the day prior, but it only takes a few moments to realize that the space has been reorganized. There are no Corpus pieces, only Grineer ones, and there are no obvious paths to maneuver through. After a few seconds of observation, I''m pretty confident I know what I''m looking at. "A thousand hours in Warframe, and probably ten thousand more in a hundred other fps''s. It''s set up for shooting. Like an airsoft arena, or something," I think. At the corner of the field, I spot Terrowin in conversation with Ravon, but they''re too far away for me to be able to piece together anything that they''re saying. Ravon makes a gesture with his head towards us, and Terrowin nods, before they both begin making their way over. My squad, and... "Oh for fucks sake what did they call themselves? Azarinth? Abalast?" I think in frustration. "Whatever, they''re Azarinth now."


    Us and "Azarinth" stand at attention while the two ITO''s approach. "Today is a joint class," says Ravon, once he''s within speaking range. "Both squads are participating in a simulated fire exercise against each other. This is an asymmetric scenario, but you will have the opportunity to play both roles." Terrowin starts speaking the moment he finishes. "One squad will play the Grineer, and one side will play the Tenno. The Tenno are trying to infiltrate the stronghold to reach a console," she says, gesturing to the course behind her, "while the Grineer are, of course, attempting to protect it." She turns and begins to make her way into the course itself, and Ravon follows beside her. Wordlessly, both squads fall in line; Azarinth first, and us only a fraction of a second later.


    We enter into the course proper, and take a right at the first hallway; blinking lights, noisy pipes, and tripping hazards all doing their best to grab our attention. It''s a touch over stimulating, but weeks of training with De''Launda means that it''s easy to keep my attention on Terrowin. "The Grineer win once they''ve eliminated all of the enemy. The Tenno win when they extract the data from the console onto the datamass, then bring that datamass back to the spawn," she says, gesturing from where we had just come from. "Also, I wish this didn''t need to be stated every cycle, but yes, less causalities is better," says Ravon, with a tired voice. "I know that you know that this is non lethal. That is not an excuse to walk into a crowd with a live grenade in your hand. Do not sacrifice yourself, or your teammates, please."


    He gives us all a severe look, as though daring us to retort, but both squads are dead silent. "For the first match, you''ll have an hour to prepare, to give you time to learn the space. For the second, you''ll only have 20 minutes," Ravon says, after a moment. We reach a door - green, and half way between a semicircle and a rectangle - and it slides open, revealing a tiny room. Inside is the Grineer console, glowing text scrolling along the screen. The room is dimly lit, a single strip along the front wall casting everything in a sickly yellow. Other than the door we''re all peeking our heads in, the room seems fully enclosed. "It''s too simple," I think, as my eyes do their best to pierce the shadowed corners of the room.


    I have no evidence that the room has other entrances and exits beyond general game sense, but my gut is insistent, and so I continue scanning the walls and floor, looking for anything out of place. Unfortunately, I''m forced to move away from the door to let someone else examine it. "We''ll put a pin in that," I think. "Is there a time limit?" asks one of the members of Azarinth squad. It''s one of the three who didn''t initially wave when we met outside. They''re stocky, and they have a scar that stretches from their left cheek down to the side of their neck. "No, no time limit," says Terrowin, shaking her head. "This exercise continues until one side wins. To facilitate this, your schedules have been emptied. You have no other classes for today."


    "Damn, so waiting out the Grineer is a legit strat," I realize. "Their win state is killing us, so if we hunkered down somewhere, they''d be forced to come track us down. I mean, it''s a really boring strat, but maybe something to bring up with the others during our set up time." After a few minutes, once everyone has had an opportunity to look at the console room, Terrowin leads us down a different route, back towards the direction of spawn. While the first path had a few unexplored doors, and an awkwardly shaped structure, this one has unexplored doors and a tight hallway, forcing us to move through the space single file. I keep my head on a swivel, trying to take in as visual information as possible, since our set up timer hasn''t started yet, and I note nearly everyone else - on both squads - doing the same.


    "Don''t hurt your necks," says Terrowin, smirking at our behavior. We reach the spawn area, and off to the right is a table, stacked full of weaponry and equipment; some of it Grineer, and some of it Tenno. "Let''s go over the rules," says Ravon, pulling up beside the table. "Regarding setup; each one of you is allowed three items at the start of the exercise. This is only at the start of the mission, however. If you want, you can hand your equipment or weaponry off to a squadmate once the match has started. You may choose from primaries, secondaries, grenades, and stims, and you may utilize whatever combination of these items that you think will best fit the mission."


    He pauses, maybe for dramatic tension, then continues. "Yes, that means you may bring in three grenades and nothing else, if you so choose." I hear an excited intake of breath from Rease off to my right, and another from a member of Azarinth to my left. "You are required to start with your faction''s weapons, but scavenging is allowed during the match. So be aware of what you''re bringing on to the field, because you might end up getting shot with it." Ravon points to what looks like one of a stim, but the light on it is gray, instead of one of the familiar colors. "You will each need to equip this TMM. When you are hit with a simulated round, it will paint that limb, and lock it up, to simulate the injury."


    "It''ll also hurt!" Terrowin says cheerfully, on the other side of the table. Ravon nods. "Yes, the simulated rounds will hurt, as well. It''s incentive to avoid getting shot." He gestures to what looks like a clotra autoinjector, but without any of the vials attached to it. "You can use the sim clotra to remove that status. A headshot will remove you from combat instantly, of course. Lastly, if you are injured, but do not recover the injury after a certain period of time, you will ''bleed out'', as it were. Work together. Play smart." Terrowin speaks up, a malicious glint in her eye. "You''re also allowed to engage in physical combat, if you''d like. No dampeners, just full contact. Also, if it looks like you are actually going to kill one of your fellow recruits, I''ll step in. Otherwise, no holds barred." Ravon frowns slightly, but turns back to look at us. "Are there any questions? ...Recruit Aster," says Ravon, pointing at the tall, charismatic one. Aster smiles brightly. "Thank you sir. I have some questions about the Grineer weapons. First, do they..."


    <hr>


    After nearly 20 minutes of questions from both sides, the well had finally run dry. "If there''s nothing else, your prep time starts now," says Ravon. He and Terrowin step away from the group, making their way over to a raised platform that can see into the top of the field. "Sorry," says the recruit with the purple eyes, a few moments after the teachers retreat. "What? Sorry for what," asks Caz-V, his expression confused. "For the ass beating we''re about to give you," purple eyes responds, a cheeky grin forming on their face. Caz-V snorts, unimpressed. "Am I supposed to believe you''re gonna give me that ass beating?" he responds dismissively. "If you ask nicely," says purple eyes in a low, sultry tone. Caz-V grins, but before he has a chance to flirt back, Recruit Aster steps forward into the circle that our two squads have formed. His eyes are locked on Ko-lee''s, bright gray and calm. He sticks his hand out. "May the best squad win," he states, each word crisp and enunciated.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    Ko-lee quirks an eyebrow at him, but shakes his hand. "Why me?" she asks, as they break. "Well, you''re the leader, aren''t you?" We all look at Ko-lee, and she looks at us, before turning her gaze back to Aster. "We don''t have a leader," she tells him, her expression steady. His smile doesn''t dim, but his brows furrow. "Oh. Well. Good luck then," he says, and without another word, Azarinth squad breaks away from ours to find a place to plan. There''s a moment of silence, as we all watch them walk off, before Ella breaks it. "Were we supposed to pick a squad leader?" she asks, with a concerned expression. "No," I say. "I mean, I don''t literally know that, and I imagine we have to at some point. But they''re probably ahead of us in training or something." I''m extrapolating off of nothing but vibes, but it mollifies Ella, and I give her a smile before turning towards the course.


    "Alright. We''re Grineer first, so let''s go get familiar with our compound. Set a timer for 20 minutes, and when it goes off, we all meet at the terminal. Sound like a plan?" There''s a round of nods, and we all split up as we enter the mock up ruined Grineer facility. I start wandering around, trying my best to memorize the different boltholes and dark corners of the space; places we could get a drop on Azarinth, or places they might get a drop on us. I check what can be moved versus what is bolted down, look for sight-lines and height differences, note trip hazards and anything that can be changed or modified or interacted with. I do my absolute best to memorize every inch of the space I can within 20 minutes, fully aware of the fact that I''m likely to forget most of it the second sim rounds start flying.


    A few times, I cross paths with members of my squad, and once I run into one from Azarinth. There''s a moment of tension between me and the gangly guy, as we stare at each other in silence, until I blurt out, "Ah! Tenno skum!" in my best Grineer impression. It gets a chuckle from the recruit, and we make our way past each other without any issues. The timer goes off much too quickly, and I reorient to make my way back over towards the terminal. As I walk up, Ko-lee''s making her way out of the terminal room itself, and it only takes a minute for Ella, Caz-V, and Rease to show up from other corners of the course.


    "So, what''s the plan squad leader," says Caz-V, with a bemused grin. Ko-lee doesn''t take the bait, simply rolling her eyes at his antics. "Let''s put that to the side for now," I say, drawing the squad''s attention. "Here''s what we know. Our goal is to kill them all, but their goal is to extract the data, and only one of them needs to sneak past for them to win. We can''t all fit in the terminal room... although that''s a stupid idea anyways, because they could just toss in a grenade or two. On the plus side, there''s only one way in and one way out."


    "Actually," says Ko-lee, "there are two more entrances." She steps around to the left side of the room, and points to a part of the outer wall. "If you go up on that ledge, there''s loose paneling that can probably be moved, maybe even fully pulled off. I haven''t had the chance to get at it though. There''s also a grate on the inside, which leads to a crawl space. It''ll fit someone small for sure." She leads us back around to the inside of the terminal room, then points out the grate on the floor by lifting it. "Do you know where the other end of this goes?" I ask her. She shakes her head. "No, I only found these in the last few minutes."


    "Oh, I think I saw the other end of this," says Rease, walking us out of the terminal room. He points to a group of three half walls formed in a triangle, tucked away in a corner. "I''m pretty sure it''s in the center of that." I glance at Ella, catching her attention. "Ella, do you mind checking it out?" She nods her head, and without further discussion, makes her way over to the triangle of half walls. I watch as she tugs at the grate in the center, then shimmies down into the floor, and out of sight. "Rad. We should probably have someone scale up the outside ledge as well, to check out that loose panel. I''m willing to do it, but I''m still the worst climber here," I say, looking at the 20 foot ascent. The wall beneath the ledge is filled with greebles; askew panels and offset pipes and machined patterns creating a somewhat easy climb up to the top. Ko-lee doesn''t even take the time to respond. She throws herself at the wall and begins scaling it, arms and legs locking to handholds like magnets. I watch her climb for a moment, before I pull my gaze back towards the front door.


    "This is rainbow six all over again," I think, as I look for the best places to hold an angle. Directly in front of the door is an open space, one I had mentally dubbed as the "courtyard". In the center of it are three walls forming a Z shape, with the center wall being low enough to shoot or vault over. On each flat side of the structure are windows, allowing you to see out to the left or right. It''s the most obvious place to put someone, since they''d be have a view of both the front door and the exit grate, and so I don''t consider it an option. "Somehow, we need eyes on three different locations; that ledge, this door, and that grate. We can''t put someone in this thing," I say, pointing at the Z, "because they''ll get lit up immediately. Thing is, there''s not really any other good angles," I explain, walking the other two through my thought process. "There''s a ladder up there," says Rease, pointing towards the ledge. "You can see some parts of the course, although there''s stuff in the way so you can''t see everything."


    I can feel the beginnings of a plan start to form from his information. "Thanks man. ...I think we''ll need to split. There''s three paths, and we can make three groups, sort of. Two in the high point, as overwatch, to keep tabs on the panel, and the left side path. Two somewhere else... and someone who can roam. Rease, I know you''ve not used the Grineer sniper before, but you''re our best shot. Plus, you can be loud enough to shout, if it turns out we can''t message each other. Thoughts? If not, I don''t mind going up there." I can see him weighing the pros and cons for a moment, before he nods his head. "I''ll do overwatch," he says.


    "Great," I respond, nodding. "Below you should be someone mobile. Preferably someone who can scale that ledge quickly, if needs be. I''m feeling partial to Ko-lee, although Ella would work as well. I''ll ask when they get back." I close my eyes to help visualize the three different paths towards the front door, before opening them after a second or two. "Caz-V, I think you and Ella should tuck up in the middle room. You wouldn''t hit them as they come in, but you''d wait until they''ve passed you to take your shots. There''s a bunch of nooks in that big room that you can squeeze into." He nods his head, not saying anything. "You cool with that?" I ask, after a moment.


    "Yes, obviously," he responds, scoffing dismissively. "Oh joy, jackass-V is back for some reason. Ugh, whatever, he''ll get over it," I think. "Cool, cool. Well. That leaves me to be flex. So broadly, Rease calls them out once he spots them, and I''ll rotate around to try to hit them with grenades. You and Ella will take the opportunity to hit them while they''re distracted. Depending on how well they group up, I''ll either fall back towards you, or towards Rease and Ko-lee, and hopefully not die. In a perfect world, we''d just hold an angle forever, but for one, our win condition is killing them, and two, we can''t effectively cover every angle unless we spread ourselves super thin, which is a great way to get picked off. Every fight would end up being 1 v 3 or worse."


    "You have a lot of experience doing this sort of thing?" asks Caz-V. I can feel my lips twitching into a silly grin, but I managed to keep it mostly subdued. I give a so-so hand wiggle. Before I''m forced to explain more, Ella walks out of the terminal room, followed immediately after by Ko-lee. "Hey girls," I say, before walking the two through everything I had just explained to Caz-V and Rease. By and large, they agree with my plan, but there ends up being a bit of push back from Ko-lee. "So your plan is to just sacrifice yourself," she says, narrowing her eyes at me. "First of all, it''s just a simulation. I know Ravon said to treat it like the real thing, but if this were the real thing, with Grineer who knew we were around and were actively seeking us out to kill us, I''d vote we get our asses out of there. Secondly, I''m not intending to sacrifice myself. I was only saying that my chance of getting killed is higher than zero, which I''m only saying because if shit goes down, then one of you will need to be flex."


    "But why do any of us need to roam?" she presses. "Because, if everyone is planted on their butts, they''ll use our blind spots to slip in, and they''ll grab the data, and they''ll slip out," I explain, trying my best to keep my voice level. "And, even if you manage to spot them at that point, if we end up in a footrace back to spawn, then they''ve all but basically won. If Terror Wins and Ravon set this place up like I think they did, then it''s literally impossible for us to cover every possible path, no matter where we set up." I take a deep breath, in an attempt to drain the prematch jitters and adrenaline from the disagreement. "If you have a different plan, I''m all ears, but we only have like 10 minutes left. We don''t have time to debate; we need to pick something, get our equipment, and get to our positions." There''s a few, tense moments of silence. "Fine," she relents. "Just be careful."


    I nod. "That''s the plan. Rease can bring two clotra, and give one to you, and one to Ella and Caz-V. No matter who I fallback to, if I get hit, I''ll be fine." I look around at the squad, and I see the stress of the situation starting to get to everyone. I beam a smile, doing my best to lighten the mood. "Guys, it''s just a sim, it''s not the real thing. This is the point of practicing, so on game day we''re more prepared. We might as well save the stress until then." It sort of works, and I get a few chuckles from the squad. "Alright. Let''s go get our stuff and get ready."

 A Fistful of Paintballs

    Everybody is in position.


    Secured in the farthest corner of the course are Rease and Ko-lee; Rease at the top of a ladder in a retrofit lookout, with Ko-lee parked at the bottom, behind cover. Ella and Caz-V are tucked away in the corner of the "central" room, and even though I know exactly where they''re located, the shadows fall across their hiding spot in such a way that it makes it nearly impossible to see them. Finally, I''m on the right side of the course, crouched behind what appears to be a dismantled cart of some sort. The half built metal structure forms a mid-sized barrier near the back of the elongated room, giving me a clear line of sight both to both doors.


    "Well, doors is a strong word. They''re like hatches that swing out sideways. I think this whole space is and or was some sort of shipping container, maybe? Although I don''t know what it would ship with access hatches like that. Probably something murder adjacent though," I think, my mind feeling scattered as I wait for the match to begin. The one on the wall to my left leads out into the central area with the Z, while the one directly across from me leads into the back of the course. "If things go sideways, that''s my route out. I can basically beeline straight to Ko-lee from here, and there''s enough corners that I doubt they''d be able to get a clean shot on me."


    "Although with the door being over there, and me over here, won''t I just get trapped when slash if they come in?" part of my mind asks. "Standing near the door isn''t really much better. I guess I could always get really dug in here, and try to pull something like what Caz-V and Ella are gonna do." I shake my head. "No, bad plan," I tell myself, resisting the impulse to full tuck into the corner to hide away. "My job is mobility. That''s the opposite of mobile. I can''t just start improvising like 30 seconds before the match starts." There''s a clock in the corner of my vision, counting down the seconds to the start of the match, and I box breathe as I watch it tick down towards zero.


    "Four seconds in... four seconds hold... four seconds out," I repeat in my head. Each second drags on, and I can feel the pressure build in my lung each time I hold my breath. My body is convinced I''m going to explode from the pressure, even though I know logically I''m capable of holding my breath for four seconds at a time. "Three... two... one..." The instant the clock hits zero, a shrill whistle echo''s out, bouncing off metallic walls, causing the tips of my fingers to tingle. "Game on," I think, straining my ears for the sounds of the other squad. I pull apart the ambient silence in my mind, examining each piece before discarding it.


    "Is that heavy footfalls on creaking metal flooring? Or maybe just an expanding gas pipe? They couldn''t have pushed in that fast. Is that chatter? Am I just hallucinating? Auditory pareidolia?" I ask myself, at each sound that passes my eardrums. From spawn, Azarinth has three options; left, right, or center. I try to imagine the debate, but I don''t know the members well enough to make an accurate simulation in my head. "Which path is the most appealing for them? Are they gonna try to big brain outplay us? Try to pull some 5D chess maneuvers type shit? Or are they going to try to fight us head on? Crazy dumb play, but maybe they think they''re just better in a firefight, I don''t know. Also, how well do they know the space? I feel like I barely saw them-"


    CRACK


    The sound of a high powered rifle causes me to startle, and I feel my heart rate jump up a notch. "Okay okay okay... it was Rease, that was for sure Rease. I don''t know why he took a shot without sending a message or giving a call out though; maybe he thought he could get a lucky shot?" I feel my fingers itch, the urge to send a subvocalization message to ask, but I squash the impulse. "No, if he''s busy or something then I''m just distracting him. Just wait for the call out." The anticipation is making my bones itch, and my teeth are chattering, despite the neutral temperature of the room. I hold my angle, desperately straining to hear anything at all. "Maybe I should peek out the door," I think, before another part of me shuts it down. "Absolutely not. Stay right the fuck here. Stay put."


    "Although... I could be fast..." I finger the trigger of the Grakata I have pointed at the entrance to the room I''m in, rubbing up and down on the knurled texture. I can feel my arm shake from the adrenaline, and the gun feels light, too light. The gun has a single clip, and I have two grenades strapped to my waist, and I don''t just want to use them, I need to use them. "Microcosm," my mind tells me. I don''t even know what the thought means at first, until I put the pieces together. "Microcosm of New War? Of being too cautious IRL? I think I''m appropriately cautious. There''s no do overs in real life," I remind myself. "Although... I guess this isn''t real life. If there was ever a time to take a risk..." I think, already rising out of my crouched position. At that exact moment, I see a message flash into the top left hand corner of my screen.


    Five V


    We had all decided on labels for each part of the course, and the message meant that they were pushing up the right instead of the left. More specifically, they were passing by a tangle of bars and pipes that prevented passage, but would let gunfire through. It placed them about 50 feet behind me, or 70 feet if I included the length of the room I needed to travel to get to the door. The odds of them entering this room are low, but I''m also basing them on what I would do. "This leads nowhere unless they''re trying to circle all the way around for some reason. Still, I could always hit them with a grenade as the enter, assuming they end up actually doing that. A one v threeish trade is good numbers," part of me thinks.


    "Ko-lee is gonna kill me if I don''t fall back," goes another part. "I have to do something though! Falling back is just pushing the problem down the line!" I argue with myself. "Falling back is regrouping, which is better odds, which is the better play!" The back and forth is ratcheting up my heart rate, and I keep bouncing from a crouched to a standing position. My leg muscles feel like coiled springs, and I struggle to keep my hands from squeezing tight on the cool metal pipe next to me. I want to do but I can''t tell if it''s the right decision, or if I''m compromised by the adrenaline in my veins.


    Even though I know it''s just a simulation, just training, that winning or losing isn''t a big deal, I feel the pressure of having this succeed weigh heavy. Even though I''m not in charge of the squad, the plan had been mostly my creation. "Fuck me, it doesn''t matter, not really!" another thought says. "Honestly, I should just go for it. Cook a grenade, use the hatch door as cover, toss it and run. If they come in this hall while I''m still in here, then I''m cooked, but if they''re in here while I''m retreating, I can toss one in here too. A little column A, a little column B." It''s enough to convince myself, and I find I''m already at the hatch door, my hand on the chunky inset handle.


    I place my ear against the rough metal, but it''s too thick for me to hear through it. "This is the dumbest plan," I think with a grin. Regardless of what I think of the plan, it feels good to do something, to not react passively, for once. With my left hand, I swing the hatch door out, and with my right, I hit the button to arm the grenade. There''s nothing subtle about the action, and as the hatch door hits a 90 degree angle, I hear the sound of surprised voices. "Oh, damn, they moved up fast," I think. I don''t have a visual on them, but it''s pretty clear they have one on me, as bullets start hitting the door. Even though I know they''re only simulation rounds, each clang of polymer on metal sends a spike of adrenaline through me, and my knuckles turn white as I grip the handle like a lifeline.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    I''m unable to see where they''re located, but I use the whizzing and snapping sounds to make an educated guess. I swing my arm around the door and huck the grenade blindly, my aim based entirely off the mental map I have of the space. My hand and arm are only exposed for maybe a second, but it''s still not fast enough, as I feel a round hit my lower arm. "Fuck!" I shout, as a spike of pain from the impact travels to the tips of my fingers, and up towards my elbow. "Shit," I think, as I swing the hatch door shut, not waiting for an explosion. There''s a purple mark about half way past my wrist, and everything below that point is frozen. My wrist won''t rotate, and I''m unable to move any of my fingers. "Well there goes my throwing arm," I think with a touch of absurd glee. I sprint for the next hatch door as well, and swing that one shut, placing myself in what I''ve mentally dubbed the "back part" of the course.


    Just a staircase and a corner, and I''m home free! Well, relatively speaking since I''d still be in the fight and stuff, but I needed to use clotra on my arm. If I didn''t, I''d "bleed out", but to be fair an arm wound like this means I have a bit of time. "Pressing issue sort of kind of, but not pressing pressing," I think, before cracking the hatch door open a few inches. Just enough to toss another grenade, but not enough for them to squeeze through, although the second I do the damn thing flies open and tries to knock me on my ass. Too bad they don''t know about the foot trick!


    It''s not really a "foot" trick specifically, it''s just utilizing physics against them. The trick is to place a foot near one of the points farthest from the hinge and then - assuming that they were pushing on the center of the door, which is most people reaction when faced with a door that won''t open - they''d need like, five or ten times as much effort to open it as I do to keep it closed. I learned this literally all the way back when I was a kid and when I was just a little girl kind of sort of, I could almost hold it shut against my Dad, which means that as a 29 year old I can almost hold it shut against 5 well abled recruits. "Get Clem!" I shout, a giggle of manic euphoria bubbling up out of my throat. I use my now free hand to grab the other grenade, then arm it, then toss it into the air slightly to trigger the cooking process. They shout something back at me, but I don''t process it, because it''s not particularly relevant when I have a live grenade in my hand.


    "Watch out for this grenade I''m about to throw at you!" I shout in English. I know they won''t understand it so I''m not actually giving them a warning, but I''m honestly just having so much fun that I just need to say anything, even if they don''t understand. "And I drop bombs!" part of my mind sings at me. Unfortunately, at about the same time I''m about to throw my grenade through the ever widening crack, I see an oblong shape fly over my head. "You dropped this!" I yell in Origin, shoving my own grenade back through. The pressure on the door decreases, and the instant it does, I turn to sprint. I don''t know how much time I have, but there''s a corner only a few steps away that might or might not shield me from the blast, depending on where the grenade they threw ended up.


    It is enough, or maybe it''s the distance, or maybe it''s something else since I never turn to check or verify the explosion, but I hear it go off, and it doesn''t hit me. Another bubble of excitement, a dopamine rush buzzing down my back and my legs and my arms, making me feel like I could float away at any moment. I take the stairs up to the ledge three steps at a time, with the intent to follow it around to the back to where Ko-lee is in cover, so that I can get the simulation clotra and fix my arm. I reach the final stair, and I round the corner, my eyes peeled for where Ko-lee is, or likely will be, assuming she hasn''t moved.


    "Love!" I shout, and I see her peek from around a pillar, one of the four holding up the lookout where Rease is stationed. Her eyes widen, and I open my mouth to tell her it''s just my lower arm, and it''s not a big deal, but I can''t. I can''t do anything, I can''t speak, I can''t move. I feel myself falling, my legs immobile, my arms unable to stop the descent. I hit the ground, face first, my Grakata skittering out along the metal floor as I land. I hear Ko-lee yelp, a scream cut short, and the back of my head starts to ache. "Damn it, I never even fired the thing," I think, as I lay on the floor. I listen as Ko-lee shouts a command to Rease, as sim bullets whizz over my head. A few times they strike my "corpse"; shots gone wild.


    "Ow, hey, those still hurt," I think, my face pressed into the ground. Every part of my body is still buzzing, but I can''t do anything but breathe, and eventually the hormones drain, leaving me physically tired, but my mind a touch more clear. "Just a little mania, as a treat" I joke, as I stare at the rusty metal flooring. Eventually I hear footsteps pass by me in the wrong direction, and a pit forms in my stomach. "Son of a bitch, did Ko-lee and Rease get got? That didn''t sound like a squad of five, but Azarinth would only be moving up if they weren''t being suppressed," I think. The game hasn''t been called, based on the fact that I still can''t move, but the lack of gunfire is leading me to assume that we''re just waiting on them to pull the data onto the datamass, and make their way back to spawn.


    Eventually, I''m unable to hear even their footsteps, and I''m left with nothing but my thoughts, while I wait impatiently for access to my body. A few minutes later, I hear a small set of footsteps come up from behind me. "What the hell? Did they hold someone back maybe?" I think, before I feel a pair of hands pat my body. "Oh, woah, hey, take a girl out for a drink before you frisk her corpse for weapons," I think jokingly. My body gets flipped over, and I''m able to get a look at the scavenger. "Oh, howdy Mouse. No drink needed." Her face shows stress and determination in equal measure, and her right hand has a death grip on her Grakata. "Where''s yours?" she whispers to me. The message interface is disabled, and I can''t speak, but I''m still able to move my eyes, and so I shift them up and to the right, where I vaguely remember hearing it skitter off to.


    She stares at me for a moment, trying to interpret the eye charades, then gives me a nod. She steps over me, and I lose track of her, this time left to stare at the ceiling instead of the floor. A few seconds later, I see a face pop back up in my field of view. "Found it, thank you!" she whispers, a smile on her face. "Gee bill, why does your mom let you have two Grakata''s," I think to myself. Nearly two minutes go by, and I start praying for literally anything to happen at all. Some greater power is apparently listening, because only a few seconds later, I hear a long BRRRRRRRRT; the sound what I assume is two full magazines getting dumped from something Grakata-esque.


    "I bet that would''ve been cool to see, but this is cool too I guess," I think sarcastically, as my eyes trace the nondescript ceiling above me. "Ah, yes, the roof is made of roof." I keep my ears peeled for any other sounds, but the space is entirely silent. "I don''t remember hearing returning gunfire. She couldn''t have got them all because I''m still stuck here, but how did they get her? Ugh, annoying. Again, I would literally commit serial murder for an ipod full of music right now."


    I fiddle with the headset using intent based controls, flicking through menus and options, trying to find a way to tap into "radio", or anything along those lines. I accomplish little in the excruciating 8 or so minutes of silence, until I''m startled by three gunshots; two in rapid succession, and one more a second later. The moment that last gunshot goes off, my limbs fall free from their frozen position, and I sit straight up, feeling a touch sore from being stuck in one position for so long.


    "Dying sucks."

 A Few Paintballs More

    I make my way back towards spawn, trying to massage out the soreness in my jaw from my face being pressed into the floor. I don''t encounter anyone until I reach it, where I find both squads circled up vaguely near each other. "-scared you with that first shot," says Rease with a grin, talking to a short, red haired recruit from the other squad. "Alright jackass, hows about next time I fire a gun at your fuckin'' head, and we see if you flinch," says the recruit, tension in his pose. Rease just laughs it off, which is exactly the wrong response, as the red haired recruit looks like he''s about to to swing on Rease.


    Instead, Terrowin and Ravon approach, stifling the promise of combat. "Amarast, that was very impressive," says Terrowin. I look around, trying to figure out which of the recruits is called Amarast, before it dawns on me that that''s their squad name. "Oh, shit, welp. Azarinth was like 50% of the way there. Wait, did we lose?" I wonder. "Unfortunately, throwing the datamass across the line doesn''t count," she continues, bemusement in her eyes. "Recruit Caz-V, that was well fought at the end. Good call on getting up close and personal."


    "We won?" I blurt out, getting various looks from everyone. I feel my face grow warm from the attention. "I think I was the first to die. I... I didn''t know what was going on," I say sheepishly. "Only just," says Ravon, from behind Terrowin. "It honestly could have gone either way. It was down to one member on each team. Caz-V landed a well placed shot, but if Recruit Agstee hadn''t turned to engage, Amarast would have won." I see members of Amarast squad give their tall, lanky member various looks, from frustration to sympathy. "However," Ravon continues, "I''m not saying Recruit Agstee''s actions led to Amarast''s loss. I''m simply trying to point out that the match could have gone either way. In a scenario like the one I just watched, it will always be a toss up between recruit squads."


    "Yup, you guys got lucky," says Terrowin, looking at our squad. "Time to see if it holds. You''re switching sides; swap gear, and remember, you only get 20 minutes of prep this time. You already know the field, and you''ve already done a run against each other, so you know how they fight. Now let''s see if you can adapt." Amarast wander into the combat course, leaving the five of us outside, near the equipment table. "So, that wasn''t a good plan," says Ko-lee, eyeing me with a cold frustration. "Yeah, but we won though. So it wasn''t that bad," says Rease, chivalrously stepping in. I give him a thankful smile, before turning my attention to Ko-lee.


    "I''m sorry love. I imagine watching me get domed probably looked pretty horrifying from your point of view. I got a bit swept up in the moment, and I think maybe I was a bit more reckless than I should have been. That being said, for this particular situation, I do think it was a good plan, because we needed to be aggressive. Our win condition was to kill them all, and we did. Thing is, we''re Tenno, not Grineer. In real life, I would never pull stunts like that. Still... I''m sorry." There''s a moment of awkward silence as the squad stands there, eyes shifting between me and Ko-lee. I give her space to process, and eventually, she gives a short, jerky nod.


    I reach out for her hand, before I remember that she''s not a big fan of PDA, but before I have the chance to pull back away, she takes it. I try to keep my surprise and elation off my face, and I give her a squeeze and a smile, before turning my focus back to the rest of the squad. Caz-V takes the opportunity to break the silence. "It wasn''t a bad plan... but we need something new," he says. I nod in agreement, but I keep my mouth shut, as the only plan I''m able to come up with is different variations of "move in quickly, check our corners, hope we''re faster on the trigger pull". "They''re going to see us coming," says Rease. "Pretty much no matter what. We can''t sneak all the way to the terminal. The lookout point in the corner can''t see everything, but it can see a ton; it''s kind of crazy actually." Caz-V nods his head. "What we need to do is return to basics," he says with a confident grin. "Here''s what I''m thinking..."


    <hr>


    Lux Aster could feel the strain in his leg muscles as he held a raised position near the left side of the field. His cheek pressed against the stock of his Grinlock, he scanned the arena for any hint of "Nameless" squad. Lux was confident that the experience gained from the first run of simulated combat was all that Amarast needed to be able to clean sweep the other team. There''d be little to no fatalities on his side, of that he was certain. What he wasn''t certain of, however, was if the other team was aware of just how outclassed they were. It wasn''t only about winning, it was about making sure that the enemy knew how badly they lost. He shot off a quick message to Hydex, the farthest squad member from his current position.


    Status


    They had all worked out a number of single word call and responses that could be sent in an instant for communication purposes. Some of the messages were obvious in execution; it wasn''t meant to be a method of encryption. However, some of the messages weren''t very clear, and he had had to spend precious set up time walking his squad through what each one meant, to make sure they were all on the same page. Luckily, every single person on his squad was intelligent, and he hadn''t needed to spend more than a few minutes walking them through his reasoning. Only a second after sending his message, he receives a reply.


    Bright


    Like Sol. All clear, it meant. He checked in with the rest of his squad and received the same response two more times. Athlon, on the other hand, sent him something a little more interesting.


    Sound


    Lux had expected this, and it was the main reason he had positioned a member of his squad there. Their squad was very spread out, to cover as much of the field as possible, and it was Lux''s job to pick them off as they tried to enter the room with the terminal. Nameless squad had tried to do something similar, but they didn''t execute it very well, turning the entire combat scenario into a chaotic mess. He attributed it to poor positioning on the sniper''s part, and on the overeager recruit who threw grenades at Amarast. The grenades had only managed to take a single person out of the fight, but more frustratingly they had had to use nearly their entire store of clotra to patch up their wounds. He was glad to had landed the shot that downed her.


    If Nameless squad had had someone in a position of authority, then the combat would have gone much smoother... but ultimately, he had Amarast to worry about, and his own loose cannon in Winsome. Lux couldn''t spend time worrying about the failings of other recruits. He focused his attention back on the field, with his sight aimed roughly towards Athlon''s position. Unlike the previous sniper, who had taken the lookout tower in the corner of the field, Lux was half kneeling, half holding himself with his legs at the top of a communications array. The array was positioned on the left side of the field, and while it wasn''t any higher than the lookout was, it''s offset position made it easier for him to see around the intentionally placed obstructions that obscured the view of the lookout.


    The downside to this was that he wasn''t fully obscured, and anyone who decided to look up could likely hit him as easily as he could hit them. However, he was certain that he''d be able to eliminate them all before they even thought to look up. His numbers in the range were proof of his ability to perform the task, and the rest of the squad had agreed, after he made sure to explain his thought process to them. It helped that Zay had agreed first. Even Lux had to admit that Zay''s tactical acuity was something to behold. The only reason the gangly man wasn''t leading the squad was his lack of social acumen.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    For example, the big man on Nameless squad - Rease, if Lux remembered correctly - had been engaging in psychological warfare, attempting to rile Lux''s squadmates. Winsome had wanted the opportunity to return the behavior with a little physical t¨ºte-¨¤-t¨ºte. If Zay and Lux''s positions were swapped, it would''ve been very unlikely that Zay could have managed to reign in the overeager squadmate. But that was a different universe. Instead, Winsome respected Lux, and the chain of command, and so they were all scattered across the map, holding various checkpoints and feeding Lux the intel he needed.


    Central


    Another message from Athlon. Lux frowned; it meant that Nameless squad were headed into room that Athlon himself was hidden, and it was one of the few places Lux couldn''t sight directly into. However, it also meant they were likely to push left, as there were no other exits - bar moving backwards - and so Lux rotated himself around the comms array to get a bead on the expected egress point. He was unable to see what was happening, so he contented himself with playing out the scenario in his head. Nameless squad was slowly filtering into the room, peering into the dark corners under the dim sodium lighting. Athlon, fully obscured by shadow, would sit stock still, and (hopefully) resist the impulse to poke his head out.


    As long as he didn''t do that, they''d likely never find him, and they''d eventually all filter out of the room, once confirming it was "clear". To be entirely fair, the scenario playing out in his head hinged on the idea of Nameless squad not being as thorough as Amarast was. While he knew for a fact that his squad was more competent, it was folly to rely on the idiocy on the enemy. Lux''s mental visualization was shattered however, when he heard a sound - like metal on metal - in the central room. There was none of the accompanying crack that he had come to expect from the sim rounds, and he knew that the rounds were a polymer, not a metal, but he still couldn''t imagine the sound being anything else.


    As the room was entirely enclosed, all he could do was stick to the plan, and wait for them to exit into the patiently waiting view of his scope. A few seconds later however, instead of seeing the familiar blue and gray of a TEPA suit make an appearance underneath his crosshairs, he heard the sound of a door slam shut. Lux quickly scanned his rifle over both exits of the room, only to spot the smallest member of Nameless squad running out of the field. "Where are you going?" Lux muttered to himself. He received a message from Athlon a few seconds later.


    Hey Lux you probably want to come in here two of them got hurt and the short one ran off to the med bay


    For a moment, Lux considered the possibility that this was a trap, and he responded to the message with a code to verify he was actually talking to Athlon. They respond correctly, and he followed it up with one more message, before making his way down from the comms array.


    Take away their guns


    He was careful as he approached the door; he cleared his corners as best he could with the long rifle, making sure to keep his eyes and ears peeled for any hint of a trap. Before opening the door, he sent one more verification code to Athlon. "Just come in here!" they shout in response, with ire in their voice. It''s not particularly professional, but Athlon wouldn''t have been able to speak if they were dead, and they had a different phrase for if they were in trouble... so with a sigh, Lux entered the room. He kept his rifle pointed at the floor, but made sure his finger was on the trigger, just to be on the safe side.


    On the floor was the one with the blue eyes and the odd accent, as well as the corpo. Off to the side is a pile of weapons; clearly stripped from all four members of Nameless squad. Lux took a moment to recall their names before he opened his mouth. "Antimony, Caz-V, how bad is it?" he asked of the pair. Antimony responded with what he was confident was curse words in a language he had never heard before. "Broken leg, and broken arm, I think," says Ko-lee. Her jaw was tight, clearly doing her best to keep cool under the pressure. Rease, however, was so nervous, that he looked like he might lose his lunch at any moment.


    "It''ll be okay," Lux told him with a smile. It seemed to help a touch, and the broad shouldered man gave him a nod. Lux shot off a message to Hydex and Zay telling them to come help, but told Winsome to hold his position. The plan was twofold; on the off chance that this was a trap, Lux wanted to have at least one person in reserve, but more importantly, he didn''t want to introduce a volatile element to this medical emergency. He was worried that Winsome would take the opportunity to extract his pound of flesh from Rease.


    "I''ve sent a message to my squad," Lux told the four members of Nameless. "They''ll be here in a few moments, and we''ll help you get medical attention." Lux did his best to impose a sense of calm in the room while they waited. It helped to some degree, as Caz-V''s breathing became less labored, and Antimony''s cursing had at least become understandable. There was a knock on the door, and Hydex and Zay entered the room, their guns lowered, but at the ready. Lux approved of the maneuver. It only took a minute or so to get Antimony upright, and the two squads began making their way back towards spawn.


    In the front was Amarast, helping the injured, while the two functional members of Namless lagged behind. Lux noted the lack of team cohesion, but he choose not to say anything at that particular moment. "There''s been an injury," Lux stated, as he approached the door leading out of the field. "I believe it''s a broken arm and a broken leg. They''ll likely need some form of medical attention. I believe their fifth member is already attempting to retrieve help." Terrowin just gave a grin, one that sent a shiver down his spine. "Will we need to redo the match?" asked Zay from behind him. Terrowin just tilted her head in a mockery of confusion. "Why would we need to redo this match?" she asked.


    Lux heard a groan of frustration from behind him, and at the same time, the arm around the back of his neck suddenly got very tight. CRACK CRACK CRACK went the sound of gunfire, although Lux didn''t feel any impact. He heard the weight of a body hitting the floor somewhere beyond his field of view, but he was immediately distracted by the fist in his stomach. CRACK CRACK goes another weapon. Lux wasn''t sure where, or how they''d gotten their hands on weapons, as they''d been stripped before they left, but he knew if he could bring his to bear, he''d be able to even the playing field, even with two of his own squad members downed. He reached for his rifle, but found another gloved hand had reached it before he could.


    There was a struggle for dominance, and he attempted to point his rifle at literally any of the numerous targets, but the weapon had not been designed for close quarters, and struggled to get the long barrel raised off of the floor. A finger snaked on top of his, and Lux was forced to pull the trigger, causing a round to go straight into his own foot. He gasped from the pain, but was able to keep his head about his him, and the successive six shots avoided hitting him. As he heard the empty click of the seventh trigger pull, he felt the pressure on his neck abate. Lux instantly fell into a combat position only to find he was surrounded by four bodies; three of Amarast, and one of Nameless. Or rather, he realized with despair, it was only three downed bodies, as Rease - the member of Nameless who he had thought dead - removed a clotra from his waist and pressed it to his gut.


    "So, you had to turn to tricks just to beat us," Lux snapped, fuming at the betrayal. "You took advantage of our good nature just so you could win this little back and forth? Is your ego so fragile that you couldn''t face us honorably? You had to resort to cheating?" Antimony just laughs; a grating chuckle that started high and ended low. "Cheating? You think it''s cheating because us, the Tenno, didn''t want to engage in combat with you, the Grineer? No thanks, friend. I think I''d rather DIE." Ko-lee pulled a Lato up, one that Lux knew she didn''t have on her person when they left the central room. He tried to make a play for the gun, arm outstretched in front of him, but the action is impotent. With a pull of the trigger, Lux was forced down onto the rough metal of the floor beneath him. Immobile. Dead.

 Half Day

    "No, I''m telling you, it was definitely cool," says Rease, as we walk down the hall towards nothing in particular. I feel a touch of embarrassment, but I do my best to swallow it. "I was going for like, a pithy line when I shot him, but I didn''t actually prep anything." Rease shakes his head, a big smile on his face. "Nah, it was for sure cool." His voice deepens, and his eyes darken, one hand outstretched and in the shape of a gun. "I''d rather die," he says with a gravely tone. "BANG!" We all chuckle, and Caz-V turns to Ella. "Also, Mouse, good call on circling around on the wall. That red haired recruit totally got the jump on us; if you had gone through the course he probably would''ve gotten you," he says. Ella looks bashful, but she mumbles a thanks in response. Caz-V shoots her a bright, genuine smile. "Antimony, do you have Advanced Training?" asks Ko-lee, and I''m suddenly reminded that I''m an active participant of the conversation.


    "Oh, shit, I don''t know," I respond truthfully. I scan my schedule in my headset to find that even that''s been cleared away. "Huh. I would''ve thought that they''d leave that in," I mutter, before shifting my gaze back to Ko-lee. "Looks like I''m free. What''s the plan?" She shrugs. "We''ve got 12 hours. That''s a lot more time than usual," she responds, clearly thinking over our options. "We could play Lunaro?" says Rease, with a hopeful look. "We play Lunaro every day," shoots back Ko-lee. "Yeah, because it''s fun," he counters. Ko-lee gives a small smile, before continuing. "I was actually thinking about going shopping." Ella perks up. "Oo, I''ve been wanting to go shopping too! I want to get a few more parts for my drone that I''ve been working on," says the smaller squadmate. "You''ve been working on a drone?" ask Caz-V. Ella nods in response.


    "Yeah, it''s sort of my hobby. I used to fiddle with whatever tech we had in the colony, and I managed to get my hands on some stuff up here for basically nothing. But like I said, it''s just a hobby; I don''t think I''d be able to bring it on an operation or anything like that," she explains. "Well, that''s two for shopping. Caz-V? Interested?" I ask. He just gives a noncommittal shrug. "Well, I was planning on drinking and dancing, but that won''t be until later tonight. Until then, I didn''t really have a plan. I was probably just gonna hang out in my room and play on my Ludoplex," he says. "Ludoplex?" I say, with a touch more excitement than I mean to. Caz-V quirks an eyebrow at my outburst. "Yes? You know what that is?" he responds, confusion coloring his words. "I thought you were from Earth." I freeze for a moment, too caught up in the idea of getting to play video games again to come up with a clever lie.


    "I just heard about it somewhere, and I''m really excited to try it out," I say. We''ve hit a junction; one direction leading off to the hangar bay, another to Lunaro and Caz-V''s room. Everyone - including me - is waffling on what we should do, and nobody seems particularly interested in splitting up the group. "Well... what if we do everything?" offers Ella. There''s a few moments of consideration as we all warm up to the idea. "Lunaro is later anyways, so I''d still need something to do in the meantime," says Rease, considering. "And there''s no time limit on shopping," continues Ko-lee. "So it sounds like we''re playing some video games at Caz-V''s for a bit, then Lunaro, then shopping, then dancing? Something like that?" There''s a round of head nods, and we turn left, heading towards our squadmates room.


    <hr>


    Unsurprisingly, Caz-V''s room looks a bit like mine and Ko-lee''s, but with a touch more clutter. There''s food on the counter; not from the nutrient dispenser, but left overs from somewhere else on the Relay. The desk up against the wall has a small silver box on it, and a cable leads from the box down to a white and blue accented object tucked underneath. It''s shaped a bit like a half dome, and has what appears to be two handles coming off the side of it. Draped over the back of a kitchen chair is an article of clothing, along with a holopad balanced precariously on top of it. I''m unable to read the note, but from Caz-V''s expression, it''s more than a little racy. He''s quick to shove the clothing into a drawer, out of sight. On the kitchen table itself are two books; one open, covering the one beneath it.


    "Book books? I wonder why not a holopad, or like, pipe it straight to the headset or something." There are excessive notes in the margins of the open book, and a number of angry red underlines mark various passages. I''m unable to read the words before he closes it and places it in a drawer. "Sorry," says Caz-V, a little chagrined. "Room''s a touch messy." Rease chuckles. "If you think this is messy, you''d probably die of a heart attack in my room." We finish filtering in, and for a few moments, we all stand around awkwardly. "Oh, shit, we don''t really visit each other''s rooms, do we?" I realize, putting a finger on the feeling filling the air. "So, uhm, what games do you have," I say, just to cut the silence. Relief crosses Caz-V''s face. "A couple. Acerix, The Nightspoken, Enflamed 1 and 2... uh, we could do Quality Assurance Assurance, it''s a pretty good party game," he says, counting the games off on his fingers. "Yeah, Flappy Zephyr and Wyrmius would''ve been mid anyways. I don''t know why I thought that''s what he was gonna say," I think to myself. "Sure, I''m down for whatever," I say, pulling out a kitchen chair and sitting on it.


    "Hell yeah! I kick ass at QAA!" says Rease, sitting down next to me. "You own a Ludoplex?" asks Caz-V, a look of confusion on his face. "That''s... surprising. They''re not cheap." The girls settle in on Caz-V''s bed, and Caz leans against the desk, facing Rease. "Well, owned. But yeah, me, Mom, and Pops were running a bunch years and years ago. The client was trying to circumvent import taxes at one of the cities in Venus," says Rease, doing his best to face all of us as he tells his story. "A lot of those places are numbered, so I honestly couldn''t tell you where. Prospect 41? Deck 12? District 63?" he shrugs. "I don''t know. They''re different in all the ways that don''t matter, but the same in all the ways that do. Stacks and stacks of dingy living under the ground. Janky metal roads and starving kids and robotic eyes on every corner. Not a fan. ...No offense, Caz-V." Caz-V sighs, his face a a barely hidden maelstrom of emotion.


    "None taken. The Corpus are cutthroat. It''s... easier to see that from the outside. But I can''t pretend I didn''t always know that. Stepping on those below you to rise to the top, I mean... it''s part of the learning process. Kindness was just another word for weakness. I knew that, but I didn''t know that until recently." Rease clears his throat after a moment of silence. "Yeah. Well anyways, it''s rough, and we were bringing in the Ludoplex''s. They had claimed that they were trying to avoid the tax ''cause they were some sort of charity or something? Like I said, long time ago, so I don''t remember the specifics. The main thing was, when we got into the city, goods in hand, we find out they can''t really afford to pay us."


    "Which, to be honest, not super surprising. Mom was always a big softy like that, taking on those sorta gigs all the time. But they usually could offer other stuff; food, repairs on the Chrysanthemum, alcohol, clothes. Mom is- was shrewd though, always shrewd. So Mom, she always wore this rebreather. I mean, we all had masks, but hers was intense. Round, visor over the eyes, dark lenses. It''d filter out her voice when she spoke, so people couldn''t tell if she was a guy or a girl." Rease gesticulates with his hand, miming an invisible mask, and adopts a gravely, robotic tone.


    "''I don''t believe our debt is settled just quite yet.'' says Mom. The client, he can''t see her face, can''t see her eyes. He''s standing there, strong, trying to be brave with the spooky smugglers, and he''s shaking, but just a little. She looks at me, and Dad, and looks at the hover lifter with crates of Ludoplex''s. ''''We''ll take what you''re offering. And...''," Rease pauses, for dramatic tension, a big smile on his face. "''one of the game systems.'' Guy looks at her like she''s crazy. ''Cause he''s thinking, ''oh yeah, smugglers are gunna want something real fucked up, or dangerous'', or something like that, ya know? But Mom just asks for a Ludoplex. And the guy nods his head, all jerky like, and she walks over, and fuckin'' rips the lid off a crate with her aug." He gestures to his left arm.


    "She never told me how she lost it. Pretty sure it happened before I was born. So, over she goes with metal arm that looks like it came out of a Grineer scrapyard, and she tears apart an alloysteel box like it''s made of plaster. She reaches in, grabs one. Looks at it for a moment, then hands it to me. ''Happy Birthday, sweetie,'' she says, in her scary robot voice." Rease laughs for a few seconds before continuing. "Oh man, the look on that guys face. Like he couldn''t decide whether he wanted to be surprised or terrified or relieved, and so he just did them all at once." My attention is pulled away from Rease as Caz-V hands me a controller. It''s shape is like if someone had taken a rectangle, flared it slightly on one side, and then bent it in half.


    "What in the MadCatz is this," I think, trying to figure out how to hold the controller. "He probably thought you''d report him to cityWatch with the whole ''I don''t believe our debt is settled'' thing. There''s not really charity organizations. They were probably just black market dealers. Resellers, trying to make a quick buck," says Caz-V, settling into the final chair. Rease gives him a shrug. "Yeah, maybe. I don''t know. But everyone left happy, and no one got hurt, so who cares what the law has to say?"If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    "Based," I mutter in English. The silver box on the desk flares to life, and I do my best to lock in as Caz-V begins to walk us through the game.


    <hr>


    I triple tap BL, summoning my held item, doing my best to deploy it as close to my feet as possible. "Aww, a gift? For me?" says Caz-V mockingly, sliding in from my right. Only a few feet before he reaches the item - still in it''s spawn animation - his avatar slams to a halt. "What?!" he shouts, before Ella giggles. Attached to his foot and holding him in place is a long chain of paper slips that trails back to Ella, who''s holding the other end. "Should''ve cleared your debt," says Ko-lee. "Noooo! Ko-lee?? You''re supposed to be on my team! What happened to no nickname solidarity?!" My jump pad having finally spawned in, I fling myself up past the spaghetti of conveyor belts, and drop in my final report. The screen flashes with celebratory text in blocky, Corpus lettering. E.O.D! Caz-V throws his hands up in frustration, but there''s no real ire behind it. "Sorry, Caz-V," I say, putting emphasis on the dash. "But it''s been months man. You were always next on the chopping block."


    "My dash," he says quietly, a small pout on his lips. "Glad to have you on board, Caz," says Rease, giving him a fist bump. We all laugh, and my eyes graze the clock in the corner of my headset as a reflex. "Oh, damn it guys, I don''t know that we''re gonna have time for Lunaro and shopping." Rease looks nonplussed at the information. "It''s fine, I play every day. I don''t mind window shopping with you all." He stands, and we all follow, stretching out our limbs after the hours of intense Quality Assurance Assurance gameplay. I leave my crab claw controller on the kitchen table behind me. "I''ll be back for you, video games," I think, before turning my attention back towards the squad. "Alright! No time like the present."


    <hr>


    Calling it shopping was technically a bit of a misnomer. As ships flew in to the relay to have their goods checked in space customs, they often had downtime. So, a hallway that led from the Concourse to the hangers had a bunch of merchants setting up shop. Over the course of hours, people would rotate in and out as ships were cleared, and new merchants took up the space. Finding anything on purpose was a mostly of luck and a willingness to converse with tired pilots looking to make a quick buck in their downtime. The five of us wander past the temporary stalls down the hall; fold out tables with cheap synthfabrics draped over them, and goods haphazardly stacked on and around them.


    Holo projectors and soil analyzers, corpus weaponry and communication devices all demand our attention, all side by side. "Are you looking for anything in particular?" Rease asks the two girls. Ella shrugs. "Just the drone stuff for me." Rease nods, a considering look on his face. "Maybe I should get something to tinker with as well. It''s weird not having something to constantly be working on. I tried to get Inlustris to let me into the engine room but they didn''t want to let me for some reason." I snicker. "Yeah, for some reason," I say. Rease just shoots me a wink, and my breath catches briefly. "Wink at me like that again and I will smooch the fuck out of you, so help me god," I think. "I''m looking for something to replace my Zaw," says Ko-lee, distracting me from my ever more illicit thoughts about our squadmate. "I know melee weapons aren''t part of the standard kit, but I feel naked without it."


    "You know, Heya probably still has it," I tell her. She gives me a flat look. "I wasn''t aware that we were taking a trip back to the Unum anytime soon," she responds in a flat tone. "Fair enough," I tell her, feeling a touch stupid. After a moment, she sighs. "I do want to go back at some point. It was a boaldek gift; I don''t want to lose it. But I''ll still need something in the meantime, regardless." I nod understandingly. "What''s boaldek?" asks Caz from my right. Ko-lee thinks for a moment, as we pass by table after table. "So, you know how I said I didn''t know my birthday? It''s not that we didn''t do birthday''s at all. They were still celebrated, just all together, on the same day. The term is Ostron; it translates to ''we were all born today'', roughly. It''s a celebration of life. That everyone who was alive one year is alive the next."


    The topic is dark, but the mood isn''t. Just matter of fact, as we move through this slightly crowded portion of the Relay. The rest of the squad continue conversing, but I stop processing them as my eyes wander the space. My gaze passes by a window and a small thrill of excitement shoots through me as I remember that I''m in space. "I hope I never get used to that," I think to myself, as I continue to browse the goods. I''m not really looking for anything in particular, just vaguely perusing the eclectic group of items on display. "Mods would be cool. Just to like, theorycraft some stuff." I have some money from working the customs job, but I''m confident it''s not enough to buy a real mod. "Maybe enough to buy a broken one though," I think, before my eyes catch on something peculiar.


    It''s almost a magnetic pull as my hand reach out for what appears to be a minijet of some sort. Before I make contact with it, the shopkeep reaches out to stop me. "Sorry, please don''t touch," says the man, in heavily accented Origin. "Oh, sorry," I say, feeling three steps behind my physical form. My eyes are locked onto the upper half of some characters scrawled on the side of the turbine. I can''t read them, but I recognize them, and it feel painful to rip my eyes away to make contact with the guy manning the stall. "Can you tell me about the minijet?" I hear myself ask.


    "Yeah, IsoFlex FC3. Triple buffered, direct inject. Little noisy, but powerful. Can lift up to 500 lbs, easy. Looking to build a proxy? Maybe a K-Drive?" he asks. I realize I''ve been nodding for way too long, the action running on automatic. "Sorry, yes. Yeah. Tinkering. In... uhm. Between missions," I say, the lie springing to my lips without thinking. "How much?" The scarred merchant frowns at me. "I''m leaving here in 30 minutes or so. I can''t stick around. You have flash on you? I can''t take digital." I feel a ball of despair form in my stomach. "Uhm, no... but I, I could get some-"


    "I''ve got you," says Caz, and I''m suddenly reminded that there is more than just me and the Corpus man in front me here. My behavior is getting odd looks from Rease and Ella, but Ko-lee has that familiar look of intense concentration on her face. Her eyes are locked on the minijet in the same way mine was. I force myself to focus on Caz. "You''re liquid? Why?" I ask. He shrugs. "An asset in the hand is worth two in the portfolio," he tells me. The scarred merchant pipes up from across the table. "The transaction is the lifeblood of profit. Nef 13:12. You follow the teachings?" he asks, with a curious lilt. Caz shoots the man a look of disgust, and I freeze for a moment, before I remember that we''re wearing facial coverings, and that he can''t see Caz''s expression.


    "I just like to read," Caz responds, after a moment. It''s not clear if the man believes him or not, but he moves on regardless. "Five real," states the merchant. Caz shakes his head immediately, as though pre-planned. "Three and a half. No haggling." The Corpus man laughs, his green eyes shining. "And yet, you will if you want the IsoFlex, Tenno. Four and a half," he counters. "Done," says Caz, dropping credits on the table. The man flinches, and a dangerous glint passes over his eyes for just the briefest of moments. "I don''t like to be played with, Tenno," he growls. "To find the true value is to see profit, and in profit, see desire. And only those who see desire will see the truth. Parvos 9:7," says Caz, in an icy voice. The air is thick with tension, and I''m not entirely clear on what the problem is, until eventually the man lifts the engine and shoves it into my hands. "All yours," he grumbles, as I stagger under the unexpected weight of the machinery.


    "Uhm... thanks," I mumble to the Corpus, as he glares at Caz. Eventually Caz walks off, and I trail behind, the proud new owner of an IsoFlex something or other. Caz''s pace is brisk, and I''m unsure of where we''re headed. "Reimburse me at your earliest convenience," he says, in an unfamiliar, clipped tone, once we''ve walked far enough away from the stalls. "Hey man, you good?" asks Rease, placing his hand on Caz''s shoulder. I''m frazzled; by my discovery, by Caz''s seeming personality shift, by everything. I keep hearing a crushing sound, and it takes me an embarrassingly long time to realize it''s Caz''s fist, opening and closing, crushing the fabric of the TEPA in his palm. I take in a huge breath, and pull myself present, placing the minijet down at me feet.


    "Hey," I say. He looks over, and his eyes are cold and unseeing. "Hey," I repeat. I slowly raise my fist up between us, and it takes a second for his eyes to focus on it. He looks confused, and I reach out with my other hand, and close his into a fist. I see the neurons connect, and his eyes melt, before he gives me a small smile. We tap our fists together, a sign of seemingly multiversal solidarity. Before he pulls his hand away, I trap it with my other, holding his fist against mine. "You with us?" I ask. He sighs in response. "Sorry. Yeah. Sorry, it..." his words hang in the air for a second, and Ella steps up as I let go of his hand. "You don''t have to talk about it now," she tells him. His smile gains a few lumens of brightness, and she continues. "Well, let''s go drop off Annie''s new toy, and then we can go out for drinks. Take our mind off this. How does that sound?"


    "Hell yeah," I say, still feeling somewhat off kilter. I pick up the minijet, feeling the solidity of the Corpus tech in my hands, the weight of it''s dense alloy frame through the TEPA''s fabrics. I lock eyes with Ko-lee, whose are as wide as mine feel. She doesn''t ask out loud why I just spent half my saving on a random jet engine. She doesn''t need to. But regardless of her silence, I know she wants to know the same thing I do.


    Why does this bit of Corpus tech have English writing on it?

 Modules 102

    "You''re still thinking about it," says Ko-lee, as we make our way towards equipment training. It''s been just about four weeks since I first acquired the engine, and I''ve thought about the words written on it''s frame six ways to Sunday. The only conclusion I''ve managed to come to, is that they were likely meant for notekeeping. "42 - Jaksun - Earth - Protected from cityWatch: No Touchy!" my mind helpfully reminds me. Over the weeks, I kept my eyes peeled for more English text in the market, but I never found any more words surreptitiously written on the side of drone parts, or anything else. I had also translated it with Ko-lee, and we had bounced ideas back and forth, but even I had to admit that we were at a dead end.


    That still didn''t prevent it from taking up a large part of my mental real estate. "Seriously, what could 42 mean? 42 engine? 42 as in the meaning of life? Jaksun is a name, which can mean anything, and Earth is almost definitely where it was going. Also, the ''No Touchy'' thing is still so weird. What''s the point of telling someone not to touch, if they can''t read it? Unless others can read it? But almost definitely not someone in cityWatch. Damn, I''m missing something really obvious," I muse. Ko-lee grabs my hand, pulling me back to the present. "Antimony!" she says, somewhat sharply. "It''s not going anywhere."


    "I know, I know," I tell her, trying to ignore the six new ideas that just popped into my head. "It''s just... we''re shipping out in like a week, and I still don''t have anything close to answer. I don''t even really know where I''m supposed to start with something like this." I watch her bite her lip, her brows furrowed. "Well," says Caz on my left, "after we''re full operatives, we can check out some Venusian colonies. I''m sure there will be operations that take us in that direction. We can pull double duty, keep an ear out." I nod. "And you''re sure about the cityWatch thing? It''s definitely Venus?" He just shoots me a flat look. "Yes. I''m pretty sure."


    "Yup! I''ve been all over. cityWatch is specifically the Venusian colonies," says Rease from behind. I take a deep breath, and force myself to smile at my friends. "Well, thank you, guys. I know I''ve been a little shifty about this, but it means a lot that you''re willing to help," I say, making eye contact with each one of them. "Of course, Annie!" responds Rease. "We''re a squad! We''re always going to be here to help, even if you are lying to our faces." Ella and Ko-lee are quick to jump on his case, while Caz backs him up, but my face burns red regardless. He''s not wrong. I''m being read like a book, and they know it, and I know it, and they know that I know.


    I can''t even make a promise to tell them later, because I don''t know whether that would be betraying the Loutus'' trust. She never explicitly told me to keep it a secret, but she didn''t need to. "Well, that and the conversation with Ko-lee was rough, and you don''t want to go through that again," my mind whispers. "No point in lying to yourself." Regardless of the ribbing, everyone is in good spirits, and we eventually all settle into our chairs, waiting for the screen to flash to life like usual. Instead, it stays dark, and we all look at each other, confused. Before anyone has a chance to voice a question, the door behind us slides open. In walks a man I don''t recognize; a Tenno with a scruffy beard and a lanky body, sort of like a mad scientist. He''s pushing the cart and on it are


    MODULES


    I feel my heart miss a beat or two, in an attempt to jump from neutral to 5th gear. Excitement hits my veins like a linebacker in the Super Bowl. As the man pushes the cart around to the front of the class, the screen springs on, and Scientia gives their usual greeting to the squad. "Today," Scientia continues, "we will be applying modules to the TEPA! With me is Master Oriviri Hastins, and his reason for being here is twofold. First, he will be my hands in this class, as the application of a module to your TEPA is not a particularly intuitive process. We''ve found that it helps to have someone a touch more corporeal than me, to walk recruits through the process for the first time. Secondly, the value of the modules on the cart in front of you exceeds 150 thousand credits per set."


    I wince inwardly at the number. "Napkin math says I''d take like, 5 years to earn that kind of money with the customs job. Which, T B F isn''t going to be my main job, but like... ow. Just for a basic set of mods. Still, better than the morbillion years it was gonna take prior," I think. A quick glance at the others shows that they''re all taking it more in stride than I am, or they all just have great poker faces. "Yeah, actually, why am I surprised about this? Isn''t a single F22 like... 350 million dollars or something insane like that?" I turn my attention back to Scientia. "Now, you''ve all had the basic rundown on modules before, but a quick refresher before we get started. A module uses void energy in the form of endo to empower a medium of Orokin memory plasma, which can then imbue abilities onto equipment. That equipment can include weaponry, your TEPA suits, and of course, warframes."


    "A swarm of nanodrones will apply the plasma to your equipment, and using the control locus, can be recalled when the module is no longer in use. That is what we''ll be doing today." The Orviri grabs four mods from his cart, and lays them down onto marked spots on the table beneath the screen. After he finishes laying them down, a sourceless spotlight highlights the one farthest to the left. "Redirection," says Scientia. "This mod increase shield capacity. This module will be your bread and butter, as a large portion of your resilience in the field is reliant on your shields." Scientia pauses for a moment, as a spotlight highlights the second mod.


    "Rush. This module will increase your sprint speed. Now, please be aware, the language here is precise. This module does not increase all speed. In most scenario''s, you won''t notice it''s effect at all. As Rush has been known to give recruits trouble, we will actually be moving to the track before applying this module." The spotlight moves to the third mod. "Fast Deflection. This module will increase the recharge rate of your shields, which will act as an efficiency multiplier with Redirection. You''ll have stronger shields, that last longer, and recharge faster. The less downtime your shields have, the less likely you''ll perish, which is something we''d like to avoid." A small chuckle from the crowd, and the final mod is highlighted.


    "Lastly, Shock Absorbers. This will increase your shield''s resistance to non-elemental damage." I''m hit with a wave of confusion. "Shock Absorbers? Do I know that one?" I wonder. "I mean, I don''t think I''ve ever used it in a build, or even heard of it being used in a build. Is that a real mod? Like, in game real? Are there non game mods here?" My eyes pass over all four mods once more, before a a question occurs to me. I raise my hand. "Yes, Recruit Nova," says Scientia. "Is there a reason we''re only using four mods? Instead of eight?" I ask. The Orviri straightens up from his relaxed position against his cart, and glances at Scientia. "Yeah, I can take this one," he says casually, before locking eyes with me. "Unlike with weaponry and the warframes, the TEPA can only handle four mods at a time. On top of that, in my circles, there''s something we''ve come to refer to as capacity. It''s sort of like a limit on how much a piece of equipment can handle. So, imagine that number was 100-"


    "Or 30," I say, the words slipping out of my mouth before I''m able to stop them. The ITO frowns at me, his scruffy beard shifting as he does. "Sir, I''m sorry, please, ignore me," I say, feeling tendrils of shame and frustration settle in my throat. I can feel eyes boring into the side of my head, but I ignore them. "...Okay, so. 100 capacity. A module like Shock Absorbers, even after being fully charged with endo, might only take up 15 capacity. But something like Redirection, well that could take 45 capacity if you fully charged it up." I nod, and wait for him to mention Orokin capacitors, or Forma, as the soution to the problem.


    But after a few seconds, I realize he''s not planning on saying anything else, and he''s waiting for me to ask follow up questions. "Oh. Uh, is our Redirection fully charged, sir?" He shakes his head. "No, it wouldn''t fit if we did that. Speaking of," he says, shifting his attention to the rest of the squad, "I ask that if you do get your hands on endo during an operation, that you do not charge the modules in the field. First, they''re not yours, they''re Tenno property. Secondly, we have a procedure that needs to be followed. It''s for logging and tracking purposes, as well as to make sure you''ve done it safely and correctly."


    "Finally!" he shouts, causing me to jump slightly. "If you charge a module, then you''ll likely end up with one that won''t fit on your TEPA. If you do that, best case scenario, the nanodrones refuse to apply. Worst case, you get a bio-voidic feedback loop, and melt inside your TEPA, as endless elemental damage is pumped directly into your cells." My eyebrows try to escape my face. "Is... has that happened sir?" I ask, feeling a touch more apprehensive about applying the mods. He clears his throat, his previous confidence faltering. "Well... n-no, not... exactly that. But it''s been theorized!" He exclaims. "Regardless! Don''t mess with the modules! You can put them on, and take them off, and that''s it. Any other questions?" I lean back in my chair, and give him a shake of the head.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    He mutters, and returns to his position near the cart. "Great!" says Scientia, with boundless cheerfulness. "Now, Master Orviri Hastins will walk you through the application and removal process of a module! I''d like you all to pay close attention!" Hastins awkwardly stands back up, clearly unaware that he''d be immediately called back to the front. He picks up one of the silver, inflated discs, and points to a ridged section on the object. "This right here is your control module. Nowadays, the process is a lot easier than it used to be. The Corpus have created a display that projects the status of the mod, so pretty much all the guess work is taken out." He hits a switch, and the screen pops up, an inch high and sparsely filled with Origin script. He brings it close so we can read it, and my eyes scan the text.


    Redirection / Last activated: Dominium 33rd, 10145 AO / Status: Ready


    "As long as the status says ''ready''," explains Hastins, "you''ll be able to apply it to your TEPA. Next, you''ll need to press your equipment against the scanner. In this case, that is any part of your suit. And I mean your suit. Not your eyes or mask," he chides, pointing at his headset and mask. His finger moves from his face to the underside of the device, at what looks like a strip of three bars. "This is the scanner. Press here, and keep pressing until the screen changes to say ''Identified''. Then, and only then, can you stop." He goes through the motions, and I watch as the status line pulses on the screen, before changing to Identified. "Then all you need to do is hit this switch," says Hastins, pointing at a third portion of the device, far from every other button.


    "Once you do, the control locus will send out a command to the nanodrones, who will automatically apply the Aya- sorry, the memory plasma to your equipment. It only takes a moment, but it can be a bit off putting at first, so just be aware of that." He hits the activation switch, and I watch as a surprisingly small amount of what can really only be described as luminescent blue slime floats out of one end of the module and proceeds to start eating the ITO. The glob appears alive, the emergent behavior of trillions of nano robots working in concert to spread the plasma thin, covering every nook and cranny of Hastins. It''s viscerally uncomfortable to watch, but it only takes ten or so seconds until the process is complete. "Once you''ve applied the module," he says, without missing a beat, "you can remove it by hitting the same deployment button. Please remember to remove the module when you''re not actively using it! The internal forge system needs to occasionally replenish lost drones, and it''s important to expose the memory plasma to the endo as much as possible, for maximum efficiency."


    "Sir, how big of a drop in efficiency should we be worried about?" asks Ko-lee. He waffles for a moment. "Ehhh, maybe a 1% drop every two to four weeks?" he states. "Oh so don''t wear the mod for a year straight. I''ll see if I can manage with such a tight timeframe," I think sarcastically. He hits the same switch one more time, and the floating slime uneats the man, coalescing once more into a glob, before disappearing back into the mod itself. "Also, be aware that once you''ve unequipped a module, you''ll need to rescan yourself before applying it again. Of course, if you own your own modules, you''re free to save yourself in their memory. Not these ones though. They''re not yours, they''re ours."


    "...Well?" he says, after a few seconds of silence. "Come on up, grab a set. We''re applying everything except Rush, so, ya know. Hop to it." We all filter out of our chairs and make our way over to the scruffy ITO and the table, picking up three mods each. One by one, we get consumed by floating slime, and when it''s my turn, I notice my hand is shaking. "Nerves? Excitement?" I wonder briefly, before the thought is immediately overwritten. "Actually who gives a fuck? This is mods! REAL mods! I mean, shit, this is the ability to actually do something." A wave of sensation runs from the back of my neck, down my chest, to my toes; a feeling of release, of catharsis, like I''d been tense for the last however many months, and I had just relaxed a bit for the first time. I hold the disc to my right arm, and watch with bated breath as the screen pulses, before changing to Identified. Then, before I can psych myself out of the process, I hit the switch.


    I watch as a deep luminescent blue exits the disc to float in the air unsettlingly close to my face. It''s a perfect sphere for only a moment, before it shifts and thins, spreads and flattens until it becomes nearly transparent. I watch as the impossibly thin layer of Aya and nanomachines is applied to my arms, thighs, stomach, chest, neck, crotch. There''s a brief ionic tang in the air, something I hadn''t noticed until this exact moment, and my skin tingles from the trillions of tiny drones making adjustments... or maybe it''s all psychosomatic, and there''s nothing to feel at all. "Two more," says Hastins, after the little robots finish up, and I repeat the process with Fast Deflection and Shock Absorbers. "Fantastic, class!" says Scientia, as the last mod is applied. "Please, make your way to the track before applying your final module." As she says that, a path pops up on the floor, directing us towards the door, and out into the hall. "See you there!" chirps the Cephalon, right before the screen goes dark.


    <hr>


    It''s only takes a few minutes to reach the track; a winding, multi elevation running course that snakes around itself three or four times before completing a full loop. I''m familiar with it; even though Ko-lee and I had stopped training together regularly - mainly because the training with Terror Wins was more than enough - I had found her here more than once. I had even run the course once or twice, just for the novelty of it. We''re not alone at the track. Over at the raised benches are a spattering of Tenno, talking amongst themselves. "Welcome class!" says Scientia, startling me. The cephalon is projecting down from the ceiling, and because of it, they''re a full 3D orb, nearly 3 feet in diameter. "I''d like for you to all apply your Rush modules, but please, do not move until Master Orviri Hastins says for you to."


    Hastins is stood at what could be considered the beginning of the track, watching us and the mod... containers, which are sat on his cart. We all apply our mods, four blobs of angry jello eating four space recruits. Ten seconds later, we''re stood in formation, waiting for further instruction. "Alright," says Hastins, stepping over towards us. "I want you to walk to the first bend in the track. As long as you stay walking you should feel totally normal. Once you''re at the bend, I want you to head back here, and as you do, slowly increase your speed until you''re sprinting. Once you''ve hit a sprint, you''ll know it. The best thing to do is just keep moving; don''t think too hard about the mechanics behind your speed, or you''ll trip over your feet."


    "Good luck," Ko-lee says to me, with a bemused grin. "What, why me?" I ask, confused. She just chuckles, and I roll my eyes at her odd behavior. The five of us saunter over to the first bend in the track, and our different stride lengths means that we naturally end up sorting ourselves in order of height. I''m only a few feet behind Rease as we turn to start making our way back. I start out with a power walk, then lengthen my steps until it turns into a jog. I increase the pace, each step sending me a touch further than before, moving closer and closer to a dead sprint. I''m about three quarters of the way there when I start flying. "Woah," I think, as I suddenly have the ability to sprint way faster than before. Each steps just sends me farther, almost as though I''m running on a moving sidewalk, or I''m wearing moon boots.


    A touch of giddiness hits me, and despite my speed, it feels entirely natural; I''m not at any risk of falling. I push harder, my arms pumping, as I do my best to catch up with Rease. I just about manage to blow past him before he realizes what''s happening, and he starts to tear away from me when he does. "God, it''s like I just suddenly became an Olympian," I think, my cheeks hurting from the grin. Me and Rease are neck and neck, but we''re rapidly approaching Hastins, and so I start to put on the brakes. I dip under the bar for whatever counts as sprinting, and suddenly it''s like the ground is sticky, and the air is thick. I stumble, but the feeling isn''t too dissimilar to what I had been expecting, and I just barely manage to keep my feet under me. I hear a cheer off to my right from the peanut gallery of Tenno in the seats.


    As I slow down to a stop, I see them all cringe, and a chorus of "ooo''s" emanates from the sparse crowd. I turn away from them to find Rease sprawled out on the floor, only a few steps in front me. I have to swerve widely to avoid running him over, but I manage to prevent the 2 mph collision. I come to a complete stop, and turn my attention towards the last three members of the squad. As Ko-lee slows, she stumbles not dissimilarly from how I did. This time, I catch the rising "wooooahhh" from the onlookers, until she manages to get her feet underneath her. Her act of balance is met with cheers. Ella, in a similar display, also stumbles, but she isn''t able to recover her balance, and she goes down, tripping over her own feet.


    Caz is still at breakneck pace, likely because he just finished watching the four of us nearly or totally eat it. Instead of slowing down, he tries to stop on a dime. It only half works; his feet are both planted on the ground, but the rest of his body doesn''t get the message in time. He topples straight over, and slides nearly a foot from his momentum. The audience throws their hands up, and I see a few credits change hands. "Ignore them," says Hastins, with a frown. "Well done, class!" exclaims Scientia. "We have one hour, thirteen minutes, and forty two seconds left of class, which is plenty of time for practice!" Everyone on the ground picks themselves up, and after a few grumbles, we take off down the track once more.

 Nominative Determinism

    I dodge the fist coming at my head, deflecting it with the outside of my right arm, while countering with a haymaker into my opponents side. The maneuver is expected, and they pull back a step, in an attempt to throw me off balance. My swing catches nothing but air, but I''m able to recover into a guarded position before my opening can be taken advantage of. "You''re getting better," says Ko-lee, sweat plastered her hair to her forehead, a bemused grin on her face. "Yeah?" I retort, breathing heavily. "I would hope so. Otherwise this was a waste of a boot camp." My eyes are watching her muscles shift under her skin, the placement of her feet, her center of balance, looking for the telltale sign of utilizing Rush to close the distance. It''s only our second day training with the mods equipped, but Ko-lee''s taken to the rapid shift between speed and no speed like a fish to water.


    Before, she would need a run up of at least a few steps to classify it as sprinting, but since earlier in training today, she''s started to be able to trigger it right on the first step. "Definitely the longest three months of my life, regardless," I continue bantering. I have my hands in a neutral guard, aiming to cover or deflect as needed. "Speaking of, did I ever tell you how long a month was back home?" I watch as she fights a smile, her eyes searching. "Are you trying to distract me?" Ko-lee asks. I shrug. "No," I respond, with a casual air. "Unless it''s working, in which case, yes, that''s what I''m doing. But a month back home is four weeks long, instead of seven. So you know how long these three months have felt to me?" I see the exact moment she starts running the numbers in her head, and I take the opportunity to close the distance.


    Unfortunately, I''m not as effective with the mod yet, and I need to take an extra step before I''m able to activate Rush. I''m so focused on pushing myself, that I realize a fraction of a second too late that I''ve been baited. Her eyes lock on to mine, her leg lifts, and her foot connects with center mass before I have the chance to stop. My shield flashes, electric blue hexagons abberate chromatically, briefly flickering out at the impact point, before the wind is knocked out of me. I''m off kilter, unable to recover my balance, and it takes very little for her to knock me over. She follows through as I fall, and I''m left staring at my girlfriend, wheezing, while she has her foot planted on my chest like I''m a beast she''s just conquered.


    "What''s that, 30 to 4?" says Caz, somewhere off to my right. "Says the 25 to 15," I huff at him, trying to catch my breath. "Ko-lee has everyone beat in hand to hand, and I''m still the worst physical combatant in the squad. No big surprise there she can kick my ass. What''s your excuse?" I lift her foot off my chest and sit up, before shooting him a look. "Well," he shrugs, "what can I say. I''m a gentleman. I don''t like to hit girls." There''s one loud guffaw from Rease, only a few feet away. "So what''s your excuse with me?" the large squadmate asks. "What do you mean?" Caz responds, with a look of innocent confusion. "I just said I don''t hit girls." It''s a hit with the audience; Rease busts up laughing, and slaps Caz on the back.


    It doesn''t seem all that gentle, as Caz stumbles in place slightly from the show of camaraderie. "A lover, not a fighter?" asks Ella, from over on the bench. "You''d make piss poor soldiers if that was the case," states a fifth voice. Standing in the doorway to the gym is an officer, and I quickly scramble to my feet before giving a salute. "Sir," we say, as we line up in formation. "If they''re sending an ITO after us on our day off, it has to be something either time sensitive, or important," I think, as I look at the man. He has gray eyes, and furrowed brows, and his left arm has been replace by a prosthetic, which sparks something in my mind. I''m unable to take the time to pin it down though, as he begins to speak.


    "At ease," says the officer. "I''m here to give you information on your first operation in person. You''ll each receive a data packet later tonight as well, with further details. In two days, at 0400 hours, you will be expected in hanger bay 3. You, along with a Sergeant, will be delivering supplies to an outpost on Mars. Mars is contested territory, but nominally under Grineer control. Due to this occupation, you will need to utilize deception to maneuver past the blockade to land planetside. Once you''ve made landfall, you will need to make your way to the outpost. It''s located within Martian ruins, which means you''ll be hiking with those supplies through a few miles of tunnel before you reach your final destination. Are there any questions?" We''re silent, and the officer gives a small, short nod.


    "The FO that is being assigned to you will be accompanying you to the objective, but they will be hands off during this operation. They are there for monitoring purposes, or in cases of actual danger, of which there will be none. Instead, you are being given the opportunity to select one amongst yourselves to be squad leader. A squad leader''s role is normally to be point of contact with the FO, as well as the highest ranking in the case of total communications blackout. While disobeying a command from a squad leader is not grounds for disciplinary action, it may reflect poorly on you during debrief, and repeated behavior may incur repercussions." There''s a brief pause, and we all give each other varying looks before he continues. "Be aware that you will have similar, low stakes operations in the future, if you find that your initial choice is not correct. You have until the start of the mission to make a decision, so discuss amongst yourselves." The officer turns to look at me, and for a second or two, it feels like he''s trying to dissect me with his eyes. "Antimony, the Lotus would like to see you in two hours," he says, before turning to everyone. "You''re all dismissed."


    <hr>


    "I wonder why the Lotus wants to see me," I think, as we all make our way to the showers. The showers are co-ed, which had caught me completely off guard the first time I encountered them. The initial experience was a bit rough, and I wasn''t the only one, judging by the reactions, but by this point, we''re all comfortable enough with each other that it''s barely worth noting. I peel out of my TEPA, and the cool air of the relay hits my skin, sending goosebumps down my arms.


    The shower is basically one half of a room, with a waist high retaining wall, and what appears to be textured stainless steel flooring. The actual shower heads are attached to posts that rise up in the ground, and each post has four, nonadjustable heads welded to it. I hit the button to turn the water on, and flinch as my skin is flayed off my body by a warm pressure washer. I do my best to rinse off in the jetstream of water, the liquid running across my hair and down my back. "Alright, I know I''ve said it before," says Rease on my left, "but I''m telling you that Rease and Friends is a killer name for a squad."


    "Yeah, nothing like having ''Friends'' in the name to strike fear into the hearts of our enemies," retorts Caz, a few feet away under his own shower head. "It''s not supposed to strike fear into the hearts of our enemies! We''re Tenno, not some Grineer kill squad!" Rease counters. My eyes linger on his thick arms, on his smooth, dark skin, on the water tracing outlines along his physique as he runs his hands through his hair. I explicitly do not lower my eyes any lower than his neckline, but my memory helpfully fills in the gap for me.


    "Still, isn''t it just sort of... plain?" I ask, partially to myself. "Pssh. I don''t hear you coming up with anything," he mumbles under the stream of running water. "Might as well call ourselves Space Trauma," I say offhandedly, using the English words in place of Origin. "What does it mean?" asks Ella, her face half hidden by the post in front of me. "Strength," I say, nodding sagely. I give Ko-lee a sly look, well aware that she has enough English under belt to translate, but as I do, I see her brows are furrowed, and her lips turned down. "Ko-lee?"This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    "Eidolon''ai Fahn," she says mechanically. "Eidolon''s Fury," I repeat in Origin for the others. "That''s... yeah." I can tell she''s bothered by something, but now''s not really the time for a heart to heart, and so I shelve it for later. "Shouldn''t we be discussing who our squad leader will be?" Ella prompts. "No, this is more important," Rease explains, tongue in cheek. "You can''t have a squad leader if you don''t have a squad name. What would they call us over comms? ''You guys?'' No, that ''cause that''d be dumb. Also, you still haven''t tossed your hat in the ring." She huffs, folding her hands across her chest, causing water to pool in her arms. "What am I supposed to pick?" she asks, her brows furrowed. "Anything you want," says Caz. "Something you like, maybe."


    "So... Sarracenia?" she prompts. "The flower?" asks Ko-lee, momentarily shaken from whatever it was that was bothering her. "Yeah, it''s my favorite," Ella responds with a smile. There''s a moment of silence while we all consider her entry, before I turn my attention towards Caz. "So, that just leaves you," I tell him. "Easy," he says with a grin. "The Invincible Five." I snort. "That''s a little on the nose. Might as well call ourselves the Titanic while we''re at it." Caz quirks an eyebrow at me.


    "What''s the Titanic?" he asks. "A boat. It was designed to never sink. I''ll give you three guesses on what it did on it''s first trip." There''s a round of chuckles from my squadmates, and I take a deep breath. "Okay, so, five choices, five of us. One we''ve finished up, we should place some votes. Everyone ranks which choice you like, from most to least, and then we can add up all the points once we''re out of the showers. Whoever has the most at the end wins."


    "We should do that for squad leader as well," Ella suggests. "Maybe," I hedge, "but I kind of think we should do something different, ''cause I don''t think everyone wants to be squad leader." There''s nothing but the sound of running water for a few moments. "Plus," I continue, "we just learned about it, so, maybe we should sleep on it, ya know?" There''s murmured agreement from everyone, and soon, the conversation turns into small talk as we finish cleaning up.


    <hr>


    "Votes in everyone!" I shout, fully dressed in my TEPA. I start getting an influx of messages, and I begin to do the math on the various options. As I do, a pit of worry starts to gnaw away at me. "You''ve got to be shitting me," I think, rerunning the numbers a third time. "Fifth place, The Invincible Five. Fourth place is Eidolon''ai Fahn. Third is Rease and Friends, second... Sarracenia. Shit. Maybe I should just... tell them what it actually means? Or just, like, lie about who won?" The four of them look at me with varying levels of interest, and eventually, I just grin and bear it. "Welp, it''s, uhm. It''s Space Trauma," I tell the squad. "That''s our new squad name." There''s varying levels of excitement as I let them know, and I try to mimic it the best I can. I have no interest in being the bucket of water on everyone''s enthusiasm for the "cool foreign name".


    "Hell yeah Space Trauma!" yells Rease, his voice bouncing around in the hall. "You didn''t even win?" asks Caz, looking confused. "That''s fine," Rease says, shrugging. "I just really wanted a squad name. It makes us feel official." His enthusiasm is infectious, and I can feel it spreading to me. "I don''t know, it''s kind of funny," I think, my smile becoming a touch more genuine. "Well, yeah. That''s what we got now! Thanks for voting everyone. I really didn''t think that that''d be the name we''d go for, but yeah. We''re Space Trauma now. Anyways, I gotta head to the Lotus, but uhm... everyone think about who you think would do best at leading the squad, so we can vote on it on the day of the operation. And maybe consider what it would be like if you ended up in the role. I''ll see you all later."


    I turn to leave, but Ko-lee reaches out and grabs my arm, and we both sort of side shuffle away from the group. I look down at her hand, holding me a touch tighter than could be considered comfortable, then at her conflicted expression. "Sorry, sorry. Just... can I talk to you?" she asks, letting go of my arm. "I mean... is it quick? If it''s only a few minutes, then I can always jog across the relay. But I''d rather not keep the Lotus waiting, if it can wait," I tell her. There''s conflict in her eyes, and she wets her lips briefly before speaking. "I... maybe? Maybe... maybe not. Probably not," she says, after a few moments of deliberation. I clonk my headset on hers, forehead to forehead.


    "Hey, I love you. Whatever it is, keep it in the back of your mind, and we''ll talk about it when I get home, yeah?" I catch frustration cross her face briefly, but she nods her head. As soon as I try to pull away though, her hand shoots out and grabs mine. "Love? We''re going in circles here," I tell her with a teasing tone. She looks at the rest of the squad, who are shooting a few glances our way, then drags me even further down the hall, way beyond earshot. "I... you were looking at Rease," she tells me. I nod. "Yes," I respond, unsure of the problem. "You..." she starts, then stops. It''s clear she''s struggling to spit out the words, and I try to not imagine the Lotus watching me through a million tiny cameras while the clock ticks down.


    "Are you interested in him?" Ko-lee asks, after a moment. "What, like... romantically? Or sexually?" I ask. It seems to be the wrong question, and I feel her grip on my hand tighten ever so slightly. "Well, love, I mean... sort of? I''m interested in pretty much everyone on the squad, if I''m being honest. But, you know. They''re our squadmates. It''d be messy. Why?" I ask. "Why??" she repeats, her voice raised slightly. She''s looking at me incredulously. "Because we''re in a relationship?" she says, in something between a whisper and a normal speaking voice, as though the words themselves are dangerous information. "We''re in a polyamorous relationship," I retort. "We''ve talked about this."


    "I know that," she says, with just the tiniest bite. I take a deep breath. "Cool. So then... is there a problem with looking at our squadmate? Do we need to reevaluate our relationship? Because I love you, but I would like to remind you that I''m married," I tell her, my words measured. "No! No, I know, I just..." she says, trailing off. "It wasn''t real until just now?" I ask. "Something like that," she confesses, after a moment. She sighs, and I give her a second before letting go of her hand. "Listen, I do really have to go, but why don''t we talk about it after I go talk to the Lotus? If you have questions, or just need to vent, or whatever, I''m willing to be a sounding board." She shakes her head a touch too quickly. "No, I''m fine. It''s fine," she tells me. "I mean, clearly it''s not. We don''t have to talk about it if you don''t want to, but I''d like to sort it before-"


    "I''m fine," she snaps, cutting me off. "I''ll get over it." I fight the frown I feel trying to form on my face, and reach out to give her hand one more squeeze. "Okay," I tell her, as I step away. "I''ll see you in a couple hours."


    "And we''ll absolutely be talking about this clear defensive play you just pulled. I''d love to give you time on this, but right before the operation? That''s maybe the worst time to bring this up. I don''t want either of us ruminating on this shit while we''re behind enemy lines, even if it is supposed to be a chill op. Fuck, this is shitty timing." I make my way down the hall towards the conference room, musing on the interaction. "It''s probably just jealousy, honestly. God, I''m so stupid. She literally was like, ''yeah, this is pretty much my first relationship'' and I went, ''great! Have you considered polyamory?'' and then when she said ''yeah sure'' I just ran with it like ''oh this won''t be a problem''. Suckered by the freckles and muscles." I run my hand over the top of my head, the motion not nearly as satisfying with my hair covered by the TEPA. "Ugh. Whatever. Fingers crossed I can help her with this. But let''s just backburner it for now. Space Mom is calling."

 Space Mom

    I make my way down the hall, heading towards the conference room I''ve only been in once before. The walk is taking more than a few minutes, and my mind keeps jumping between the various topics I''ve been putting on the shelf for later. One train of thought is ruminating on Ko-lee''s jealousy that I only just now managed to notice. Another is still trying to find links with the writing on the jet engine, comparing random ideas like a gamer stuck in King''s Quest. Still another is trying to figure out who should be squad leader, and another is just vaguely worrying about the upcoming operation in general. The plus side to my Grand Central mind is that I lose track of the time, and the walk is done before I even realize.


    I''m stood in front of the roundish, purple accented door for nearly 20 seconds while my mind continues to race, before I take a deep breath. Rather than trying to wrangle my thoughts back into their boxes, I lean on my training with De''Launda before stepping through the door and into the room. It looks entirely untouched from the last time I was in here. Purple cloth is draped along the ceiling and stretches down to the floor, but the room is otherwise entirely empty. Soft lights cast tinted shadows through the semi opaque fabric, lending a regal bent to the space. Like before, her hologram coalescence in the middle of the room, and despite the hint of transparency at the edges, she appears entirely corporeal.


    "Recruit Nova," says the Lotus, with a hint of a smile. "Lotus. You''re looking sovereign as usual," I say, the words slipping out of my mouth unbidden. I''m not entirely sure what prompted them, and I decide to wait for her response before I determine if it was a stupid thing to say. From the small head nod she gives me, she seems to take it in good spirits. "I received your information about the Grineer Queens," she tells me. It takes me a moment before I''m able to remember what she''s talking about. "Oh yeah, a few weeks ago," I think, recalling a message I had sent offhandedly after going out to drinks with Caz. "While your information was limited, I appreciate you letting us know. We have been able to reduce our search space by an order of magnitude." I shrug.


    "Yeah, of course. We''re on the same team, and I had felt bad about not really having info for you, so..." My words trail off. The info I had given her was limited, but not due to a memory issue for once. There just hadn''t been specifics in game about which asteroid out of the millions in the solar system was the specific one that the Queens had decided to turn into a base. "Speaking of helping, I''ve been told that the training with Major Imperator De''Launda is going well?" she asks. I nod. "Yeah," I say, before correcting my overly casual language. "Yes. It''s a little... well, it''s something else, for sure. But I feel confident about the surgery, and I''m definitely committed, so there''s no worries on that front."


    "Good," she states. "You''ll be going on your first operation in a few days, and the surgery will be performed when you return. Is there any other information that you are capable of sharing with us before you leave? For example, you described a warframe to your squad that I don''t have in my databases. Xaku, I believe the designation was." I feel my cheeks grow warm at the memory. "Right," I say, remembering how exactly I had described the warframe. I worry away at the fibers at the tips of my gloves for a moment.


    "Uhm, so. I can let you know about all the different types of frames there are, but as for obtaining them... a lot of the stuff with the information I have is sort of centered around a single operator. I don''t think I ever mentioned that, actually. But, assuming there is a player analogue, she''d probably be a girl, named Mara, I think. The specifics of her awakening I''m a little iffy on because the start of the game got retconned, but it probably involved Captain Vor and an Ascaris Negator? And she escapes in a Liset, and there''s a Cephalon called Ordis? I don''t know if any of that rings a bell."


    The Lotus is quiet for a moment. "Yes, I know of who you speak. She was awoken two years ago. You''ll understand if I avoid being more specific than that. You are still a recruit." I wave my hand, entirely unbothered. "No, it''s cool, it''s fine. It''s, ya know. Opsec and all that. But to bring it around to my main point, Xaku was one of the frames that was released in a later update, and they... uhm." I pause for a moment, realizing I''m at a loss in regards to certain timeline events and the cosmology of the solar system. "Sorry, I know there''s a limited amount of info that you can tell me as a recruit, but maybe you''d be able to confirm some stuff?" I venture. "Play some 20 questions?"


    The sentient tilts her head slightly. "Why only 20?" she asks, with a confused lilt. "Sorry, not... it''s a game. I ask questions, and you only need to answer yes or no. If you can''t answer, you just say you can''t answer. Just ''cause I think I''m missing a few things." There''s a moment of silence, before she gives a single, slow nod. "Cool. Cool, so... do you know who Inaros is?" She shakes her head. "Okay, no worries. What about Titania?" Another no, but there''s clear curiosity. Thankfully, she holds off on asking them. "Limbo?" Finally, an affirmation, and I have a sense of where we might be. "Okay, so, earlyish. So, I know Deimos isn''t around, but it-"


    "The infested Martian moon?" asks the Lotus, cutting me off. "It is very much ''around''." I''m thrown for a loop, and it leaves me at a loss for words for a moment. "Oh, I... didn''t know that," I mumble. In the game, the moon had "appeared", according to Ordis, and while it hadn''t been explicitly stated, I had assumed that it had previously been located in the Void. It was why I was asking her questions to figure out where we were update wise. "Have you... visited?" I ask, still feeling slightly off balance by the revelation. "I''m not sure why we would. The entire moon is infested," the Lotus explains to me.


    "Right, no, I know. It''s... well that''s where you get the blueprints for Xaku. But it''s like, a whole thing. And also, it''s probably sealed up right now, so I guess we just leave that one for the future," I say, half talking to myself. "Are you saying that we''d be incapable of fielding an expedition to retrieve the blueprints for such a frame?" the Lotus questions, an imperious undercurrent to her words. "You are aware of the capabilities of warframes, yes?" A single laugh bubbles out of me, and I nod rapidly. "No, trust me, I am very aware. It''s not about that, it''s about other stuff. Besides, I don''t know where on the moon it is anyways, so unless you wanted to scour the entire surface and it''s many, many miles of tunnels...?" I leave the question hanging, because I''m confident we both know that it''d be a waste of time and resources.


    "Also also, it''s not like it''s sitting in a vault. Grandmother Entrati ends up giving it to you, and so besides the fact of ''find a single mansion on a moon'' is some haystack needle bullshit, you''d still need to convince her to give it to you. In game, there''s the distress signal, and then she gives it to you as a ''thanks for making my family chill'' gift. Without that whole debacle, I don''t know why she''d just give it away," I think to myself. "Well, as far as the next frame," I continue, "is Maroo around yet?" The air feels tight all of a sudden, as though it''s pressing in on me.


    "The thief?" asks the Lotus, her words aggressively neutral. The smile on my lips slips off, the Lotus'' body language snuffing out my enthusiasm from having narrowed down the timeline. "That''s... is something wrong?" I ask. I''m more than 80% sure that I''m not in any danger, but my mind is throwing up yellow alerts regardless. "It''s just convenient for you to be asking about her only a day after we''ve begun an operation involving her. One that is way beyond your rank, Tenno."If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    "Well, yeah!" I snap, exasperated. "I''m from a different timeline? I have future knowledge? Why are you acting like I''m shady all of a sudden?" The surge of aggression seems to come from nowhere, like the fight portion of my fight-or-flight activating. There''s a tense silence, but only for a second, before she sighs, an oddly human gesture from the robotic lifeform. "Sorry you''re right," she says, and the pressure in the room drops a few bars. "I trust you understand not to spread this information? I know you''ve been fast and loose with the other members of your squad, but you have yet to step over the line." The implication of the word "yet" isn''t lost on me.


    "Right, I''ll keep a lid on it," I respond, nodding. "Thank you. Do you have any more... ''20 Questions''?" she asks, after a moment. "No, I''m confident I know where you''re at. Maroo is Stolen Dreams. The bit with the Arcane Codices and stuff. I''m pretty sure the next frame is Chroma," I explain. "He''s a... uh... actually, I barely played him, so I don''t really know his whole deal. I think he''s an elemental dragon frame, where the element he''s using allows him access to different abilities. Mainly I just remember him because there was this plot hole where Chroma was sort of the antagonist of Stolen Dreams, and then once Second Dream came out, people were confused because how was he an antagonist? If all the frames were supposedly piloted by operators? It maybe sort of gets cleared up in Jade Shadows..." The Lotus has an odd posture about her, and it takes me a second to realize that''s she tense. "A rogue warframe?" she asks, in a clipped tone. "Oh, uh, yeah," I stammer out. "I mean, but that shouldn''t be news, right? I mean, Stalker''s a warframe too?"


    "Stalker?" she asks, frustration coloring her tone. "Yeah? He... what? He literally hunts warframes! How haven''t you heard of him?" I ask, incredulous. "What exactly is the Stalker?" she demands, and I start infodumping everything I know, throwing caution to the wind. "Yeah! Stalker, he hunts warframes, he works with Hunhow. Black and red color scheme. He can teleport and kill you basically in a blink; pretty much all of his abilities are assassination themed. His name is Sorren, he was a Low Guardian, whatever that was. Him and his wife Jade got turned into frames, and the OG Jade is actually in his base right now kind of giving birth to a warframe baby, whatever the fuck that means."


    I''m not sure if what I''m explaining is helping; the Lotus begins pacing ever so slightly, her hands passing out of whatever constitutes as the frame of the hologram to interact with something I can''t see. After a minute or so, where I patiently wait for her to finish whatever she''s doing, she speaks. "We have lost a number of frames to seemingly unknown sources, but there has been little linking the incidents together. Struck from behind, sabotaged ship during extraction, attacked in the dark," she says, as though reading off a list. "We''ve also received data during espionage operations referring to this ''Stalker'' character, but it was always assumed to be a mercenary; someone willing to work both with the Corpus and the Grineer. Not a Tenno."


    "Well, he''s not, not really. Not one of the kids, anyways. He''s like a frame minus a transference bolt. He''s insane like the original frames were; super angry about everything, and thinks that because the Tenno took out the Orokin, he can''t have his wife, or something like that. He''s not all that eloquent. But... yeah. I sort of thought you knew," I finish lamely. She sighs again, and nods her head. "Thank you for this information. This is very useful to know. Moving on from this revelation, I''d like to know how many frames there are," she asks.


    "Sixty, I think?" I tell her. "I mean, more come out all the time, so I have no idea if there''s like, a total amount. Maybe they''ll stop at a hundred. But yeah, sixty that I know of." She shakes her head. "Sixty," the Lotus repeats softly. "But you don''t know them all." I give a non committal shrug. "I mean, post surgery I''ll have that info. Right now? I could tell you my mains, and like, the popular frames. Give me enough time and I''ll probably remember them all."


    "Your... mains?" she asks, confused. "Yeah, like, the ones I use mainly. In the game. Uhm, Trinity Prime was my main squeeze for all of the regular star chart stuff. Before steel path. I had wanted to do this energy vampire build, since it does percent of health instead of a flat rate per pulse, and the damage was also true damage, but it always faltered when I ran into enemies with innate DR, which I think is stupid because the whole point of true damage is that it''s supposed to circumvent that, and also they disabled the ability for bosses, which sucks." I''m unable to read her expression, but I''m picking up signals of confusion and annoyance in equal measure.


    "Sorry. Tangent. Uh, so, Trinity Prime, Octavia Prime... which, I don''t think you have yet?" The Lotus shakes her head. "I do not know of a frame with the designation Octavia. Also, what do you mean when you say ''Prime''?" I''m caught flat footed again. "It''s... you know, like Void Relics?" I say. She gives me an even more blank stare than usual. "Well, uhm, originally Prime meant ''frames that came from the Orokin Era'', but then that moniker stopped making sense. Because, like, Valkyr was a frame with her specific abilities, and then Alad V tortured her, and then she ended up with different abilities, but there''s a Prime version of her post the torture? It doesn''t make sense, you know?"


    I''m getting the frustration vibe again. "Yes, I''m aware of Alad V and his... Zanuka project," the Lotus spits, in a rare show of emotion. "Right. Well anyways, I don''t know the lore because it''s a mess and DE can''t keep their head on straight, but the long and short is that Prime frames are just stronger frames than usual. They come preinstalled with forma, and a potato- er, Orokin... catalyst? I think? Or Orokin reactor? I never remember which is which. And it give better stats, which... I honestly don''t know how much of that translates."


    "Also, that one guy during Scientia''s never mentioned catalysts or forma or anything. Maybe they don''t know? Or maybe it doesn''t exist?" I wonder briefly, before I realize that the Lotus is waiting for me to continue. "Oh, sorry. So, Octavia. She''s a music frame, which you get from Cephalon Suda after... something? Something Hunhow related, I think," I explain. "I mainly remember a jumping puzzle. But I definitely remember that she came from Suda. Mainly I like Octavia cause she has an instrument called a mandachord that lets you make music, and then you could play it in game, and if you did stuff in time with the music, you''d get buffed, and also I''m a big music person. And then Xaku, which you already heard about. Skeleton frame, made from other frames in the void, pulls ghost guns out of enemies hands. Very strong."


    "Oh, don''t forget "literally so hot". I believe those were your exact words," my mind teases. I manage to keep a poker face despite it. "Uhm, for other frames," I babble, in an attempt to distance myself from Xaku, "there''s Dante, who''s a wizard librarian. Friends with Drusus, who runs the Leverian, the warframe museum thing. Protea is a time travel frame; she''s in a bubble with Parvos Granum." The Lotus raises her hand, cutting me off. "Parvos Granum is alive?" she asks, curious. "Yup, but I don''t remember what''s involved with the whole void time bubble thing he''s stuck in. Nef Anyo enacts something called the deadlock protocol which kicks the whole thing off. Sorry," I tell her.


    "It will be remedied soon. Regardless, I think we''ve gotten a little off track," she says, before I can rattle off any more half remembered facts. "I wanted to thank you for your information on the Grineer Queens, which I''ve done, and collect any new information that you may have remembered. What you''ve provided so far... while it is interesting, it will be more useful once you have the full details. Right now, every question you answer leads to three more." I nod, but my mood sours slightly.


    "You can''t just rattle off about a special interest. She''s the leader of a military. She doesn''t need ''fun facts''," reprimands one part of my mind. "Although, to be fair, that''s why we''re getting the surgery. Problem, solution," another part counters. "Emotions happen, regardless of logic. There''s no need to feel bad about feeling bad," says a third part. I shake my head slightly, and refocus on the sentient in front of me. "Right, well, I don''t have anything else for you." I give her a salute. "Ma''am." She gives me one more nod before her hologram fades, and once more, I''m left in her chambers alone with nothing but my thoughts.

 Time To Launch

    My eyes flick open, and I stare at the off white ceiling above me. "Today''s the day," I think, feeling more like a bundle of nerves than a functional human being. My body begs for the sleep that it failed to get when it had the chance; anxiety and dread and anticipation causing me to toss and turn all night, with only a toe in REM. Still, regardless of my low quality slumber, I''m still required to make my way to the hanger bay at O400 hours. Luckily, the TEPA''s are designed to be slept in, and while I didn''t normally wear it to bed, I had taken the opportunity to do so the night before, leaving mostly just quiet contemplation for the morning while me and Ko-lee ate our breakfasts. "It''s only supposed to be like, three days, right?" I ask Ko-lee. "Hm?" she responds distractedly, her food half way to her mouth. I give her a moment to process what I said, rather than repeat myself. "Oh, yeah," she continues after a moment.


    "Thereabouts. The hike itself is only about eight hours or so. It might take a bit longer going in than coming out, because we''ll be hauling supplies, but not by a lot. From my understanding, the bulk of the time should be spaceflight. From here to the junction, then through the blockade, and down to the planet." I already knew all of that from reading the info packet, but it''s nice to get confirmation without needing to refer to the text. That, and I just want to fill the empty space. Ko-lee seemed preoccupied working through something in her mind though, according to her furrowed brows and the dead air. "You okay?" I ask, reaching out for her free hand. She takes it, and squeezes back, but her eyes are looking past me. "You seem a bit distracted."


    "...sorry," she says, after a moment. "I''m just thinking over my choices for squad leader." I nod, but I''m not fully convinced. "And it''s totally not the poly thing?" I want to ask her. Still, now is absolutely not the right time to bring it up, and so I just continue the conversation as is. "Yeah, I don''t know who''d be the best fit, honestly. I mean... maybe we could be the first squad to not have a squad leader. Break the mold, and all that," I joke. "Maybe," Ko-lee murmurs, her words low energy. We finish our breakfast in silence.


    <hr>


    Luckily, by the time we make it to the rest of the squad in the hanger, the funky morning mood has made way for a slightly lighter one. "Less ''on the gallows'' type energy, more ''about to go on stage''. Technically an upgrade, I guess," I think bemusedly. "Space Trauma!" I say, projecting my voice as I approach the other three members of the squad. My voice bounces off the walls and ceiling of the hanger after a considerably delay, the relay itself echoing my own words back to me. "Space Trauma," I say at a much more reasonable level, "I hope you were all wearing your thinking caps last night. We''ve got something important we need to do, before our FO shows up. Someone must bear the Mantle of Responsibility." The subject is serious, but I attempt to deliver the lines with levity. From everyone''s expressions, I miss the mark by a mile.


    Nobody says anything for a few long seconds, and eventually Caz steps towards the middle of the circle. "I guess I''ll start then," he says awkwardly. "My vote is for Annie." I feel a weight settle in my stomach at his words, delivered as though they are a death sentencing. "Well... uhm. Okay," I say, as he steps back. I just about manage to stop myself from "thanking" him for his vote on pure reflex. "I am a bit curious about, like, why me, but that''s maybe something we can do later. Explain our reasoning for why we''re voting the way we did, sort of thing," I continue, a touch too quickly. I take a breath, trying to calm my heavily beating heart. "Uhm, I guess I''ll go next. Mine''s for Caz, and no, I''m not just voting for him ''cause he voted for me," I tell the squad.


    He furrows his brows, but I just give him him a shrug. Ella is the next in the clockwise rotation, and she straightens up, looking at all of us in turn before casting her vote. "Caz," she says, her tone somber. "Can we not do this like we''re executing someone?" I ask, watching Caz''s lips thin. "Recruit Nova is right," says someone off to our left, behind the dropship we''re all gathered near. The owner of the voice rounds the corner, and I get a good look at the Tenno. He has blue eyes, and scruffy brown hair, and if somebody told me he worked at a surf shop down in Laguna Beach I don''t think I would''ve batted an eye. "Being a squad leader is a responsibility, to be sure. But a competent squad will work as a unit. You succeed - or fail - together. That''s weight''s not the squad leader sole responsibility to bear, even if they are the one calling the shots." The Tenno reaches the end of his sentence, and leans against the side of the dropship casually.


    "I''m your temporary squad leader," says the man, with a relaxed demeanor. "You can call me Second Sergeant Letmin, or Sergeant. Just don''t call me sir, it makes me feel old," he says with a grin. I bite my tongue to prevent the "sir" that had become a part of my vocabulary after the last six months from slipping out. "Please, don''t mind me," he says, making a "continue" gesture with his hand. "Just pretend like I''m not here." I force my attention back to the squad, and to Ko-lee, who''s next in line. She looks around at everyone in the squad, then finally, locks eyes with me. She doesn''t say anything. "Why?" I ask. "You of all people know I''m not responsible enough for this." She gives me a smile. "I believe you once told me, ''if there is one thing you''re good at, it is making plans''." I scoff with faux outrage. "How dare you repeat thing thing I told you! Why, I never!"


    I''m still nervous, but the goofy behavior and the Sergeant''s words help lift the dour mood amongst the squad. Everyone''s attention shifts to Rease, who''s the last to vote, and the tiebreaker for me and Caz. "Well, I was gonna vote for Ko-lee actually," he confesses with a chuckle, "but I guess I have to pick one of these two instead." He looks back and forth between the two of us, his lips ever so slightly moving as he mouths something to himself. I have to remind myself to take a breath, and the 30 or so seconds it takes him to make a decision feel like hours. Finally, he nods as though having confirmed something to himself. "I''m voting Caz," he says, surety in his tone. Caz''s shoulders slump, but Rease gives him a friendly pat on the back. Caz sighs dramatically before straightening up, and while it''s clear in his eyes that he''s not the most excited about the outcome of the vote, he still seems to be in good spirits.


    "Well, that was fun," says the Sergeant, after a few moments. "Recruit Caz, you''re now the leader of Space Trauma." The Sergeant puts emphasis in odd places, making it sound more like "Speis Troma". Rease clarifies the pronunciation, and the Sergeant mouths it once before continuing. "Space Trauma. Right. Well, like I said, I''m just the temporary squad leader. Usually, the squad leader is point of contact between the squad and the commanding FO. I''m sort of playing both roles here, which normally wouldn''t be the case. Just, try to pretend I''m not literally in arms reach, and talk to Caz if you need something. Caz, you are free to lead." The Sergeant gives him a thumbs up, but Caz doesn''t respond immediately, breathing a touch too hard. He stares at all of us for a few seconds, but it doesn''t seem like he''s actually seeing us.


    "Caz," I say, and his gaze shits to me. "Listen man. I really do think you can do this. I didn''t just vote for you to counter your vote or anything. You... I''ll be honest, you were a bit of a prick when you first joined." It gets a chuckle out of him, and I smile before continuing. "But you relaxed, and you opened up. Remember that first match we played against Amarast? My plan was just ''shoot them fast'', but you came up with something real, something solid. It was killer man, and it didn''t just win it for us. It won it easily. I honestly think you''re the right fit for this role." I shoot him a cheeky grin before finishing. "Besides, if you fuck it up, we can always just vote for someone else." There''s a bit of laughter from the other squad mates, and I see Caz relax just a hair, smiling and nodding.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    "Alright," says the Sergeant, straightening up. "As you''ve all been informed, Mars is currently undergoing a pretty massive power struggle. It was in the hands of the Corpus until very recently, and is now currently transitioning into the hands of the Grineer. It''s their blockade that we''ll be moving through, but they don''t have the logistics in place to be very thorough. Still, that point in the operation is likely to be the most dangerous, even if that danger is minimal. Otherwise, the rest of the operation should go smooth." The Sergeant gives us all a relaxed smile. "Soon-to-not-be Recruits, it''s time to load up. Let''s stay out of the light, yeah?" He gives Caz a nod, and Caz reciprocates, a small "yeah" in response. "Yeah, okay," says Caz, a little louder, before turning to us.


    "Space Trauma, let''s... let''s recap on the mission directives. We are delivering supplies to an outpost behind enemy lines. We''ll be taking a dropship, piloted by... uhm." Caz falters, and the Sergeant''s voice echos out from the belly of the dropship. "That''s me, pulling triple duty on this one," he says. "Piloted by Second Sergeant Letmin," continues Caz, with confidence. "Are there any questions?" I raise my hand. "Yeah, how are we actually getting through the blockade? Like, what''s the plan there?" There''s silence for a moment as Caz''s eyes shift back and forth, clearly reading off a message from the Sergeant. "So, the dropship we''re taking," says Caz, gesturing to the ship behind him, "is one of theirs that we were able to obtain a while ago. If we''re lucky, then they''ll scan the ship, and it''ll be let through automatically. If we''re unlucky, they''ll stop us and ask for a confirmation of identity. The corresponding info is listed within the ship, and it''ll all take part over radio. So the long and short is, you''ll do nothing, and I''ll do all the hard work."


    We all chuckle, and Ella raises her hand. "What are we delivering, specifically?" she asks our squad leader, after he gestures at her. "Mostly the standard equipment. Rations, ordinance, that sort of thing. Their last few broadcasts have been a bit fuzzy during check in, so we''re bringing them some extra transmitter parts as well to hopefully get that cleaned up." He waits for a few moments, but nobody seems to have any further questions. "Great. Well, Space Trauma, let''s move out." We all make our way into the bulbous spaceship, stenciled with faded Grineer lettering. My eyes take in the outside one more time before I step on. The ship doesn''t have any guns, but entire thing is coated in excess, mismatched armor; patch jobs on patch jobs making the already lumpy form of the ship even more of a mess. "One of these days I''ll get to climb into a Liset," I think, before a thought occurs to me. "Wait, can a non-warframe even get in one of those things? They don''t really have doors, just the magnetic spinny thing. Double wait! The TEPA has magnets in it! Does that count? Can I board a Liset? Hmm."


    My mind mulls on the idea, as I get a glance of the inside of the ship. The dropship is basically one big empty room, with a small ladder leading up to a tiny gangway that stretches across the back, and to the door that leads to a barely-big-enough-for-two cockpit. It could be described as roomy, but with the six of us, and a months supply of rations, spare electronics, and ordinance on multiple hovercarts, there''s not a lot of wiggle room to be had. "Still more leg room than Alaskan economy," I think, before smiling at the thought. "All those lectures, and now we''re finally getting out in the field. Hell yeah," says Rease, squeezing his large frame into one of the seats underneath the gangway. "Maybe you''ll finally learn something," I joke. He just kicks back with a smile on his face. "What can I say, I''m a hands on learner," he responds, shooting me a wink. I try to ignore the flush I feel creeping up my neck towards my cheeks.


    "I''m glad we had as many classes as we did," Ella retorts. "This would''ve been overwhelming otherwise. I''ve never been on a spaceship, minus the one that took me up to Strata." Rease gives her a shrug. "Yeah, that much book learning was new for me. I''m used to just going for it, you know? ''Learning on the job'' was what my mom called it." I chuckle. "Yeah, maybe not when it involved guns though," I respond. He looks at me quizzically. "No, they definitely involved guns." His matter of fact delivery makes us all laugh, and it helps break up the last few bits of tension with the squad. We all do our best to make ourselves as comfortable as we can in the bucket seats while the ship''s engines rumble to life. "Alright Recruits, buckle up. Except for you, SL. I want you here, up front with me. Got some stuff I wanna talk to you about," says the Sergeant, crooking his finger towards Caz. Caz freezes half way to buckling, and undoes the one strap he''d had already buckled, before squeezing his way past the cargo, and climbing the up the ladder to the gangway, and to the cockpit of the ship.


    And then there were four," I think, as the ships does it''s best to shake itself apart. "Probably a lazy manifold bypass," says Rease, his ear cocked to the ship. "Shit patch job. I hope it was the Grineer and not one of us. Gallos rod reflux can cause a ship to explode." It''s at that moment the ship starts to lift off the ground, and the sudden jolt of movement causes me to gasp in panic for a moment, my mind convinced that we were in the process of exploding. Rease laughs, and Ko-lee shoots him a flat look, as the ship slowly pulls out of the hanger. "Don''t joke like that," she tells him, her words short. "I wasn''t joking though?" he responds, confused. Ko-lee''s mouth forms a silent O, and I feel the shift in my stomach as the ship slowly rotates us in the correct direction. Unlike the the previous dropship I''d been in, this one doesn''t have any windows, but there are screens welded to the metal bars holding up the gangway, with physical buttons that allow me to change to various camera views on the outside of the ship.


    I flick through camera after camera until I land on one that''s pointed in the opposite direction we''re travelling, and I watch as we drift out of the hanger and into space. The hanger is shrouded behind a glowing blue forcefield keeping in the air, which I now know is basically a specifically tuned version of the shield tech we''re all wearing on our bodies. The relay itself fills the frame, growing and growing in size as we continue to coast. "Fuck me that thing is big," I think, getting a chance to really take in the enormity of the orbital platform I had just spent nearly half a year on. Finally, it manages to fit all in frame at once, and I watch as it moves from taking up one hundred percent, to ninety percent, to fifty, to thirty, to ten. It shrinks and shrinks, until it''s barely an inch long, then to the size of a pixel, then a subpixel, and then finally, nothing at all. During the entire time I was watching the relay, the blue, white, and brown planet behind it never seemed to change size at all, nor the did the stars around seem to move. Without the right frame of reference, it had honestly looked like the relay itself shrank out of existence. I continue staring at the infinite for a bit, until Rease pokes me in the back.


    "It''s gonna be a few hours," he says. I tear my eyes away from cosmic darkness to look at him. He''s crumpled up in his seat in what looks like an incredibly uncomfortable position. "Few hours until what?" I ask. "Until we hit Lalande junction. Until then, it''s just stars." My gaze shifts back to the monitor. "Yeah well, stars are cool," I counter. He just snorts out a laugh. "Terior," he says, his eyes closed. He''d taught us a few slang terms from his smuggling days, and terior was an insult for those who spent most of their life planetside. There''s no heat behind his words though, and I smile. "Tractor jockey," I shoot back. Then I turn back to the camera, to watch as we drift through the black.

 Lalande Junction

    A few hours in, and even the majesty of the infinite universe can start to seem a touch dull when nothing is happening. I shift my head left, then right, stretching out my neck, before pulling my attention away from the tiny screen, and standing up to stretch. There''s not a lot of room to do so, but I use the ladder and metal of the gangway as an anchor to pull and twist. After a few minutes, I turn to sit back down. Unsurprisingly, nothing''s changed on the screen, and I start looking for other sources of entertainment within the spaceship. My eyes pass over the crumpled form of Rease in one of the bucket seats, and I lean over to Ko-lee on my right. "There''s no way that''s comfortable," I say, in an attempt to get some sort of conversation started. Ko-lee nods, giving Rease a glance, but other than a slight furrow in her brows, she doesn''t react. I have more than an inkling at what''s eating away at her, but rather than voice it, I shoot her a message.


    AN: Hey, chit for your thoughts?


    She locks eyes with me, and I give her my best, warm smile. I watch as her lips move, her throat and tongue forming the sounds, but not voicing them.


    KL: A stamp at least. Just thinking.


    I grin; the touch of lighthearted banter means that she''s unlikely to close off, but I still move forward with a delicate touch.


    AN: Is it about the stuff we didn''t talk about last night?


    She gives me a nod, her expression conflicted.


    AN: I sort of picked up on it. Did you come to any conclusions?


    Her eyes flick between me, and the squadmate behind, before another message comes in.


    KL: He''s not my type.


    She gives me a dry grin as I read it, and I take a few moments to try to parse the meaning underneath. Then I remember I can just ask her instead.


    AN: That''s fine. You don''t have to date him if you don''t want to. Is there a problem with that?


    Her small smile falters, and she furrows her brows at me, pure confusion on her face.


    KL: No, but you were talking about being interested in him, and I''m not, and wouldn''t that be a problem?


    Her subvocalizations are still silent, but the air is filled with the sound of shifting and rustling as she tries to emote along with her words. I look over to Ella, but she''s fully preoccupied by something on her headset, the far off look that signifies a lack of attention.


    AN: No, it''s not. You don''t have to date, or be physically involved with, every person that I do. There are different arrangements of polycule.


    "Too many, one might say," I think to myself. Every new "shape" of polycule has it''s own name, and beyond a handful, I can only remember a few (not that I''m convinced the labels would help). I impatiently wait for her to send a message back; an odd experience when I can see her edit it in real time.


    KL: But how? How does that work?


    A good question, with a frustrating non-answer attached to it. Like asking "2 + 2 = 4? How does that work?", there''s technically an answer I can provide, involving human psychology and the like, but the specifics are at best unhelpful, and at worst, actively confusing.


    AN: It just does. Maybe I decide to date Rease, and you don''t. Maybe you decide to date Ella, and I don''t. Maybe we both date Caz. Maybe all of that happens simultaneously, and then the others have their own arrangements. And while I would like to specifically reiterate that I don''t think it''d be a good idea to get entangled with squad mates, all of those are totally valid options. That''s just what polyamory is.


    I can tell my answer didn''t get at the heart of the problem by her frustrated look.


    KL: But then wouldn''t you get jealous? If I dated someone, and you didn''t?


    "Or to put it another way, she''s afraid of jealousy if I date someone and she doesn''t," I realize. I take a second to formulate my thoughts.


    AN: I wouldn''t get jealous if you dated someone that I wasn''t. Why would I? If I also wanted to, then I''d ask them out myself, and if I didn''t want to, I wouldn''t. And if they said no, well, that''s just how life is sometimes.


    She frowns as she reads my message, but I''m hit with a metaphor, and send it off before she responds.


    AN: Okay, say I like Ella, and I want to date her, but she turns me down. And then, you two end up dating. Would I be bummed? Sure. But, at the same time, it''s not a big deal, you know? It''s a big solar system, and there''s a lot of people out there. Putting a single person on a pedestal like that, it''s not healthy. Also, if you two were dating, she''d presumably make you happy, which in my eyes is a good thing. I want my partners to be happy, regardless of whether it comes from me or not.


    I wait as she reads the block, and her eyes dim, as though upset, or maybe tired. Or resigned.


    KL: I''m not trying to feel jealous on purpose though.


    Clearly stated; she does feel jealous, she doesn''t know what to do, and she''s worried it''ll be a problem. I can see it in her eyes.


    AN: I know. When it comes to emotions, sometimes, things happen. Early on, back when I was just a teen, I would feel jealousy. Sometimes at the same time as I felt other stuff. It was weird and confusing to feel positive and negative emotions at the same time. But I didn''t let them fester. I''d talk about them, and eventually, they stopped. But, I don''t know. If I hadn''t been able to get a handle on it, then maybe polyamory wouldn''t have been my bag.


    I sigh, the smile on my face gone. I hate not having a one-size-fits-all for this, but I''m trying to be healthy about it regardless.


    KL: But I like you. If I''m not poly, we wouldn''t be able to date.


    She''s not wrong, and it hurts to be the bearer of bad news, but I do my best to rally.


    AN: I''m sorry I don''t have some secret. I practiced, and that works for some people. Sometimes you can logic your way through emotions you don''t want. Like, if I always find myself angry at something inconsequential, I can work on myself to change that. But some people just aren''t built in the same way. But listen, regardless of what decision you come to, whether you think this is something you can work to change, or can''t, I''ll be here. I''m not going anywhere, Ko-lee.


    She grips my hand tight.


    <hr>


    The trip had been long enough for me to get some rest, even in the awkward metal seats. I had woke up an hour ago, and was making changes in my headset to try to get the UI to match up to the one in game. I''m making good progress; the health and shields are identical, but I''m having trouble getting the magnetics to tell me what I''m equipped with, even though they supposedly know that sort of thing. I''m six layers deep in a config file when the speaker in the ship crackle to life. "Passengers, thank you for flying Tenno Cruise Lines," echos out the tinny voice of the Sergeant. "If you direct your attention forward and to the left, you just might be able to make out Lalande Junction." His tone is irreverent, but I flick through the cameras on the ship anyways, in an attempt to get a glimpse at the structure. I''m not entirely sure of what to expect; part of me is still imagining the tiny little junction that you''d fight a specter in in the game.


    I knew that wasn''t likely though. It hadn''t match up with the bits and pieces that I had heard from Rease, and so I''m confident that there''s some level of deviance from the video game. However, I''m entirely unprepared for what appears on the monitor. If I had to use one word... monumental. If I had a few more words, and was feeling charitable, it''d probably be the phrase "an undertaking in size that could only be matched by the ego''s of those who believe themselves gods". Alternatively, "a fuck off big mess" comes to mind. It''s clearly the same sort of design ethos of an aytan sculpture; thin, numerous pieces in constant motion, with lights and extruded structures everywhere. The cocksure older brother aesthetic of the Tenno design philosophy that I had spent the last half a year surrounded by.


    The first thing to draw the eye are the rings orbiting the central body. Curved to almost spikes; a sense of accidental danger, as though the mere act of building to spec just "happens" to exude harm. The central construction is hollow, but is occasionally filled with pulses of energy that flow from tip to tip. If there was an atmosphere, I could imagine each flash of light being accompanied by the charging sound from Evangelion. The lights dotting the structure are like the lights of a city, twinkling against the cool blues and grays of the structure. "How does the Solar Rail work?" asks Ella, her eyes glued to her own monitor. "Well, they''re fully automatic," Rease explains. "You pass through the rings, which does some stuff, and then every 10 minutes or so it fires off. When it fires, it translates you over a certain distance to the destination. So, for example, if we went through the rings, parked our ass right at the end, and waited, we''d always end up in the same spot on the other side. If we burned hard Solwise 10 minutes, then we''d be 10 minutes Solwise from that first destination." I have a million and 1 questions, but Ella continues before I have the chance to jump in.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    "But what is it actually like? Actually going through?" she presses. Rease shrugs. "It''s fast. One second you''re here, the next, you''re there." He ponders his own statement for a second, his eyes unfocused. "Actually, that''s not really true. I think, if I was being poetic, it''s like if someone took a single second and stretched it out. You feel every moment, but it''s as if someone jammed too many extra moments in." He snaps his fingers; remembrance. "Oh! There''s also the Gaze!" His casual phrasing sends a shiver down my spine. "Sorry, the what?" I ask, a touch more forcefully than I intend. "Well, most people who take a rail for the first time, they say that when they passed through, that someone was staring at them. That they''d been examined, inside and out. You know that feeling you get when someone''s looking at the back of your head? Like that, times a million," he explains nonchalantly. His words fill me with an unease that no one else seems to have.


    "Did you get that feeling on your first go?" asks Ko-lee. Rease looks thoughtful for a moment. "I don''t know. Probably. It was so long ago, I don''t really remember it." I try to put the thought of Wally examining us out of my mind, and my eyes watch the camera as we move closer and closer to the megalithic structure. My eyes catch on a ship; Corpus make. The angular frame and serif''d glyphs on it''s body make it immediately recognizable as the capitalistic faction. I point out the ship to the others, and Ella frowns. "I hope they don''t bother us," she says to no one in particular. "They won''t," Rease responds confidently. "Don''t get me wrong, most conflict ends up happening when ships are entering or leaving. You can only pass through one at a time, otherwise automatic defenses will end up getting deployed by the junction. All those ships that end up floating around, waiting for their turn... sometimes stuff happens. But minor movement like us, we''re basically nothing."


    "Also," he continues, "Grineer space and Corpus space have their own rules and regulations, and you need to do what they say, but messing up doesn''t lead to weapons hot. Most of the time, they live and let live. Minus a giant fine. Or maybe debt internment. Or whatever. But the Corpus let the Grineer pass, and vica versa all the time. Rarely actual fights, even if you run." He smile shrinks a little. "Fights in space are a mess." His words spark a half remembered Issac Arthur video; of propulsion and ballistics and armor that ultimately boiled down to "not worth it". Of course, that video had assumed standard physics, and not hyper future clarktech, but even still, I can imagine some of the same logic applies.


    "The dogfights in railjacks aren''t realistic space sims, but how much of that will carry over? Is it meant to be hand wavy video game logic, or will it end up actually being that in some cases?" I wonder. My mind wanders to The Expanse, and the many many "dogfights" in that show, before Rease pipes back up. "Also, this is Tenno space," he says, pointing to a dot flying around that I can barely see. He presses a button next to the screen, and suddenly, the UI lights up with squares and labels, distances and colors. Tracking info identifying some, but not all of the ships. "That''s probably a warframe," he says, pointing back at the dot. There''s no label attached to it, but a green square follows it around, making it easier to track with the eyes. "Honestly, I''m more worried about the blockade on the other side," he says, leaning back in his chair. "So, you''re saying people don''t fight around the junctions ''cause of, what, mutually assured destruction?" I ask, shifting my attention back to the squadmate. He considers my words for a moment.


    "Yeah, I guess that''s a pretty good term for it. Really, I''d say it''s more like a clogged injection line." Ko-lee quirks an eyebrow at his engine metaphor, and he stops slouching. "No, seriously. You have fuel going in, but it''s low quality crap, so some of it gets stuck. The line gets weighed down from the kink, and the polyalloy tube just starts expanding from the pressure," he explains, his hands miming the action. "Then, pop! The tube breaks out of the coupling. The engine dies, the ship stops moving while they have to clean up the mess. They flush the tube, maybe swap it out, and shove it back in. They don''t address the problem, of course, so it just starts all over." He points to the screen, at a ship passing out one end of the superstructure. "That''s what happens. They let ships through, both sides do. And maybe they have a small skirmish here or there, but nothing big. And then they hit a tipping point. There''s a knockout round, and one side wins, and the other limps home to lick it''s wounds." He twirls his finger in the air.


    "Around and around it goes. Like the junctions, circling the system. Just a different colored boot on your neck." We''re all quiet for a moment, and I just watch the junction get bigger and bigger as we approach it. "We need better fuel, is what you''re saying," states Ko-lee. Rease nods his head, but doesn''t elaborate. Still, we all seem to be of roughly the same mind; the system is fucked, and it''ll stay that way unless something big happens. "Although what that would be, who the fuck knows. Humans suck; maybe this place is doomed to always suck. A whole universe built for conflict, for gamers to grind in," I think to myself. "Do people live on the junction?" asks Ella, her eyes locked on the lights of the ring. "Yeah," says Rease, nodding. "Tons of people. I even lived on a rail for a bit. Procyon. Depending on who you ask, they''re either the safest, or most dangerous places to live." Ella tilts her head, her eyebrows furrowed. "Why?" she asks.


    "Well, the junctions will never be destroyed. They have automatic defenses that outstrip anything anyone''s been able to build, and they unleash if they''re ever attacked. And who''d want to destroy one? It''s the only way to get around the system. It''s not like we can recreate them. So you''ll never have to worry about getting caught in the crossfire, unlike a relay," Rease explains. "...however?" I prod, waiting for the other shoe to drop. "However, there''s nothing stopping the Corpus from snatching everyone up and throwing them into a debt colony, or from the Grineer stomping through the tunnels and massacring people for the hell of it," he states, a sour look on his face. "Not here though," says Ella, with conviction. Rease shakes his head. "No, not here," he responds. "Lalande junction might be one of the safest. It''s one of the only junctions fully in Tenno space. All the others... well," he tapers off, and gives a shrug. "I wonder if we''ll get the chance to go inside in the next few years," says Ella, voicing my thoughts. "Fingers crossed," I say.


    <hr>


    Even thought the Sergeant had given an announcement as we approached, it still took hours for us to actually "get" there. The size of the junction had continued to grow, continuously smashing my ideas on how big the structure actually is, and then we had to wait in a queue before we were actually able to enter the hollow interior. But a glance at the cameras show that we''re finally entering the hollow internal structure, after a long wait. The speaker crackles, and the four of us hear the Sarge''s voice once again. "We''re late in the cycle, so we''ll be jumping basically right after we leave the rail line. Once we''re on the other side, I''ll keep comms open so you all get to hear your illustrious squad leader talk us through the blockade. And keep your ears open, it''s a good learning experience! Normally, it falls on the pilot, but today, you''r''e all getting some on the job experience!"


    My heart picks up the pace just a smidge, as I''m suddenly reminded that I''m about to pass through the void once again. "Although, this isn''t my first time. Maybe there won''t be a Gaze?" I tell myself. I know I''m being more hopeful than realistic. Still, the tinge of fear conflicts with the excitement of effectively FTL space travel, along with the apprehension of facing down the Grineer blockade. I don''t have a great idea of what my face looks like, but I''d imagine it all sort of balances out to looking somewhat constipated. "I hope it''s exciting," says Ko-lee, her eyes closed, her head resting against the back of the chair. "So far, space has been a lot of sitting around and waiting."


    "Now you''re starting to get it," says Rease, his voice strained as he performs pull ups using the gangway. He drops down, and plops himself in a chair next to the three of us. "There''s a perfect size for a ship. What you want is something big enough to walk around, but not so big that it takes hours to cross it. But a little corvette like this?" He shakes his head, clicking his tongue dismissively. "It''s barely a spaceship. More like a space dinghy." It looks like he''s gonna extol more of the virtues of the perfect spaceship, but he''s interrupted by the low fidelity voice of our field officer. "ETA 15 seconds. I want butts in chairs, recruits. And no vomiting. That''s an order." I can''t tell if Sarge is joking or not, and Rease''s knowing nod only confuses me more. Sarge''s static-y voice counts down the remaining time. "Five, four, three, two, one..."


    And then I feel everything open wide. The air in the ship, my eyes, my mind. It''s almost as though everything, for a moment, is ephemeral. It''s the feeling of having just woken up, where''s there''s still confusion between what''s dream and what reality, but it pervades every atom of the ship. I don''t get the chance to look around, because it''s only an instant, but it''s a long instant. And then...


    A chuckle. And three words that sound like my voice touch my mind.


    "See you soon."


    And then I find myself turning to look at my squadmates. I open my mouth to ask if they felt him, if they heard him too... but the words die on my lips. I don''t know what to say. "Did the eldritch entity brush your mind as well, or was that just me?" Rease is flicking through cams, looking unbothered by the trip, entirely focused on the screen before him. Ella, on the other hand looks a touch perturbed, while Ko-lee... looks angry? "Are you okay?" I ask. She takes a deep breath, closing her eyes for a long second, holding her breath. Then, she lets it out, relaxing. "Did you feel it?" she whispers, her eyes still closed. "Feel Wally?" I wonder. "That can''t be what she''s talking about."


    "It was like something huge, the size of Sol, looking at me. And I was even smaller than now. An ant. A mite," says Ella, her face pale. Ko-lee nods, and there''s still hints of anger in her body language; a tenseness of wanting to fight, but being unable to. The same energy I''ve seen more than once. I''ve felt more than once. We don''t get a chance to converse any longer, as the speakers crackle to life once more. "Hope nobody got sick. I want ears open, and eyes on cams, recruits. We''re passing through the blockade."

 Landing Sequence

    There''s tension in the ship''s hold, as we all listen to the subtle static of the speaker. On the camera, I''m able to identify Grineer ships of various sizes floating around in space, and I find myself needing to continuously readjust the number of them in my head. "Like Jita 4-4," I think, as I watch the various red and yellow icons on the screen drift around. Still, with all the build up of the blockade in my mind, I had been expecting the ships to be packed tight like sardines. Instead, there''s huge swaths of space between each individual ship, enough that my gut instinct is telling me we could probably just go for it without there being any actual issue.


    "Although, that''s probably just what they want us to think," I realize, as I stare at the armada. "They''re so far away," Ella notes, as we silently drift towards the red planet behind them. I nod in agreement, but Rease shakes his head before speaking. "They don''t need to be that close to us to shoot us down. Any sabot rounds they fire our way will put holes in our hull before we hit full burn. And even then, they have plenty of time lead their shots. It''s not easy to change direction in space, unless you''re moving real slow."


    "Or if you''ve got maglock with a bigger ship," says the Sarge, his voice clear for once. We all look up to find him standing on the gangway above us, and he casually makes his way over to the ladder, before sliding down it with ease, coming down to eye level to the four off us. "You were a rail jockey, right Thomoni?" asks the FO. Rease nods, but there''s an inquisitive look on his face; likely curiosity as to what or why the Sarge is mentioning it. "Then it makes sense you wouldn''t really know about a maglock. It''s very much faction tech; something you need infrastructure to deploy," he explains, leaning against one of the supply carts.


    "As Tenno, we don''t often get a chance to deploy stuff like that, but we also don''t get in to dogfights like the other two do. We can utilize it around our relay''s, but they have mobile platforms for that sort of thing. The bigger carriers can lock on to the smaller ships, and the smaller ship can increase the ''tension'' of what''s basically a magnetic rope," he says, making air quotes around "tension". "Basically, it lets you take corners in space in a way you wouldn''t normally be able to. Of course, the fighter needs to be outfitted with grav systems tuned for that sort of thing, otherwise you just end up getting pancaked against a wall on the first high G turn." Rease nods, a thoughtful look on his face.


    "I didn''t know about that. We always tried to stay under the radar. We rarely ended up in big scraps, and if we did..." His words trail off, and there''s a flash of pain on his face, almost too quick to notice, before his expression shifts back to interested neutrality. The Sarge continues, either having not noticed or just good at pretending he didn''t. "You''ll learn more about that sort of thing if you end up on the officer tracks, but it''s not information that operatives or agents need in their day to day." I''m reminded of the way the player''s ships move in game. "What about what the warframes fly? Do those need the same tech?" The Sarge''s ever present smile dims slightly, replaced by a complicated expression. "The Liset''s? Orokin tech. Sort of a special case." I nod understandingly.


    "Tag line for the warframes, honestly," I think to myself. "Man, I''d love to get my hands on-" says Rease, before he''s interrupted by a gruff voice emanating from the speakers. "Gransgort forvet chee uk chee, rudor gar kushunhund, gar ran''s rav awklogruogashun. Res neer to bregrer for hunspefshun," it says. Sarge groans, muttering a quick "damn it," before throwing himself up the ladder, two rungs at a time. "Remember what we talked about Caz!" he yells, only a moment before he disappears into the cockpit, closing the door behind him. I quickly navigate menus and submenus, pulling up the Grinesh translation feature before any more words come out of the speaker. Caz''s unmistakably shaky voice responds, in what is clearly uncertain Grinesh.


    "Control, this is TC-313, we should be authorized. Try scanning us again." I catch myself holding my breath, as though just the sound of air leaving my lungs down in the hold would somehow pass through the radio and give us away. "I hope he just sounds like he''s regular nervous and not like, ''I''m the enemy faction, don''t notice me'' nervous," I think, while I wait for the response. There''s a painful moment of silence, before the stressed vocal cords of the Grineer emanate once more. "We did scan you, TC-313. Your tags have been flagged. This ship was marked lost, potential Tenno interference," he says, with mechanical efficiency. My mouth is dry, but I''m locked to my chair, unable to pull away even a fraction of my attention to look for the water that I know is on the ship. My eyes are frozen on the screen, on the tiny, outlined ships drifting against the rust red of our destination.


    "Will they just fire on us?" I wonder. "Blow us up before we have a chance to retaliate? Or will they board us, and tear us to pieces the moment they realize we''re Tenno? Like fish in a barrel. Or... or something else." My mind spins out, coming up with darker and darker options, the tips of my fingers buzzing from the overly deep breaths I''m taking in an attempt to calm my racing heart. Every muscle is primed, every neuron firing at max capacity, but I''m unable to do anything but listen to the back and forth between Caz and Grineer Flight Control. "Then someone logged it incorrectly," responds Caz. His sentence is cut off just a hair earlier than would seem natural, and I can''t help but wonder if it''s nerves causing his finger to slip off the transmission button, or if the Sarge had waved him off from continuing down that route.


    "That''s why we''re sending over an enforcement crew. Prepare for boarding," says Control. There''s a distinctive click that causes me to wince; the sound of the radio connection ending, like a death knell echoing in the belly of the ship. My head feels a touch light, and I find my hands resting on my guns, my lifeline for the coming conflict. "Come on, Caz, you had one job," I mutter darkly in English. Ko-lee shoots me a look, and I''m hit with a flush of embarrassment as I''m reminded I''m no longer the only one who knows the language. "Sorry," I say, chagrined. "Just blowing off steam." Which is entirely the truth. I know it''s not really Caz''s fault; our tags were out of date, and it''s likely there''s very little he could''ve done to actually convince the Grineer to let us pass, but my mind latched on to the simplest answer before anything else.


    Ella watches the exchange between me and Ko-lee, before tilting her head. I wave her off, a small shake, indicating that it''s nothing. "Just complaining," I tell her. "Don''t mind me." Rease grunts, pulling himself to his feet, before grabbing his Furis. He''s checking it over, but he looks entirely unbothered; ice cold, in a way I''m envious of. "You''re not worried, Rease?" I prod, trying to relax my sweat slicked grip on my Braton. He responds with a casual shrug, and a quick shake of the head. "Not the first time my fuel''s been replaced with shit," he says. The phrasing is so matter of fact that I can''t stop a bubble of laughter from spilling out of me; something between a snort and a choked gasp.


    "What? What does that mean?" I ask, the mix of emotions in me making me feel off kilter. "You know, like, instead of fuel, you''ve got poop in your engines? So your ship can''t move," he explains slowly. It''s clearly in jest, and his emotional stability gives me a pillar to lean on, and play against. "It''s called a metaphor?" he continues, his expression guileless. "Yes, I know what a metaphor is," I respond, my grin a touch too wide on my face. "Very classy." I can feel the shift in my body from despair to... something else. Maybe a sort of mania sneaking up on me while I wait for the inevitable conflict; that reckless fuck-it-we-ball attitude focused solely on the now, willing to take action regardless of consequence.


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    A crackle in the speakers causes me to jump once more, every nerve alight, and my eyes snap towards the screen, trying in desperation to see if perhaps the boarders had already reached us while I wasn''t paying attention. Instead of hearing Control''s bored mechanical certainty, or Caz''s nervous Grinesh, I hear the Sarge echo out into the hold. It''s confident, almost overly so; the voice of someone who knows that they''re in the right, of someone trying real hard not to enjoy the power they have, and failing. "Control, this TC-313, we have orders from Admiral Boril, authorization code 688. Confirm." The silence stretches on and on, for nearly a full 20 seconds, before the voice of Control responds. "Authorization code 688 confirmed. You''re clear for landing. Glory to the Queens."


    "Glory to the Queens," says Sarge, and I melt in my chair, boneless, my puppet wires cut. "Fuck me, that sucked," I say, my hands shaking slightly from the adrenaline. "Sorry about that," responds Sarge through the speakers. "Looks like we''ll have to decommish this puppy when we get back. We''re coming down in a second." I can feel the ship rotating to some new vector, and a gentle force as we start accelerating, but I''m too tired to check the cameras to verify our exact heading. It only takes a minute or two, and once we''re on course, the door to the cockpit swings open. "So, Space Trauma, how are we feeling?" asks the Sarge, a teasing lilt to his words. Rease barks out a laugh, and Ella looks pale. "I feel like I''m ready for another nap," I tell the Sarge, as he reaches the bottom of the ladder. He chuckles, but before he can say anything, Ko-lee speaks up.


    "What was the code?" she asks, her eyes searching. The Sarge steps a touch closer, giving room for Caz as he makes his way down the ladder with less ease than the FO. When he reaches the bottom, I''m able to see his expression; tense, for obvious reasons. The Sarge gives Ko-lee a lazy shrug. "No idea," he responds, in answer to her question. "Caz couldn''t solve this, so he passed it up the chain to me, and I passed it up the chain to my boss. Obviously it meant something to someone over there, but we''ll probably never know." He looks unbothered by the knowledge; our lives and his in the hands of a three digit code that meant nothing to any of us. Headquarters Ex Machina.


    The whole thing leaves a sour taste in my mouth. In general, the lack of control - of having to act on choices that I have no input on, of decisions being made on high before getting passed down to us without explanation - isn''t something I''m a fan of, but it''s also something I had already come to terms with months ago, so the feeling doesn''t linger. "So now what?" asks Ko-lee, her gaze jumping between Caz and the Sarge. "Now we drift to the planet. At half burn, should take us about 12 hours. My plan is to snag some food, and kick back for some shut eye before the hike. You''re free to join me," he says. The hint of focus and seriousness that the Sarge had shown earlier is entirely gone, once more replaced with his more relaxed demeanor. "Hell yeah!" shouts Rease, his voice filling the ship''s hold. "Let''s eat!"


    <hr>


    Once again, my eyes flutter open, this time to the sound of something outside our ship. It takes me a few seconds to realize that it''s something, rather than the nothingness of space, and I check the cameras to confirm my suspicion. We''re passing through the atmosphere of Mars, and I can see dunes and cliffs stretching out miles, with tiny oasis'' dotted here and there. The haze of heat warps the air, and the sand fluctuates between reds, browns, and blacks in large patches, but I''m unable to make out any fine details using the camera from this high up. I settle back in my chair, doing my best to ignore the rattling of the engine as we slowly descend to the ground. A quick glance around at my squadmates shows that the Sarge and Caz are both missing.


    "How''s our pilot doing?" I ask Ko-lee, over the roar of the wind, the groan of the hull, and the complaints of the engine. "We''re not dead yet," she grins. I chuckle, and watch via camera over the next few minutes, as the ship slows and slows, before finally unfolding legs to reach out to touch down on the ground. There''s a rough jolt at the final step, and I hear a yelp of pain on my right. I look over to see Ella holding the back of her head, looking frustrated. "Sorry!" I hear the voice of Caz, through the cockpit door. Only a few moments later, it swings open, his expression sheepish. "Sorry, about the rough landing. I cut the engines too early," he explains, his cheeks red under the blocky Corpus tattoo''s. "I''ve had worse," responds Rease, throwing himself to his feet. "I haven''t," I hear Ella mutter, and I don''t even bother fighting the smile that forms on my face.


    A quick space Ro Sham Bo tourney, and the six of us make our way down the ramp, and out into the Martian sunlight. The supplies are being pulled by Caz, a train of hovercarts that follow after us like obedient ducklings. Due to the tech, it''s not as heavy as it should be, but with all three linked up, the resistance is like wearing a heavy backpack. I take the time to look around at the planet, this time without a screen in between us. "Very red," is the prevailing thought. Underfoot, the incredibly fine sand crunches like cornstarch, and the breeze is warm and fast, whipping up small little dust devils that last for mere moments before settling down. I take a deep breath and smell dry bitterness in the air, almost like dust, or cardboard. Underneath are notes of oil and rust, which I assume can be attributed to the decaying Grineer structures dotted about the place, and even fainter is the smell of something burning, and ionic charge, like a lightning storm miles and miles away.


    "Squad leader," I call out. Caz straightens up, a single eyebrow raised. "Yes?" he asks, confusion clear on his face. "What''s with all the Grineer structures dotted about? Why are they rusted if they only just lost control of the planet?" He looks around at the empty containers and broken emplacements, partially melted wires half buried in the sand, and the ajar door at the tunnel entrance into the cliff, before he shifts his gaze over to the Sarge. "Do you really want to pass that up the chain?" asks the Sarge, a bemused look on his face. I take a breath to rescind my question, to tell Caz not to worry, but the Sarge holds a finger out, shutting me down. It''s clear Caz is actually taking the time to consider it, in whether there''s tactical value in the information, versus casual interest, and we all slowly warm up underneath the sunlight while we wait, until finally he nods his head.


    "I need to know. The rust indicates it''s old equipment, but the Grineer were just here," he states confidently. "It may be that some quality of the planet or the sand is causing equipment to appear to age quickly. I need to know if it actually is old, and to be expected, or if this equipment is recent, and we should be on guard." The Sarge gives him an approving nod. "I like your reasoning," he says, causing Caz to smile. "And good call; if you don''t know something, and it could threaten the squad, then you don''t guess, you ask." The Sarge turns to look at the equipment around us, one hand shielding his eyes from the sun. "First of all, you should always be on guard," says Sarge, before continuing. "But in this case, it''s old equipment. The Grineer and Corpus have fought back and forth over Mars a lot, possibly more than any other piece of territory. So lot''s of places will have a mix of both faction''s equipment, new and old. In our case, we''ll only really be seeing Grineer equipment. These caves are very intentionally out of the way. They''re not strategically useful for the other two factions, but they are for us. easy to hide out in, and close enough for recon purposes."


    He gestures to the doorway, the darkness obscuring the entrance to a tunnel in the cliff face. "Normally, we''d have an operative to lead us in, but like I mentioned before, they''re having radio issues. It got even worse as we passed the mile mark; atmospheric scattering is wreaking havoc on transmissions." His body language is relaxed, unconcerned. "The scattering is expected, but it means that we can''t reach HQ until we get these installed," he says, reaching into the supply cart. He pulls out what appears to be box full of random metal scrap, but the labeling on the side clearly denotes it as Comm Array Replacement Parts. "Alright, Space Trauma!" he says, tossing the box back into the cart with a grin. "Pick up your feet! We''ve got a long hike ahead of us."

 Martialis

    We make our way past the the broken door, and into the dimly lit stone tunnel. The light from the sun stretches inwards, reaching beams as far in as it can, but as we progress farther and farther, shadows overtake the light. Before it gets too dark, Sarge lights what appears to be an LED lamp, casting the space in a bright, clinical white. The light of the lamp causes our shadows to dance against the walls; each divot and protrusion leading to endless movement by our 2D selves. The breeze from the outside follows us in as well, occasionally rushing down the hall, picking up notes of clay as it does so. The floor of the tunnel is relatively flat, but still needs some attention to avoid tripping over cracks and the like.


    Luckily, the train of hover carts has no issue, trailing behind us as we begin the long hike through the tunnels. It''s only a few minutes into the hike that Ella, near the head of the group, let''s out a squeak. My hands reach towards my gun, but the perpetrator scampers past only a moment later, causing me to relax. A small little rat thing scurry''s past at mach 5, sprinting towards the entrance like it''s life depends on it. We all stand there for a moment, motionless, as we watch the creature disappear around the bend. "Anyone know what the was?" I call out. "I-I do," responds Ella, her face a touch red. "It just... it caught me off guard, is all. I knew it was supposed to be fast, but it came out of the dark so quickly." We all start off once again, and she continues explaining, her voice echoing down the tunnel. "They''re called conits, but most people call them sand pobbers. I don''t think they''re actually related to pobbers, they just sort of look like them. They spend their life sprinting out of the caves for food at night, then sprinting back inside for safety."


    Rease chuckles. "Someone should get the little guy a watch. It''s not nighttime yet," says Rease, glancing back the way we came. "You a fan of the little guys or something?" Ella shrugs. "I was having a hard time falling asleep last night- wait, uhm... 2 night ago? 1 and half nights...?" she says, clearly trying to determine how much time it''d actually been since we took off. "Before we left. I knew we were going to Mars, and so I just did some extra research; I wanted to see what sort of flora and fauna was here. If there was anything we should be aware of." Ko-lee nods approvingly. "Good call, mouse," Ko-lee says to the smaller squad mate, eliciting a blush. Ko-lee doesn''t seem to notice, and continues. "Is there anything else we should be aware of?"


    "Desert skates for sure," I mention offhandedly. While the game didn''t feature conits, it did at least feature desert skates; a neutral, sting ray creature on the Martian tilesets. An enthusiastic nod from Ella confirms it. "They can swim through the sand, and they usually attack in groups of two to four. When they''re underground, they can shoot bolt''s from their tails," she says seriously. "The best way to deal with a skate is to get to high ground; somewhere solid. They can''t dig through stone." I half listen to the words, my mind recalling every time I''d accidentally steamrolled over one of the creatures in game. They were so unthreatening, I hadn''t even realized they could be aggressive at all; most of my desert skate kills were incidental in nature. "And that''s all?" asks Ko-lee. Ella hums for a moment, before giving an embarrassed grin. "I actually fell asleep while I was doing research," she confesses. "There''s probably more, but I don''t know of any."


    "Yeah, I''d imagine," I respond. "Only two animals for a whole planet doesn''t seem like quite enough for an ecosystem. Especially since the Orokin probably created a bunch to populate the planet or whatever." I''m about to ask Caz, but I get distracted as my gaze catches on a pile of newish Corpus gear piled up at an intersection in the tunnel. "Gear stolen by the operatives?" I wonder. "Or maybe the Corpus occupied these tunnels at some point." Caz, last in line, passes by the equipment, and points to it, speaking loudly to reach the four of us. "We have to pick that up on the way back," he says. There''s murmured assent from the rest of us, and we continue further in, the sound of out feet echoing down the tunnel.


    <hr>


    Hours of hiking later, and after more than one break to switch who''s pulling the supply carts (currently Rease), I shoot a question to Ella, who had effectively become our Martian guide. "So, are there still like, Martian people?" I ask. "Colonies, and what not?" The game only featured a few locations that had people; Fortuna and Cetus being the main two. There was also the Entrati on Deimos, but they were sort of a special case. Still technically people, but also 10 foot tall infested people, and also also, there was only the five of them. Except for Loid, down in the basement. The Zaramin had the Holdfast''s, but they were ghosts, first and foremost, and also the Zaramin wasn''t currently around. Duviri also had people puttering about, but they were storybook characters, and also in a different dimension.


    Regular, normal people is maybe the biggest difference between the games and real life, and experiencing that is fulfilling in a way I can''t describe. "Maybe it''s because the game always sort of felt like every single person existed just to contribute to the endless war. You were fighting for ''the solar system'', but you only really got to see the solar system through a scope. Actually being able to interact with people and experience the culture makes it feel like there''s something worth fighting for. Not just fighting for the nebulous good, but for something concrete. Something real," I consider. Ella nods, and I pull my focus back towards her. "Nowhere near here, of course, but there''s settlements here and there. Less than Earth, as a lot of the original Orokin infrastructure was destroyed, or stripped for parts by the Grineer and the Corpus, but there''s definitely a few holdouts."


    "Yeah," interjects Rease from the back of the group. "There''s actually a pretty big city, near the north pole." A beam of light that had snuck it''s way through a crack in the ceiling falls across his face as he passes underneath it. "There''s an ocean up there. Lots of orange plants," he continues. "Orange plants?" I ask, confused and interested. He nods. "Yeah, it''s something about the minerals, I think. They taste really good though. Oh, and the women-" A deep, reverberating growl, like the grinding of rocks, rolls through the air, bringing the six of us to a halt. I shoot a look at Caz, intent in my eyes, my hands hovering over my Braton. I''m not the only one prepared for some sort of combat, and I can tell from his rapid lip movements that he''s subvocalizing a message to the FO.


    I glance at the Sarge, but find no tension, just bemusement. "That''s probably a good sign," I think, the tension falling off my shoulders. "It''s a lakotay," says Caz, after about 10 seconds or so. "Apparently it''s a Martian creature that eats tunnels through the mountains. Big, scary looking, but mostly harmless." I look around at the tunnel we''re in, maybe 8 or 10 feet in diameter, and imagine the worm from Dune digging it''s way towards us. "What does ''mostly harmless'' mean?" presses Ko-lee, her brows furrowed. "It means that they''re blind. They won''t eat you on purpose, but they will eat you on accident if you''re standing in front of them. You''re a lot easier to chew through than the rocks," he explains, clearly unhappy about the idea. "They navigate via sound. Vibration, to be specific. Hence, the groan."


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    "So, if I see one, I should yell at it?" questions Rease, a goofy grin on his face. Caz smiles, but shakes his head. "You won''t be loud enough," Caz responds. "Besides, if you were, it might think you''re a hot lady rock worm, and head straight towards you," he finishes with a smirk. We all start walking again, and as we continue the trek, he elaborates on the creature. "The groans are meant to vibrate through the earth as a way for them to communicate. Running equipment attracts them, ''cause apparently it can sound like other worms, and explosions scare them off." Rease nods sagely. "So what you''re saying is, like most problems, it''ll disappear if I throw a grenade at it."


    We all chuckle, as we slowly make our way down the twisting tunnels. "Yeah, well, if you''re planning on trying that, use more than one," says Caz, eliciting another round of laughter. My eyes pass over markings carved into the tunnel wall; pictograms depicting spaceships, desert skates, people offering something to a deific figure, and more. I and the other''s had seen them here and there over the course of the hike, but we didn''t get the chance to really dig into them at the time. "Thoughts on the carvings?" I say, taking the opportunity to rectify that. "Well," says Ella, taking a few steps closer to the center of the group to avoid straining her voice, "this is just a guess, but I''d imagine that when the Orokin fell, the people here struggled to work with each other. There was miles and miles of hot dunes and cliffs and stuff making it hard to traverse back and forth on foot." She glances at the carvings before continuing.


    "I''d imagine that they were all isolated from each other, and the rest of the solar system, and then they sort of... forgot. History turned into myth, that sort of thing. I think that''s what all that stuff is," she says, her expression thoughtful. I nod, the term "Cargo Cult" popping up in my mind. "I can see that," responds Ko-lee, behind Ella. "Back home, we had the Unum, but even then, it was years before I had any real info on the Orokin. Plus, Earth never really got cut off in the same way like Mars did, and even then, I think some of what I learned was like a bar tale. Stuff getting warped as it gets passed from person to person," she says. "I''ll be honest, I learned more about them during training than I did back home."


    "Yup, same here," Rease adds. "I literally didn''t know what they were at all until training. I knew they existed; Orokin ruins can be gold mines sometimes, but actual history? I mean, what''s the point in learning about a bunch of people who''ve been dead for a thousand millennia?" he finishes, shrugging dismissively. "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it," I say in English, before translating. There''s a few looks of consideration, and I catch an impressed glance from Sarge, causing my cheeks to flush. "Totally not my words, by the way," I clarify, feeling embarrassed by the attention. "But also," I continue, "beyond just fancy sayings, the Grineer and the Corpus and the Infested are literally direct lines from the Orokin. Even if they''re not here any more, their stuff is, and it directly affects our day to day. The solar rails were Orokin transport, the terraformed planets and the ecosystems engineered by the Orokin. The warframes, Orokin soldiers. Literally so much of the tech we use is just their hand-me-downs."


    I get a few odds looks from the others. "The Orokin made the Infested?" asks Caz, interested but apprehensive. "What did you mean the warframes were Orokin soldiers?" asks Ella, nearly at the same time. I open my mouth to backtrack, but I''m caught off guard, as I take in the looks from everyone in the squad. Even the Sarge looks confused and interested. There''s a brief moment where I consider just telling them everything I know. Then, the mechanical neutrality of the Lotus'' words echo in my mind, and I get cold feet. "Actually, I don''t... really think I''m supposed to talk about that. I don''t know; can we just... rewind a few seconds, pretend I didn''t say the last part?" I ask, hopefully.


    One part of my mind runs off screaming, listing all the different ways I''m going to end up eviscerated by the Lotus when I get back. Another part of me tries to assure me that it won''t be that bad. "Don''t get me wrong, a fuck up for sure," my mind says, with a cool confidence, "but there''s no way that a Commander or an Imperator doesn''t already know that sort of thing. This isn''t a ''forbidden knowledge'' type deal, more like a ''opsec'' issue. I mean, don''t get me wrong, there might be a stern talking to, but I imagine that everyone will just end up getting sworn to secrecy or whatever." It helps stave off the drop of panic that was beginning to worm it''s way around my nervous system. "There she goes being mysterious again," says Rease, joking. And yet, I can read a touch of frustration in his body language. I try to lean into the bit, to defuse the tension.


    "Sorry, but if I told you, I''d have to kill you," I grin, shooting finger guns at him. His laugh bounces around in the rocky space, sounding like a crowd of three. I sigh, my smile faltering slightly. "No, but... seriously. I know that you know that there''s stuff I''m just... avoiding, but I''m not trying to. When I got pulled away by the Lotus, before we left, she explained that I was sort of... pushing the bounds of what I was and wasn''t allowed to talk about. But I would tell you, if I could," I finish lamely. "Can you at least tell us why you know that sort of stuff? Or is that off limits too?" asks Ella. "No to the first bit, and yes to the second, unfortunately. Why I know this stuff is honestly probably a bigger deal than what I know," I explain. There''s silence, for a moment, before Caz speaks. "But Ko-lee knows," he says. It''s not quite a question, not quite an accusation, but it''s close to both. I nod. "Yeah, she does. Not because she''s my girlfriend though. I told her before we got here; I think it''s part of why the Lotus snatched us both up to begin with."


    "Well, there''s that, plus whatever she felt in the Void, plus the fact that the Unum was moments away from executing me that forced her hand. There''s a good chance that the Lotus would''ve just kept ''observing'' me for a long time, if the Unum didn''t flip her lid," I think to myself. I don''t know if I can explain any of that, but I don''t get the chance to follow up regardless, as a command comes from Sarge at the head of the group. "Hold," he says, one hand raised, causing the five of us to come to a halt. I look past him to see that we''ve reached a door inset into the tunnel itself.


    It''s the same Grineer design as in the game (as well as the door at the very front of the tunnel); rounded and heavy duty, like industrial equipment, with the same sort of rusted wear and tear that denoted an older occupation. Oddly, though, it''s wide open, the lights on it unpowered. Beyond the door, contrary to expectation, is darkness. No crew coming out meet us, no sound of busy work or movement or life. "Maybe we caught them sleeping," It think, before I catch the Sarge reaching for his weapon out of the corner of my eye. Every muscle tightens, and my mind starts pumping out adrenaline, pushing everything into yellow alert. The Sarge tosses a fosfor flare into the cave, and it lights up what is obviously base camp. The space is lousy with stuff, clearly lived in, filled with everything you''d expect a base camp to have, minus one, crucial item.


    People.

 Base Camp

    Sarge steps into the empty room carefully, his eyes scanning every corner and crevice, gun in hand, but lowered. There''s a few seconds as he peers around, before gesturing for us to follow, and we trail in behind; five recruits, and three carts of supplies. "Fuck," I think, nervousness running up and down my spine. I don''t want to overreact, but the conclusion seems forgone, unless an entire squad of Tenno operatives all decided to step out for a smoke simultaneously. The Sarge steps over to a nondescript box, and his hand searches around before finding a switch. He toggles it, and the box spins up, a high pitched whine that sounds briefly like the cry of a creature as it echos around in the cave


    I don''t flinch, but the electronic sound puts my teeth on edge, adding an uncomfortable backing track to the tense situation. Dim lights come to life, filling the space with a warm yellow, closer to incandescent''s than a sodium bulb. In a different situation, I could imagine the lights comforting, but in the absence of the squad, it just lends to the uncertain atmosphere. I take a moment to breathe in deep, acknowledging the sensations, and move past them to focus on the Sarge. His demeanor is serious, at stark odds with his previous behavior from the past 40 hours or so. His expression is tight, tense, and his gaze passes over all of us. "Caz, I''m officially taking command," he says, his eyes landing on the blonde haired squad member. Before Caz can react, the Sarge pushes forward, his voice quietly but forcefully assigning tasks.


    "I want this place turned over. Any indication of a struggle, any sign of where they might''ve gone, I want it found. Thomoni, over there," he says, pointing towards a door on the left, around an awkward bend of stone. "Nova, you''re in the bedroom," he tells me, pointing to a door on the right. "Tygg, Ko-lee, Caz, you''re in here with me. Call out if you need anything." There''s a round of "sir''s" before we all quietly make our way over to our different portions of the room. I head to the door, my eyes peeled for anything odd or out of place. I don''t see anything as I reach it, and I take a second to look at cool metal in front of me. It''s not of Grineer make; it''s pretty clearly some sort of semi-permanent Tenno structure, if the aesthetic is anything to go by. My eyes scan the solid looking bit of tech before landing on the light indicating allowance, nearly identical to the ones on the relay. It flashes yellow when I approach.


    "That''s new," I think, before flagging the Sarge down. "The door isn''t opening," I explain as he approaches. "It''s flashing yellow." He makes his way over, and as he gets within 10 feet, it swings open. "Difference in rank, maybe," I think, looking inside. The bedroom is lit the same as the rest of the cave, but I wait to enter, since the Sarge is blocking passage by standing in the frame. He reaches up to fiddle with an exposed switch near the top that was previously hidden when the door was closed, and after a few moments, he steps back, letting the door slide shut once more. Unlike the doors on the relay, it''s not soundless; there''s a crunching when it opens and closes, likely due to all the sand. The Sarge gestures towards the door with his head, and without needing further explanation, I step forward. This time, it blinks green, and upon seeing the light, he heads off wordlessly. I step in, and start to explore the bedroom, the door sliding shut behind me.


    I look at the half made bunks dotted about within the smaller portion of the cave. There''s seven beds here, which catches me off guard slightly, but I step towards the first one, checking it thoroughly for anything of note. I check the under the sheets, the pillows, and even underneath and around the foldable frame itself, before moving on to the next one. One has a puzzle of some sort, and another a tiny light clipped to the frame, but nothing that would give any indication of where the missing Tenno would be. I finish checking all seven beds, and stand at the end of the room looking down the line, my eyes slowly scanning the space from a static position. I want to be thorough, but I also don''t want to spend all my time searching for something that might not be here. After one more slow scan, I start to head back towards the entrance, passing my eyes over everything and nothing in particular.


    I don''t quite see anything, but my brain is telling me to go back, to recheck a portion of the room. I back up a few steps, trying to get a glimpse of whatever it is that my subconscious had seen. I repeat the scan-and-walk, paying extra close attention, and catch a glint from one of the foldable bed frames as I do. "Except the bed frames are matte, not reflective," I realize, taking a step closer to investigate whatever it was that had caught the light. A piece of metal nearly entirely buried, something I hadn''t noticed when on my hands and knees, is under the second bed closest to the entrance. I grab at it, the sand falling away to reveal a holopad, the screen dim, but still lit.


    The screen springs to life at a touch, and I thank whoever''s listening that it''s not locked. I flick through a few pages, scrolling to the last couple entries, trying to get a general gist on what it says without taking too much time. There''s a few mentions about the operation they had been actively working on - taking advantage of the disruption of Corpus control to nab data from both factions - as well as some mentions of the spotty radio issues. The log entry doesn''t seem to indicate anything abnormal about it, and even makes references insinuating that radio contact was touch and go at the best of times. There''s an entry referring to us delivering supplies, and the morale boost it was going to bring, but as I reach the final page, I find something noteworthy.


    Communications have been fully knocked out. There''s been an abnormal amount of troop movement around LH-3 and 4, which is too close for my liking. I''m not entirely confident, but I think it might be some sort of suppression field. I don''t know if they know we''re here, or if we just happened to get caught in the same net they were casting for the Corpus. Regardless, when supplies arrive, I think I''m going to make a case for extraction.


    And then, nothing. I try to stretch out the tenseness I feel building in my shoulders and arms, before taking a deep breath. "It''s not paranoia if they really are out to get you," I think, a grimace crossing my face. I head back into the main room, holding out the holopad as I do. "Sarge, you''re gonna want to read this. Broadly, the squad thinks that the Grineer set up a suppression net, which knocked out their comms, and there was a bunch of movement nearby. They were going to ask for us to pull them out when we got here," I say, placing the device in his hands.


    There''s a few looks from the others; frustration and resolve in equal measure as they take in my words. The Sarge nods, clenching his jaw. "Fuck," he spits. His anger catches me off guard, and I widen my eyes, but I keep my mouth shut. "I was hoping we could fix comms and radio out. If they''ve got a field up, then there''s nothing we can do. Fuck." I waver for a moment, unsure of how to respond. I''m tempted to ask what the plan is, because from where I''m standing, it seems sort of obvious. "They got kidnapped, or killed. Or kidnapped and killed," I think. "I would say that they need a rescue, but there were seven full Tenno here, and we''re five recruits and one low level officer. I don''t know what other choice we have except to try to bounce so we can pass this mess up the chain."


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    "Go help the others," the Sarge says, distractedly. I nod, and make my way over towards a section of the wall that Ko-lee''s up against. "Find anything?" I ask. She nods, her shoulders tense. "There were a few spots of dried blood over on that part of the wall," she says, pointing over to a patch of the cave on the left. "Some bullet holes as well." She has that familiar expression of intensity, but it''s tinged with something darker; a cold fury, a desire for blood, for revenge. I want to say something to comfort, to reassure, but I''ve got nothing. "Fuck man, if I wasn''t so worried that we''d have our shit rocked, I''d be right there with her," I think angrily. "I''m so god damn tired of the Grineer walking over us. Of us being caught on the back foot. This was supposed to be an easy, first in the field mission for some experience. Not a god damn murder mystery."


    I catch myself breathing heavily, working myself up, and I take a moment to recenter. Then, I turn my attention away, scanning the floor, the walls, the shelves and tables, as well as any other nook or cranny where I might able to find something noteworthy. I don''t know if I''m covering ground the other three have already covered, but I don''t bother them about it. "An extra pair of eyes never hurts," I think. A few minutes later, I catch Rease coming out of the other room, before making his way over to the Sarge. The two of them have a back and forth for a minute or so, and I strain my ears to hear. I''m unable to pick up more than a preposition, and an adjective or two, but eventually, I see the pair of them head over into the room itself. Ko-lee follows my gaze for a moment before turning back to her task. I shoot Rease a message.


    AN: What''s over there?


    It''s nearly a full minute before I receive a response.


    RT: There''s some sort of obstruction. It''s like one of the temporary doors, but there''s no door. I''m pretty sure there''s a tunnel behind it. I was asking the Sarge whether it was possible if they took it down, entered the tunnel, and put it back up behind them.


    Before I get the chance to respond, another message comes in.


    RT: Sarge said no.


    The pair of them come back out, and Sarge stands in the center of the room, before calling out, "Space Trauma, front and center!" We come from every corner of the cave, lining up in front of the Sarge. His expression is severe, but professional, and there''s no hint of the relaxed persona he''d had the entire trip. "Our last contact with the seven operatives stationed here - two from Cerulean Squad, and the other five from the Hand of Stoh squad - are all MIA. Officially, they are presumed to have been kidnapped, and possibly killed. It''ll be hard to know for sure without a full investigation. However, that is not your role in this. Due to comms blackout, no one up there is aware that anything is wrong down here. They will eventually send someone when check in is missed, but that wouldn''t be for a few days. So, our new mission is to extract with the info we have, and bring it back to Strata, so they can send a warframe down here to clean house."


    He pauses a beat, his eyes scanning over the five of us before continuing. "It''s likely one or more Grineer squads are somewhere in the caves. It''s possible that they are unaware of our presence, but to be safe, we''re going to operate under the assumption that they know we''re here. That means that they would have closed around us like a snare. So, when we move out, I want everyone on high alert. That means trigger fingers limber. Does everyone understand?" The high pitched whine of the generator is the only sound, the fosfor flare on the ground lending a liminal vibe to the entire interaction, as the five of us respond with nods.


    He lets out a breath, before giving his own nod. "Alright. Good. Load up on ammo. I know you all came in pretty light, so use whatever you can find in the supply carts. I want everyone taking as much as they can, as long as it won''t slow you down. I know we''re doing two 8 hour hikes back to back, but I can only give you 10 minutes of R and R before we head out. Use it well," he says. He dismisses us, and I head over to the supply cart, trying to avoid breaking into a sprint. I start reaching in, grabbing magazines that match for both my Lato and my Braton, magnetically attaching them in places that would be easy to reach in a firefight. "Sergeant Letmin?" I hear Ella say. I turn to watch out of the corner of my eye as I load up, strapping grenades to my thighs.


    "I found a weapon earlier, I''m not sure if we should take it with us," she continues. "I left it over there." She points to a small table, where a dust covered handgun of some sort sits. The Sarge glances over, before closing the distance and reaching out to inspect the weapon. "Magnus," he says, half to himself, and half to Ella. "Solid construction. If it were something else, I''d say we leave it, cause we don''t have time to field strip and clean it. However..." he presses a switch along the side, and the revolver splits in half between barrel and grip, like a breech loading shotgun. He gives it a quick once over, before making his way back over towards the supply cart, digging through to find a box of ammo. He picks one out; a hockey puck shaped object an inch or two in diameter that clicks straight in, like a cross between a revolver auto loader and a magazine.


    He closes the gun back up, and the ghost of a smile passes his lips. "Thank you, Tygg," he says, looking at Ella. "Good eye." She smiles and nods a few times, nervousness coloring her expression, before turning back to the supply cart with the rest of us. It only takes me a few minutes to be fully outfitted, and I find a seat off in the corner of the cave, doing my best to relax while my heart beats heavily. I watch as Caz finishes up, looking around the cave, before locking his eyes on the seat next to mine. He heads over in my direction, his movements heavy, plodding. "Hey man," I say, as he plops down in the chair next to me. He flicks his eyes over my way, and I shoot him a sympathetic look. "Rough first day?" I quip. He lets out a wheezing chuckle before rolling his eyes. "Yeah, just a bit," he responds, after a moment. We sit there in silence, while our time ticks down both too slow and too fast.


    I try to do either of the R''s, but can''t find it in me to rest or relax. My mind is running a mile a minute, and my muscles are wound tight, in preparation for what might be a fight for my life. Still, I go through the motions as I look over everyone else within the cave. Ella and Rease are sat at a different table on the other side of the cave. I can see Rease''s lips moving, his eyes closed, his breathing steady. If I didn''t know better, I''d assume he was praying, but Ella''s occasional nods and shakes tell me that he''s talking to her, maybe trying to calm her down. "He might be the only one actually capable of relaxing," I think, as I shift my gaze to Ko-lee.


    Rather than sitting, she''s stretching; one limb, then the other, in slow, methodical movements. It''s the same sort of stretching I''ve seen her do a million times, usually right before she beats someone''s ass in hand to hand combat. Finally, I land on the Sarge. He''s stood near the door, just off center. Slightly in cover, but still in a position to see fully down the hall. I can''t tell if he''s on lookout, or if he''s just staring into the darkness in thought. "I wonder if he''s worried, or if he''s just like this when he turns serious," I think, my eyes on the now stoic officer. "Actually, I wonder if I even want the answer to that question."


    He tilts his head up, suddenly, in reaction to something, and I feel my heart skip a beat, before he turns and heads back towards the center of the room. He doesn''t need to say a word; I can read it in his body language. I tap Caz on the shoulder as I stand, and all five of us make our way over in front of him, lining up in silence. The fosfor flare in the center of the room hisses, casting us onto the ceiling, our shadow selves looming. A part of me notes our arrangement is the same as the one we''d been using in training; the repetition drilling muscle memory into all five of us. "Let''s move out," says the Sarge, and one by one, with eyes and ears peeled for threats, we filter back out into the gaping maw of the tunnel.

 Contact

    Every hastened step taken in the last 30 minutes has been exhausting in a way I wasn''t prepared for. The darkness of the tunnel - unlit to prevent reflected light from giving away our position too early - enveloped the six of us, leaving the dotted outlines of sensor data to let us know where the walls and floor are. We''re barely people in the dark. More like souls, fleeing from hell, chased by demons; our eyes and ears peeled for any sign of the Grineer. I have my Braton in hand, pointed down to the side, my finger flirting with the edge of the trigger. The feeling of security the weapon provides is stymied by the knowledge that while a head on clash between us and the enemy will end in losses on both sides, the loss for the cloned soldiers is less of a deterrent for them than it is for us. "And also, dying isn''t really my sort of vibe," I think, a humorless smile forming on my lips.


    The gallows humor had been ever present ever since the announcement from the Sarge; a sort of grim acknowledgement of what it is that we are up against. I''m not sure if it''s a healthy mindset to have, a sort of irreverence for the severity of the situation that might lead to a devalued threat in a critical moment. "But the other options are despair or a nihilistic mania, so we take what we can get," my mind points out. I sigh, my breath loud in the silence of the tunnel. To be fair, it''s not entirely silent. Spending so much time focused on my aural senses means that I''ve started to notice all the "background ambiance" that would normally be filtered out by my brain. The sound of sand across rock as our feet carefully forge a path in the pitch black. Of the tiny chitters of animals who''s names had been pushed out of the forefront of my mind in lieu of more immediately important information. Of the sound of partially concealed exertion from each member of the squad, of elevated heart rates and the biological processes that come with supporting it.


    "Actually crazy that we haven''t crashed yet," I think, in awareness of of that last fact. The initial hike in was roughly 8 hours long, and although it had been on mostly flat ground, and the strain of the supplies had been split across the group... "Immediately turning around to double time it back out, under the threat of death? A fuckin'' powder keg," I note, with a detached sort of recognition. The adrenaline cycling through my body makes me feel like a violin string wound tight, but there''s no other option but to continue pushing forward. I glance towards the UI in the top left hand corner of my headset and get a read on our position; the motion automatic, identical to the 19 other times I''d done it in the last hour or so. Other than the third added spatial dimension, the map is similar to the one in game, which is something I had spent a good amount of my downtime on. What was meant to be a fun little inside joke only to myself is something I''m quickly finding myself grateful for.


    The familiarity of the map is making it easy for my erratic mind to consume the information without needing to spend extra time processing it. The 1000''s of hours of gameplay, of map checking in the middle of a firefight, now expressing itself instinctively. We continue moving silently, twisting and turning down the tunnels; avoiding branches, passing through caves, and retracing our steps towards the entrance, towards escape. My map is zoomed out enough that I''m able to see how close we get to the outside as the tunnels wind around. "God, if we could just punch through 100 feet of stone," I think in frustration.


    It would be one thing to be blind to the fact, to think only of the outside as a light at the end of the tunnel. But to see it, to have it nearly in arms reach, only for it to slip away as the tunnel snakes off in a different direction... it ratchets my anxiety up more than anything else. "Still, slow and steady," I think, a buzz running down my arms to the tips of my fingers. The Sarge raises his hand, a silent signal for us to halt. The five of us slow down, and he subvocalises a message, explaining without needing to speak a single word.


    AL: There''s a tripwire ahead of us. I can disarm it, but I want the rest of you back 100 feet regardless. Post up at the bend.


    Reading the text sends needles of burning ice through my veins, down my back. The idea that we''d be able to leave without any conflict at all was a pipe dream, but as minutes wore on without any encounter, I had been starting to feel hopeful. The tripwire killed that. "Fuck, they know we''re here," I think, as the five of us shuffle back. I can''t tell if the certainty is worse than the unknown. I''m unable to make out the Sarge as any more than a collection of dots and the orientation of his icon on my map, but it''s obvious he''s watching us as we get into position, for whatever that''s worth. The moment we''re clear, he turns his attention back to the wire, before carefully creeping over to what I assume is an explosive tucked behind a small outcrop of stone.


    From my position, it''s hard to get a bead on him, and the darkness doesn''t help. The seconds tick by, each one longer than the last, as he engages himself with the Grineer trap. And yet, even with a moment as important as this one, my ADHD can''t help but flare, my eyes wandering around in the darkness unbidden. A blessing, disguised as a curse; a collection of dots flies out from the darkness, closing the distance towards the Sarge and us. Cylindrical in shape, some subconscious part of me makes the connection before the rest of me does. "GRENADE!" I shout, my voice shattering the silence. To Sarge''s credit, he doesn''t stumble in the slightest. From a crouched position, he pivots, Rush enabling him to close the gap towards us - towards cover - faster than any human could hope to achieve. But I don''t watch. Instead, I dive to the floor with the other four members of Space Trauma, putting distance between myself and the intersection, decreasing my profile to reduce any potential damage from the blast.


    The explosion is bassier than I''m expecting; more of a whomph than the bang I associated with the Tenno frag grenades. Then, a wave of light and heat rushing down the tunnel, not fully able to spread down the intersection towards us, accompanied by a feral scream of pain. I only see it out of the corner of my eye with my face down on the ground and my arms over my head, but the exact moment the light vanishes I''m springing to my feet, my hands swinging my gun around to bear. I''m moving before I make the decision to, my actions dictated by training rather than consideration. I know that every one of the next few moments are of utmost importance, and there''s no time to wait for my nerve endings to send electrical signals to the tips of my fingers, or the soles of my feet.


    I''m the first one upright, and I hug tight to the corner as quickly as I can, resisting the impulse to let a stream of lead rain down the tunnel. I want to prefire the corner, to start pulling my trigger before I round it; I''m willing to lose a few bullets to the tunnel walls if it means I''d be more likely to catch them off guard. But the likelihood of hitting Sarge is too high, and I''m unwilling to take a shot when he''s downrange, in the dark. I hold position there, my ears straining, as four excruciating seconds tick by. For reasons I can''t fathom, the Grineer haven''t followed up their opening salvo. I don''t know if it''s a psychological play or something else, and the uncertainty locks my feet in place. I can hear the Sarge groaning in pain, clearly suffering, but my mind and body are fighting, unwilling to step into what might be instant death.


    "Our shields won''t hold up!" I think, or some part of me thinks. Maybe the part preventing me from moving forward. I don''t get the chance to hold a meeting. Rease steps around me, slicing the pie the best he can in the tight corridor. "Fuck!" he says, his words barely more than a whisper.


    And that''s when all hell breaks loose.


    Like a switch, gunfire starts flying down the length of the tunnel. The tiniest bit of light cutting through a gap in the ceiling is suddenly joined by the short, staccato bursts of light from the Grineer. Bullets whiz past, the sound of metal slamming into the rock face next to us barely audible over the echoing cracks of gunfire. I return in kind, my aim based on the split second images I get of the masked faces at the end of the hall, unable to tell if my shots are landing. Occasionally, a bullet zips past close enough for me to hear it; the sound of an angry insect threatening death if they so much as find me. Rease, who''d pulled back after the initial volley, steps straight out into the gunfire, taking two direct hits for his audacity.


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    I don''t have enough processing power to try to figure out what he''s doing, but he''s moving fast enough that it doesn''t matter. He ignores the bullets flying by as he uses Rush to close distance with a lumpy form in between the two opposing groups. "Sarge!" I realize, as he quickly drags the prone body around the corner and into cover with us. A low moan draws my attention for a split second, and in the strobe light from hell I''m able to form an image of our Field Officer; skin red and black, his TEPA melted, his expression agony. A nauseating smell of chemical and pork reaches my nose as my Braton clicks empty.


    "RELOADING!" I shout, swapping places with Ko-lee to keep up an ever endless stream of gunfire towards the slowly encroaching forms. She pokes out, and my heart jumps into my throat as her shield sparks blue. "Grenade out!" says Caz, his voice barely audible over the gunfire. "GO!" he shouts, at the exact instant the explosive leaves his fingers. My heart pumps wildly, and my mind wars with training at the idea of exposing myself to the explosive. It''s only a fraction of a second of hesitation, but it''s enough for Caz and Ella to take lead as they sprint down the hall, with me only 20 feet behind them. It''s a stupid plan, an incredibly stupid plan, and the only plan, as the enemy take the option to unleash on our retreating form. I feel shots hit my back, and I watch as my pitiful amount of shield drops to nearly zero, but it''s not enough before the grenade goes off.


    It''s not the bang I expected.


    Instead, it''s a sonic screech, a reverberation, a flash of nuclear white that nearly sends me tumbling, my inner ear revolting as I struggle to put one foot in front of the other. The flash casts our shadows in dark relief in front of us; hulking humanoids wrapped by the uneven surface, visible for only a moment before we''re plunged once more into the black. "GRENADE OUT!" shouts Caz, his voice barely audible over the ringing in my ear. I glance behind, and find Ko-lee helping Rease keep pace, with the Sarge on his back in a firefighter carry. Our feet pound, our previous caution discarded as we recklessly Rush down the tunnel back towards base camp.


    Another crack, another flash of white.


    My head is spinning now, the specialized explosive leaving me disoriented even at a distance. But I find the dizziness comforting; if it''s this bad for me, it must be 100 times worse for the Grineer. Another grenade out, this one a bang. A real explosion, not just a flashbang. We''re about as far from the blast as we can reasonably be, but the pressure wave wooshes past us all the same. It''s nothing compared to the fireball from the initial Grineer explosive, but still, noticeable.


    Gunshots now. I hear the cracks, the zips, and I feel pressure on my leg. A flash of blue, my shield deflecting, dropping. The Sarge continues to moan, and I have no idea how long we''ve been running.


    Another grenade out, this time from me. I''m losing my sense of time, or I''ve lost it. My heart keeps trying to escape my chest through my rib cage, the aggressive ba thump, ba thump, ba thump in tempo with my feet. My first indication that we''re nearing base camp is the light of the dimming flare, still lit from where Sarge had tossed it into the room. A final push, every muscle straining to their limit as I blow past the entrance. I swing around, and post up on the corner of the door immediately, my eyes tracking Rease and Ko-lee, trailing behind by only a few feet. They make their way in, and my eyes scan the dimly lit hall, listening to the echo of footsteps, a herald of death approaching. "Orders!?" shouts Ko-lee as she crosses the threshold.


    I can''t see her face, but I can imagine it; an image of dilated pupils and cold fury, an impeccable force of DO that sends an ill timed spark of desire down my spine. I don''t hear his response, and I''m hit with an impulse to turn around, to focus on the conversation behind me. Instead, I keep my eyes forwards towards the dark, and my ears open to the squad. "Damn it Caz! What are out orders!?" Ko-lee repeats, heat in her voice. "We-I-," he starts. Stuttered words of indecision. "What choices are there? What can we do other than make a stand? We''re fish in a barrel, all he needs to do is tell us to line up," I think, with grim surety. But he doesn''t. "There''s a tunnel!" says Rease. I take a quick glance, and find him pointing to the room he''d previously investigated, but I spin back around the moment I realize what I''m doing.


    "Are those footsteps louder?" I ask myself. I hear frantic shuffling from behind me; likely Rease, maybe Caz, heading towards the room. "We''ll need some way to block up the tunnel!" says a shaky voice to my right. Of all the people I''d imagine willing to hold an angle with me, I''m surprised it''s her, but I''m glad to have company all the same. "We can bring it down if we set off enough grenades at once!" yells Ko-lee, the sentence growing in volume as she closes the distance between us. I feel hands groping around, and without looking I reach for the grenades that she can''t find, strapped to my front. I shove the last one into her hands, but don''t wait to see if she has a hold of it, as my gaze locks on to movement in the tunnel. "WE''RE OUT OF TIME!" I roar, as I unleash violence down the hall.


    I''m unable to keep up with the squad''s further developments; my entire world focusing down to a pinprick of red stone and bulbous armored forms. They fire back, and I thank whoever''s listening that they can''t fit more than two wide down the tunnel at the same side. Still, the gunfire peppers around us, my shield flashing more than I''d like, the number in my display dancing on the edge of nothingness. The bullets whizzing past my head ratchets my heart into overdrive, making me feel nauseous. The specter of death is too close for comfort, but I reload and continue firing regardless.


    "They''re angling their bodies in such a way to take a majority of the gunfire on armored locations," I note with a clinical detachment. It''s enough for them to make progress, but they''re not invincible. A shot hits one in the leg, causing them to flinch, and a well placed follow up cracks a mask, plunging straight into their forehead. The form goes down. Moving, and now not. His squadmates step over him and continue pushing, a replacement filling the gap with ease. The tiniest ember of excitement that had tried to light is extinguished at the display of callous disregard, at their willingness to throw bodies at the problem. How do you defeat an enemy when killing them isn''t enough?


    They''re close now. I feel like a rat, a trapped animal; powerless, in a cage, unable to stop the forward press of <em style="text-shadow: -1px 2px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4), 1px -3px 1px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.4), 3px -4px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2), -4px -3px 1px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.2), -6px 7px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2)">DANGEROUS


    A wide manic grin stretches my lips wide, and I can feel tears run down my cheeks. "Grenade out!" shouts Ella, from over my shoulder. I don''t know when she got there, when she crossed that gap. I don''t remember covering her, but I must have. I hope I had. She pulls me away from the door frame after throwing, and we Rush towards the room I hadn''t the chance to explore previously. I find myself in a bathroom. A bubble, a tendril of humor as a thought occurs to me. "What a shitty situation." My body is sending all the wrong emotions down the pipe, picking things from the maelstrom at random. I see the tunnel, the dividing wall - a Tenno construction - haphazardly knocked to the side.


    I make my way into the darkness, sprinting past Ko-lee, still setting grenades in structurally unsound grooves, past Caz, his face white even in the dark, past Rease with the FO slung over his shoulder. I spin, fall to a knee, holding an angle, ready to fire the second anything other than toiletries enters my vision. Ella comes in a fraction of a second later, her hands filled, something metal held tight to the chest. "GO!" says Ko-lee, turning away from her improvised mining charges. I don''t know how many there are, but I imagine it''s somewhere between "a lot" and "too many". I turn, and sprint towards the lone supply cart peeking it''s head out from around the corner. "Good call," I think, as I dive into cover. A grenade flies out past me, over my head, landing near the others. A perfect throw. "RHUE! GAR TENNO SON OF A GUTORA!" I hear. I catch the glimpse of a single shoulder pad rounding the corner.


    Then, a bang.


    A roar.


    A crash.


    Silence.

 Disconnected

    We sit in the darkness, huddled together, as dirt and dust and atomized rock clog the air. Our masks filter our breathing, but the faintest taste of stone and clay pass through to seep into my tongue. Not a single sound from the Grineer is able to reach us through the rocks; a bulwark of stone still settling into it''s new position. The sounds of the occasional shifting or tumbling rocks are loud, and each one drives home a message. The Grineer can''t get in, and we can''t get out. We''re fully sealed in this tunnel. Trapped, for lack of a better word. My body is still wound tight, the adrenaline in my system not even having begun to drain; I''m on the balls of my feet ready to explode into motion, to do whatever it is that I need to do.


    "What I need to do, is relax," I think, manually and forcibly releasing tension in every one of the hundreds of spring coiled muscles in my body. There''s a schwick sound that undoes some of that progress, and a fosfor flare springs to life, casting all of us in stark relief against the tunnel walls. My attention is drawn to it''s wielder, to Caz, who''s stood next to the supply cart, and he places the light source in a holster to avoid needing to keep it aloft. His hand shakes as he does so, but once he removes it from the light, he places it on the cart itself; a solid anchor obscuring the motion. My gaze shifts from him to the rest of the squad, to the rest of Space Trauma as a whole. "What a stupid fucking name," I think, a sour taste on my tongue. A joke turned prophecy. I try to ignore the feeling of blame that comes with it.


    We''re all covered in the thick layer of dust that had swept down the tunnel in a wave, clinging to our fabric in whatever direction it''d first encountered us. As I look at the other four, I start process a million tiny sounds I''d been hearing, but not noticing; strained and heavy breathing, grunting, minor hisses of pain from bruises left by Grineer ordnance even through the shields. The moment of fragile peace is shattered by ice. "Caz-V," says Ko-lee, carefully enunciating each portion of his full name, dash and all. "What. Happened." Her tone is low and dangerous, the sound of promised violence upon delivery of an unsatisfactory response. He stares at her, his eyes wide, in shock, in confusion. There''s a furrow in his brows as he opens his mouth, but no sounds escapes it. "That''s not fair," says Ella, her voice winded. It''s clear she''s trying to head off the argument that we all feel building. Instead, it lights the fuse.


    "It is fair!" Ko-lee shouts, her voice loud, reverberating within the confined space. "He had ONE job as a squad leader, ONE! He LEADS. THE. SQUAD!" She''s shaking with anger, and a look at her death grip on the opposite side of the supply cart makes it clear that she''s quite literally holding herself back from engaging more physically with Caz. "It wasn''t supposed to be like this!" Caz shoots back, his voice uncharacteristically unsteady. It''s exhaustion and fear and frustration and despair all mixed up in six words. He gesticulates briefly as he speaks, before he too, reaches out for the cart, though more for support rather than restraint.


    "You JACKASS," Ko-lee says, her voice a growl more than anything. She lets go of the cart, and for a brief moment, I''m convinced it''s so she can close the distance with him, but instead she uses it to step farther away, to pace. Back and forth, only a step or two, but her shadow is racing in front of her and then behind her with every step, adding a frantic energy to the space. "I KNEW YOU''D FREEZE! I KNEW YOU''D FOLD WHEN IT CAME DOWN TO A REAL SITUATION." Her frame is heaving with the effort of emotion, as her rage burns. Her hand flings out, pointing at me, and everyone''s attention snaps towards it''s destination, catching me off guard.


    "I voted for Antimony not because she''s my girlfriend, but because I''ve seen her kill. I knew she''d be able to do what you COULDN''T!" She breaks her pattern of pacing, taking an extra step towards Caz, and everyone tenses, convinced that the two are about to come to blows. "Fuck off!" says someone. It takes me more than a few seconds, and observation of the other''s attention to realize it''s me. Ko-lee looks at me, confusion and frustration, and just a touch of hurt. I want to rescind the outburst, but words flow to my lips before I have the chance to vet them. "Unless you think ''line up and get shot like fish in a barrel'' is a good plan, you do not want me in charge! Because that''s all I had," I say, pointing to my temple. My finger moves from my mind to Caz, who doesn''t look particularly glad that I''ve drawn attention back to him.


    "Caz didn''t know about the tunnel, because that information went straight to the FO, to the Sarge. We cut him out of the loop, and somehow he''s supposed to pull a plan out of his ass that saves us all??" There''s a level of disconnect as this all plays out; words that don''t belong to me being said with my voice. There''s derision in my tone, an emotion I... I guess I feel? I feel more like a passenger than a driver, and I squeeze my eyes shut for a few moments to try to ground myself. "A competent squad works as a unit," I say, in a mimicry of Sarge''s words from what now feels like a lifetime ago. "We succeed or fail together. Just because Caz is calling the shots, doesn''t mean the blame falls solely on him." I take a deep breath and focus on my senses around me; on touch, on smell, on sound. I feel the tension melt, just a fraction, and as mind and body aligns I reopen my eyes.


    "I''m good at making plans, Ko-lee. I never said I was good at making good plans." I watch my tone carefully, and this time it comes out a little more naturally, a little less aggressively. She looks frustrated, but it''s less the rage and fury of before, which seems like progress. "I''ll always have something new to try, but we don''t get a second shot at life if we die," I say, ignoring the irony in my words. "Caz didn''t want to throw us away on some half baked plan. That doesn''t make him a bad leader."


    "But she''s right though," says Caz. I shoot him a confused and slightly frustrated look, mainly due to the fact that it feels like he''s undoing my work. "You''re both right. I didn''t know about the tunnel, and I didn''t want to commit to anything that would get us hurt. But I did freeze. There was a moment where..." he trails off, and his expression looks haunted. Instead of finishing the thought, he swallows, and locks eyes with Ko-lee. "But I won''t let it happen again. The Grineer aren''t... I can deal with the Grineer. We can. If you''ll let me." There''s a level of conviction there that I''ve never seen on his face before, and it manages to burn off the last flakes of anger in Ko-lee''s eyes. Or, at the very least, redirect them, if her glance towards the collapsed portion of the tunnel is any indication.


    Her expression , her body language is still severe, and there''s a few seconds of silence while she looks at our squad leader. "It won''t happen again," repeats Ko-lee. A statement, and a warning. Caz nods. While it doesn''t fully clear the tension, the unsteady team cohesion feels a touch better than it did minutes ago. "He''s dead," says Rease, who''d been splitting his attention between the argument and the body he had been carrying. It takes me a few moments to shift gears, to process his words. "Sarge?" I ask, feeling lightheaded. I turn towards him, only needing to take a few steps to close the distance to the crouched form of our squad member.


    My eyes shift towards the partially darkness shrouded form, the shadows cast by our bodies and the supply cart lending difficulty in making out details. Difficulty, but not impossibility. Up close, and in more steady light, he looks even worse. The blackened skin peeling away from muscle, melted flesh and polymer fabric dyed crimson from oozing wounds. I''d spent enough time on the internet as a child that the sight and smell doesn''t immediately turn my stomach, but to see it applied to someone I know... to have it so viscerally real, instead of just pixels and glass?


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    I can feel a part of my soul die.


    The deaths, in Sharip, those were a nightmare, but the same sort of nightmare that a hurricane might evoke. As much I''m logically aware that the Grineer are people, and not just a force of nature, it felt hard to see them that way at the time. They were an overwhelming force that we could do nothing about except flee. This, on the other hand? This is war.


    And war is hell.


    But I compartmentalize as best I can for the moment. A therapist - assuming those exist in this universe - is direly needed, but that''s for after we escape. I realize my gaze had drifted away from the corpse... from Sarge. From Sarge''s corpse. I force myself to look back, to confirm what Rease said. To face reality. And as I do, I''m able to note why it is that Rease looks so haunted. The fire, while severely injuring Sarge, wasn''t what killed him. Instead, multiple bullet holes are peppered along the top half of his back, leading trails of vitality that trace up towards his head. I collapse, physically unable to continue crouching over the body, and land on my ass, the uneven rocky surface of the tunnel jabbing into my back.


    "Dead," I say, maybe in confirmation of Rease''s claim, or maybe something else. I hear a choked sob, one cut short as though in an attempt to conceal, and my eyes flick to Ella, who has tears streaming down her face. There''s the expected pain in her eyes, but also an anger I don''t think I''ve ever seen from her before. "I was... I didn''t know he was taking hits," says Rease, off to my left. "I didn''t have... I didn''t have time to..." he says, his words trailing off. He''s taking this better than anyone else, for whatever that really means. Rather than anger or despair or misery or disassociation, Rease has this look of grim acceptance. Of resignation, of unhappy acknowledgement. He sighs, one of bone weariness, of great effort. "I don''t know if he would''ve survived with his injuries, but now..."


    "Now we''ll never know. Now it doesn''t matter," I think, finishing the sentence in my mind. I don''t think anyone blames him. I know I don''t. I shift my head slightly to look at Caz. "What do we do with him?" I ask. There aren''t any dog tags, and I hadn''t spent time looking into post mortem practices for the Tenno. It wasn''t something I had wanted to think about during training, and it wasn''t something we''d gone over either. My question catches him off guard, and it takes a few seconds for him to pull himself back down to earth. "Oh. Uh..." he stutters, briefly. "Either we take him with us, try to give him a proper Tenno burial, or we leave him here, and take something of his as a token," he says, his forehead wrinkling, his eyelids closed. Rease shakes his head.


    "We can''t take him with us," he states, before anyone speaks. "We have no way to preserve him. unless we can find a way out of here in the next day or so, he''ll turn." His words are clinical, emotionless, as though we''re talking about the best way to store vegetables, and not what to do with the body of the man we''d just spent the last day and a half with. "We should take his eyes," Ella says, after nearly a minute of silence. "Eyes?" I press, giving a glance at the slightly warped metal attached to his face. Whatever systems had been used to hide the headset from view are no longer running, although I''m unsure if it''s because of the damage to the device, or the damage to the operator. Ella nods, the streaks from the tears still clear on her cheek. Her voice is clear though, or mostly clear, as she speaks. "People store stuff on their eyes. He might have... pictures or something."


    "Like a phone," I think. "Wouldn''t that sort of thing he backed up? Saved somewhere?" I ask. "They are," she responds, "but with the comm blackout... maybe he has something on there. Something recent." I can guess at what she''s driving at; the insinuation that there might be something of us on there. I''m not confident that we''d made that much of an impression on the man, but the token is really meant to be symbolic anyways. My hands are shaking more than I''d like as I reach out towards the metal. Just an inch away, they freeze, and I feel the justification form in my mind. "Just making sure it''s not too hot," the thought passes. "Yeah, it''s totally not the fact that we''re pulling a headset off a dead body. No sirree," counters another.


    My hands hang there for a moment, but eventually I make contact, touching the still slightly warm metal. I reach for the various straps and clips, undoing them with more effort than I''d usually need to, fumbling to pull the headset off his face. I manage to tug it free, and a tiny spike of adrenaline shoots through me when I finally see his still open eyes. My hands are full, but luckily Rease reaches out to close his eyelids, hiding the glassy orbs from sight. I stand up, every muscle protesting, and turn towards the supply cart before placing the headset on top of the pile of stuff we''d managed to escape with.


    The Sarge''s final, pained expression is burned into my mind''s eye, but I do my best to push past it, leaning on my training with De''Launda. Everyone gathers around the cart, the fosfor flare burning brightly, revealing our exhausted faces. There''s silent acknowledgement, but we don''t linger, with Caz pushing us into gear. "Let''s move out," he says, leading the way into the darkness. While my body protests, I''m grateful for him slipping into the role of leadership; if given the option I would have absolutely laid down on the floor here and passed out. Instead, without being asked, I pull on the harness for the hover cart, and the five of us begin trekking down the hall, and towards the unknown.


    <hr>


    "Still no luck," says Caz, after an hour of hiking. He''d been trying to get in touch with the next FO in line, hoping that we''d at some point move outside the interference field during the trip, but it seemed to be present no matter how far we roamed. The fosfor flare on the cart is dimming, but there''s no move to replace it. I can''t tell if it''s apathy at the situation, rationing of resources, or something else leaving it burning at such a low level. "Intersection," says Caz. "We''re heading left." This was one of a few intersections we''d encountered so far, and with no real route, we''d been having to pick random directions as we forged on. Sometimes, we''d hit a dead end, leading to a miserable case of having to turn back around, but more often than not we found ourselves walking down seemingly endless tunnels, every particular stretch being both unique in formation and frustratingly identical.


    Rocks, dust, rocks. We''re tiring... no, we are already tired. We had been tired, and we are continuing to be tired, but sheer stubbornness is helping us put one foot in front of the other, even after all the adrenaline from combat had worn off. "Listen," says Caz, drawing our attention. "If we can''t find somewhere to crash for the night in the next 30 minutes, then I say..." his words trail off, and it takes me a few seconds to catch on to why. The tunnel we are in are transitioning. Rather than the same stone and dust, it''s... well, it''s still stone, but crafted stone. Cut blocks in an arch, like the top half of a tube. Some of it - most of it - is crumbling away, the wear and tear of an excessive amount of years, but the damage is minor. The ground is no longer unsteady, the pressure of having to watch our every step lessened, and the change from natural to man-made structure is injecting a bit of life into the squad. I exchange glances with Rease and Ella, the two closest to me, but nobody says anything. There''s nowhere else to go, and the tunnel isn''t obstructed, so we continue down the hall in silence. It only takes a few minutes before we reach it.


    Moonlight sneaks it''s way through a large gash in the stone roof to dimly light a set of remarkably well preserved ancient stone ruins; the remnants of some unconsensually insular culture long since dead and gone. My eyes trace the cave wall up towards the roof, towards a possible route to freedom. They trace higher and higher, up to the 50 foot overhangs above unyielding stone floor. A very technically possible climb, but one with dire consequences following even a single mistake. But still, the sight of fresh air, and of what would be sunlight in the morning, buoys my spirit regardless. "Change of plans," says Caz, as we all crowd around the tunnel exit, looking at the carved stone ruins. "Space Trauma, time to set up camp."

 Forward Operating Base

    I wake up in the morning, and struggle to open my eyes. The dust and dirt and sleep crust them shut, and I rub the back of my hand against my face to clear away what I can. The "lawhg" from last night - a waxy, cylindrical object that is a high efficiency, smokeless material meant to burn at a comfortable temperature for a long time - is still merrily chugging away at the center of the space we''re all crowded around. Grabbing the lawhg from the supply cart and cracking into some MRE''s was about the extent of "setting up camp" the night prior. There had been a quick scan of the ruins, to verify that they were safe, but beyond that, we''d pretty much all fell asleep right away in one of the rooms of the ruins.


    Well, everyone but me, since I had taken first shift for the night. At the time, I was fighting to keep my eyes open, but it meant that I could follow it up with an uninterrupted 8 hours after. "Or ten hours? Six hours?" It takes me a few seconds to run the numbers in my head, to confirm how much time I''d actually gotten the night prior. My gaze wanders as I think, and I lock eyes with Ko-lee, who had taken the last shift instead. "Morning," I say, my tongue the texture of sand. I smack my mouth a few times to try to generate some saliva. It''s moderately successful, but grabbing some sort of liquid gets bumped up my internal ToDo list.


    "Morning, Ni," she tells me, a small smile on her face. I raise an eyebrow at the usage of the nickname. It''s generally something she only breaks out in private, but a quick glance at the others shows that we''re the only two awake. "Are you doing okay?" I ask her. A useless platitude, but I don''t really know what else to say, how to cut to the heart of the matter. "Are you still angry at Caz? Will you be okay? How can I help you? Did you know that I love you?" All of that is packaged up, what I try to pass along with my question. She sighs. "Yeah," my girlfriend responds, after a moment. It''s lossy encoding; her response is an amalgam answer of my amalgam question. In the attempt to reduce complexity, it loses everything meaningful, boiling down the complex human state of mind to a phatic response. It''s unsatisfying, but no one wants to be dissected.


    I nod, and give her a soft smile, before sitting up to stretch. The room we''re in is one of many apartments in the ruins, or what was likely apartment-like at one point. The only things that had stood the test of time are stone and metal; nothing organic, nothing comfortable. I, like everyone else, had slept on the ground. Our TEPA''s are fantastic bits of tech, regulating our temperature throughout the night, but they didn''t provide comfort. They couldn''t do anything for the unyielding stone floor. My morning routine isn''t silent, and by the time I actually make my way to my feet, the other three have woken as well. I busy myself with readying food for everyone. And by readying food, I really mean digging through the supply cart for the MRE''s.


    Each cart contained a little bit of everything, likely in an attempt to avoid a sort of "eggs in one basket" problem. It meant that even though we''d only grabbed a single cart, we weren''t hurting for supplies, although the full scope of what we had wouldn''t be clear until we had the chance to go through it all. I push aside a few containers, and grab another foil wrapped package. "I guess MRE is an American military thing specifically," I think, as I dig through the supplies. "I don''t actually remember what Scientia called them. But, I mean, if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, and tastes like school cafeteria food..." The final bag obtained, I start handing them out, before finally sitting down against a wall and cracking open my own.


    Breakfast is some sort of preserved nutrient cube with fruit leather, and a small container of powdered juice. There''s not a lot of chatter at first; just the sounds of drink mixing and bag crinkling as we all wake up to the new day. It''s Caz who shatters the silence, his quiet voice amplified by the reverb from all of the exposed stone. "So, I think we need to talk about the Thumper in the room," he starts. We all look up at him, but no one does anything to interrupt, and so after a moment''s pause, he continues. "We won''t be able to return the way we came. For the same reason that the Grineer can''t reach us, we can''t reach them. We''d need to dig our way through the collapsed tunnel using equipment, and we don''t have that equipment."


    "It was the right plan," says Ko-lee, with aggressive neutrality. "You''re right, it was," he responds quickly, nodding his head. "I''m not arguing that. I know I''m stating the obvious here, but it needed to be said." He stops speaking, and closes his eyes, before sighing. "My start as squad leader was... rocky. But I want to do better. I''m trying to be better." He opens his eyes, and locks them on to Ko-lee, who is very explicitly showing no emotion on her face. "I''m sorry," he says. I''m caught off guard by the apology, but he continues before I get the chance to dissect it.


    "I froze, I''m willing to admit that. It was a tense, dangerous situation, and you... you had put your faith in me, in the chain of command. I can make excuses until I''m blue in the face, but it doesn''t change what happened. I know I''ve been a bit... cavalier about things at times. But, from this point on, I''m going to fill that role in the way I should have from the start. If you''ll let me." The silence roars, and I can hear the faintest sounds of scrabbling and squeaking from conits 50 feet or so above our heads. I''m torn on the apology, mainly because I''m not entirely sure that what had happened was Caz''s fault. At the same time, I understand where he''s coming from, and I get the impulse to take on responsibility for actions beyond your control.


    I don''t entirely know if it''s healthy, but the outcome, the resolve to try harder, to do better isn''t a bad one. And ultimately, it''s not really about me, it''s about Caz and Ko-lee, so I keep my mouth shut, and wait for a response. "I want them dead," says Ko-lee, her expression granite, her tone ice. "I am sick of running from the Grineer. I am tired of them taking things from me, while I do nothing about it." It''s not an acceptance of leadership, in so many words, but it seems to be interpreted as such, judging by Caz''s nod. "I think making sure we don''t starve in the caves is our highest priority right now," he says, "but I understand."


    "Well, I''ve actually had a glance at the supplies," I offer to the rest of the squad. "I don''t think starving is really the problem, at least not for a bit. We''ve got enough food for the five of us for 2 weeks, longer if we ration." Caz gives me a smile, a ghost of that cocksure grin he''d had all the way back at the start of training. "Good. We really need to do a full inventory, but that can wait for now. Food for two weeks is likely plenty enough time for Strata to send someone after us. We''re expected back in a day and a half, so if we don''t arrive, and we don''t get in touch to explain the delay, they''ll know something''s wrong. SOP is to send a squad to do recon, and then to send in a warframe. If we take in to account travel time, sorting out the heavy hitters, and so on, then the whole process would take about a week, maybe a week and a half." He looks around at the four of us, clearly gauging our impressions.


    "Technically," he says, drawing out the word, "we could just sit here and twiddle our thumbs for a bit, and wait to be rescued. Of course, that assumes that everything works out according to plan. That the Grineer don''t tunnel in. That a warframe manages to find us. That they don''t reinforce their position. That we don''t starve, if all of that comes to pass." His eyes lock on mine, and I''m suddenly hyper aware of the expression on my face, a look of distaste at the idea. "Alternatively," he continues, "we could spend some time mapping out the tunnels and caves around us. If there''s another exit, we might be able to find it, and maybe even kill some Grineer while we''re at it. It''s one thing for them to get the drop on us, but now that the playing field''s been leveled a bit, we could turn this around on them."


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    I catch a nod from Ko-lee out of the corner of my eye, a tacit agreement at what is barely the start of a plan. "I don''t know man," says Rease, shaking his head. "I get wanting to stick it to the tuberats, but we do not have the kick to deal with them. A handful of Bratons could barely deal with the few we had in the tunnels; I don''t think getting the drop on them would make that much of a difference. Plus, how many of them are there, really? All we know is the handful we saw, but they could be calling down more right now."


    "Well..." I say, cutting him off, "when I was firing at them, they couldn''t fit down the tunnels more than two, side by side. I mean, if we were in the open, it''d be a totally different thing, but does it really matter how many they have if they can''t get to us?" I''m hit with a few flashes of memories, of the yellow eyes and featureless round masks lit by strobing gunfire, but my training with De''Launda makes it easier to deal with the intrusion. "Can''t we just wait?" asks Ella, her voice slightly strained. "Someone''s already died! Why do we have to risk it?" Her words derail the conversation, and everyone glances over towards the tunnels we''d come from. Towards where the Sarge''s body lay.


    I look around at the others in an attempt to read the room; concern, frustration, fear, anger. "Well, thank you for your inputs," says Caz, after a moment. Everyone''s attention shifts back to him, and his shifts to Ella. "Mouse, you make a good point. Someone has lost their life already, and by attempting to leave, we''re inviting more danger in." He takes a deep breath, which leads into a sigh, as though the weight of the choice he''s making physically lays heavy. "That being said, I think we need to look for a way out of the caves. And, if given the opportunity, take the fight to the Grineer," he states. "Why?" asks Ella, with an expression of hurt.


    "Being a Tenno..." he starts, before stopping. I can''t tell from his expression if what he''s about to say is something he''s already known, or something he''s only recently figured out and is coming to terms with, or some combination of the two. "Being a Tenno means sometimes needing to take risks," he finally says. "We need to take action, not wait on other''s to save us. I''m not saying that we go looking for a fight, but if an opportunity ends up presenting itself, then we should take it." Tendrils of adrenaline wrap around my muscles, and the memories of last night''s firefight poke and prod. Even though I''m able to ignore them, it''s as though my body is trying to prepare for me for some theoretical future conflict.


    It''s too early though, and the excess energy is getting used up in random places; in a nervous leg bounce, in my turning stomach, in my overly tuned sensory awareness. "So, what are our orders?" I ask. I''ve no interest in being passive, but more immediately, I just want something to do, to burn off this nervous energy. "Well, we need to take stock of our resources. I want to know how much ammo everyone has for their weapons, and any grenades we didn''t use. We also need to go through the supply cart to get a count of exactly what we have. After that, we''ll start mapping the caves." Before he has the chance to assign roles, I jump to my feet and take a few quick steps over to the supply cart. He gives me a look of surprise, but quickly schools it, and I don''t catch anything else as I start pulling stuff out of the cart and setting them down on the floor in piles.


    There''s a brief pause, before I hear Caz divvy up the rest of the tasks to the others; Ella on explosives, Rease and Ko-lee on ammo. For his part, he helps me pull stuff out of the cart, which makes it easier for me to sort what we have. It only takes about 10 minutes to quantify everything, and it''s all laid out in small, semi neat piles. The final tally is both more and less than I expected.


    Five frag grenades, nine stun grenades.


    199 MRE''s, which can be split into 69 breakfast, 70 lunch, and 69 dinners.


    10 MRE wrappers.


    A weeks supplies of toiletries.


    Four bottles of high proof spirits.


    A single box of communication array replacement parts.


    Replacement water filters for an Aerostill, and an Aerostill, which had actually been running from the night prior, and had already seen use this morning. The Aerostill had been a snap decision by Ella, one I entirely missed during the chaos.


    Three lawhgs.


    Seventy one Braton/Burston magazines, twenty Furis magazines, ten Lato magazines, four Magnus magazines, and thirty Strun shells.


    One Magnus (which Caz claims), one Strun, and one Burston (which I claim).


    A holopad, with some light recreational reading on it, as well as updates from the previous squad.


    A metal box containing a dried flower, along with a slightly lewd love note to someone named Christen.


    Seventeen fosfor flares.


    Ten clotra.


    And finally, fifty unnamed spiky things. "They''re Talons." says Ko-lee, in response to my confused expression at the pile of three pronged devices. "Yeah, I can kind of see that," I say, tilting my head. "No, I mean they''re called Talons. They''re remotely detonated explosives," she explains. I give her a look, then back down at what now appears to be a very unsettling pile of metal. Then, I take a second look into the supply cart, just to verify. "Are you sure?" I ask, after pulling my head back out. "I don''t see a remote." She just shakes her head, pointing at her headset. "You sync them up with your eyes. You can trigger with a subvocalization, or by finger control, or in a pinch, by staring at them for thirty seconds."


    "Interesting," I say, taking a step away from the pile. "I''ve never heard of them." She raises an eyebrow at me, but I just give her a micro shrug; I had only reached mastery rank 22 before getting thrown into this shit show. They might''ve been a weapon in the game, but they aren''t one I''m familiar with. "I was looking into what an arsenal could look like for a higher ranked Tenno," she explains. "Unfortunately, we probably won''t be able to sync them as recruits." I look at the pile, this time a little more forlornly. "That''s a bummer," I say. "Could we shoot them?" asks Rease.


    <hr>


    "Forty nine talons," I think, mentally revising my count while my ears ring from the blast. I had shot the target using my new Burston, taking the opportunity to get used to the new form factor. Unlike the red and white of the Braton, the Burston has the same design aesthetics of the Tenno. The sweeping curves, the grays and blues and silver metals form a gun that seems to be focused as much on aesthetics as it does practicality. Still, the adjustment period is minimal, and it only takes a second to hit the tiny target. I had been able to land my shot on the explosive on my second three round burst.


    The Talon''s gripping feature luckily still functioned without needing to be able to sync. It meant that we weren''t limited to a ground based deployment for whatever it was that we were going to end up using these for. "It''ll be tricky," starts Caz, "since we''ll need a long sight line to use these effectively." His gaze walks up the wall to where tiny blades of metal had embedded themselves in the rock face. "Alternatively, we could trigger a Talon with a grenade," says Rease, his expression thoughtful. "I feel like triggering an explosive with a slower explosive is sort of missing the point," I think. I don''t get the chance to formulate a rebuttal, as Caz steps towards the squad and starts to speak.


    "Alright, everyone. I think it''s time for us to move out. There''s two exits out of here, so we''ll split into two groups." His gaze flicks between the four of us before he continues. "Rease, Annie, you two can take the closer tunnel, just over there," he says, pointing across the cavern, "and me, mouse, and Ko-lee will take the other path." He looks towards me and Rease, who''re already stood next to each other. "I want you to take it slow and steady, okay? Map out as far as you reasonably can, and keep in touch with us over shortwave. You run into anything, find anything noteworthy, just shoot a message." The two of us nod, and I give a thumbs up, before reaching out to touch Ko-lee on the shoulder. "See you guys in a bit," I say, before both groups make their way to separate tunnels.

 Fog of War

    Me and Rease trek through the tunnel, trading off on who''s holding the fosfor flare while we follow a twisting, winding path to some unknown destination. I watch as the stylized map in the top left hand corner of my vision slowly fills out the surrounding area; the fog of war being removed in a manner incredibly reminiscent of the game. "Well, except for the part where the in game map is 2D," I think. The center of the position - of my head specifically - is represented by a white triangle, while a blue dot represents Rease, and I watch as the two bits of geometry navigate a digital representation of the tunnel we''re currently in. Beyond the shuffling of our feet and the gentle hissing of the flare, the cave is effectively silent.


    Both of us have our guns in hand, but after the first hour of uneventful tunnel mapping, the mood is more awkward than nervous. Other than a handful of discussions on which tunnels to take, we''d barely spoken. "Should I tell a joke?" part of me wonder briefly, in an attempt to figure out the best way to break the silence. "No, that''s dumb," my mind argues. "Talking to talk is pointless at best, and at worst you just end up in an even more awkward situation when it''s clear you don''t have shit to say. There''s nothing wrong with comfortable silence. I don''t need fill the space with inane crap." Another 30 seconds crawl by. "We literally chat all the time," I continue musing. "Is this just a case of ''we don''t spend all that much alone time together''?" I consider the idea for a minute, contrasting the amount of time I spend with Rease, versus the others.


    "Actually, shit, I don''t really spend a lot of one on one time with anyone. Well, except for Ko-lee obvi." I cringe. "God damn it, am I bad friend? Should I be doing that more? Or am I blowing this out of proportion? ''Cause like, we do spend a lot of time together, in general. It''s just all group activities and stuff." I feel the thought roll around in my mind for a solid minute. "Eh, does it even really matter? Like, ultimately, we have the next five years together. I imagine it''ll come up naturally at points. Group cohesion early on is not a bad thing. Besides, it''s not like I personally have shit to talk about. I think this is just one of those ''social conventions'' I''m feeling obligated to fulfill. But Rease had all that time with his parents in space. He''s probably used to the quiet."


    My thoughts catch on that last bit, and I turn to Rease, now having an actual question for him. "Hey, Rease..." I start, cautiously. He turns to give me a single raised eyebrow, but doesn''t say anything. "Uhm, why weren''t you more gung ho about wanting to fight the Grineer back there? Like, I get the whole ''we don''t have enough guns'' thing, but even beyond that..." I trail off, not entirely sure how to put my feelings into words. He gives me a confused look. "Gung... ho?" he asks, chewing on the non Origin word. "Like, you know, ''Rahhh! Hell yeah, lets fuck em up!'' That sort of thing," I respond, with my best jackboot thug impression. He chuckles, and the sound runs ahead of us before fading out, an amused audience of ghosts just beyond the light.


    "Was that supposed to be me?" he asks, with a prodding look. I shrug, and keep a neutral expression on my face for the bit. "It was a theoretical gung ho person. They only had the one trait," I say, letting a sly grin on my face. "Being gung ho," he says, nodding. He looks away from me, and into the cave, but I''m able to catch his lips turn down ever so slightly. "Do you remember when we first got our weapons?" he asks me in the dim light. I waggle my head back and forth dismissively, flicking my eyes between him, and where I''m placing my feet.


    "Sort of," I respond. "I remember that Ravon basically made a Buzzfeed quiz for us, but not the specifics. Mainly, I remember what happened at the end of that class." He shoots me a sympathetic look. "Right, I forgot about that," he says, a touch of humor in his eyes. There''s a moment before he continues. "Well, I don''t know what Buzzfeed is, but I do remember what he said to me, specifically." His voice tightens, as though weary, in a shockingly good impression of Ravon. "You want to be in the middle of the conflict, or maybe you want to spread a little chaos. There''s nothing wrong with your choice of weapon, but if you find that you have that sort of impulse, I want you to make sure you think twice about any decision you want to make when in the field." I give him a small round of applause. "Solid impression," I say. He gives me a grin, but it''s weak. A facade.


    "It stuck with me, you know?" he says. "I''m not a rail agent anymore. I need to be... more reliable." He sighs, and for a fraction of moment I can see exactly how much it''s weighing on him, before it''s covered up with a careful neutrality. "Plus, having the Sarge die on me... literally on me?" He shudders briefly, before continuing. "I dunno man, it just... I don''t want that to happen with any of you." I feel the impulse to respond "It won''t", but I cut the death flag off before it passes my lips. He takes my silence as prompting and continues speaking. "Me and my mom and dad, back on the Chrysanthemum, we got into some squeezes here and there. It''s part of the job description," he says with a shrug. "And, as much as mom and dad tried to get me to do good, to see good in people... well, sometimes, you gotta get your hands dirty. I get that."


    "But!" he says, a touch louder, clearly trying to drive home a point. "Sometimes you think you gotta pull that trigger, when you don''t. Sometimes, there''s a different path to take, even if it''s all fucked up and rusted and stuff. Even if it''s hard, you gotta take that fucked up path, because the easy one leads to dead people, and you don''t always get to choose who it is that''s doing the dying." He shoots me a look, his face uncharacteristically serious. "You can''t unpull a trigger." I find myself nodding, as I consider his words.


    "Yeah. I see what you''re saying," I tell him. The fosfor flare I''m holding finally sputters out and dies, and as I drop the discarded husk on the ground, Rease lights another one. "You don''t want some revenge though?" I ask, after sorting out the flame. "''Cause like, on a theoretical level, I totally agree with you; killing bad. But I don''t think we can talk out our differences with these guys. And, if we were to sit around on our butts waiting for rescue, then they''d end up dying once the warframe showed up in like a week. They''d die very specifically because the warframe was here for us, as well. In both cases, we have a hand in it, but in one case, we might be able to get some catharsis." I explain. Briefly, I can''t help but compare my actions now, to what I''d done all those months ago in Sharip.


    "At some point, I went from ''no, we need to keep living, this isn''t worth it'' to ''I''m willing to take that risk''. Have I always been like this? Is this just what happens when you keep dodging death by a hair, and not doing anything about it, or have I always been this bloodthirsty?" I wonder in quiet horror. I can''t tell if it''s a change from being in this universe, or if it''s just a matter of practicality, but I''m jarred out of my musing by Rease. "I agree with you; they''ll end up dying. So, what''s the point in revenge?" he asks me. I scoff incredulously. "Uhm? For Sarge?" I shoot back, with a touch more heat than I intend to. "They tried to kill us. I think maybe a little blood is due." Rease just gives me a calm look. "Sure, but who''s blood? Who''ll end up paying, Annie?" he asks. I groan. "Yeah, okay. Like... I get it. I just..."


    "want to do," I think, finishing the sentence in my head. Being powerless back home was one thing, but here? There''s something about it that just fundamentally rubs me the wrong way, in a manner that I struggle to pinpoint exactly why. "Maybe that''s it," I think, in response to my previous thoughts. "Maybe the difference is power. I didn''t have it, and now I do, and I want to use it, but I''m being reckless about it. There''s a time and a place, and... I don''t know. This might not be it," I think, with more than a little frustration. "Still, there''s probably some middle ground. Maybe we sabotage them on the way out, or something. Blow a tunnel closed and trap them. More Tenno, less... gung ho."


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    "I guess there''s some brains under all that brawn," I mumble, after a few moments of contemplation. He looks at me, a wounded expression in his eyes. "Wait, did you think I was dumb?" he asks me. "W-n-no," I stutter, unable to find the right words to backtrack. After a few seconds of floundering, his expression shifts into one of humor. "I''m just fucking with you!" he laughs, clapping me on the shoulder with his free hand. "I''m just fucking with you. I know how I come across. It''s... sorta on purpose. I''d rather be the big slightly dumb goofy guy instead than the big scary smuggler," he explains with a smile on his face. There''s a pause, then a small sigh, and his smile turns slightly sheepish. "And... yeah, sometimes, I do mess stuff up. Like, I''ll not pick up on something that someone''s saying, or whatever. Not read between the lines correctly. I basically only ever spent time with my parents; I didn''t get a lot of time with people my age when I was growing up," he explains.


    "You were home schooled?" I ask, before my mind catches up. He furrows his brow at me, but just I wave him off. "Sorry, ignore me, that was... it was a stupid question." I can tell he''s going to press me on it, but our conversation dies as we come across what at first, appears to be a void cutting into the tunnel. My eyes struggle to resolve the pitch black nothing preventing us from progressing, and it''s only as we approach does it start to make sense. Our tunnel is sticking out of the wall of a cave, about 15 feet off the ground. The light from the fosfor flare only barely reaches the other wall as we stand near the edge, showing a space smaller than the ruins, but still sizable. The ground is covered in soft sand, and there are rocks jutting out here and there on the cave floor.


    "Trippy," I say, my eyes scanning the space. We both spend a few minutes glancing around from the top of the ledge, before finally, Rease turns to me. "Ladies first!" he says with a smirk, gesturing towards the climb. "Aw, chivalry isn''t dead!" I say, before turning away, and stage muttering under my breath, "But I might be." It gets a booming laugh out of him, and I feel buoyed from the back and forth. I hold on to the emotion as I carefully descend down to the floor. The rock wall is rough enough that the climb is easy, but it''s tricky to learn the path going down, since I can''t see where it is I''m placing my feet. "Yup, lookin'' good!" says Rease, standing at the top with the fosfor flare. I just roll my eyes, my attention on the climb.


    It takes me a couple minutes to get down to the sandy floor below, and once I do, I look up at Rease, my arms raised high in the air in a Y pose. "Tadaa!" I say in a sing song voice. I''m so busy waiting for his reaction that it takes me a second to realize that he''s not paying any attention to me at all. "Annie," he whispers, and something about his tone causes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I whip around 180 on the sand, my hands moving automatically towards my Burston, as my eyes try their best to pierce the gloom. I raise the Tenno weapon up to eye height, the stock pressed hard against my shoulder, but I can''t see anything.


    At first.


    I catch movement, and my eyes lock on immediately, but I don''t understand what I''m looking at. Some sort of organic pillar, like a snake standing straight up on it''s tip, is sliding it''s way towards me from across the cave. I see the one coming from the back, then another three, then another five as they all wind their way around the rocks towards my position. It''s only as they get a few feet closer that I can see the shifting sand, and hear the sound of scrabbling, digging. "Skates!" I yell, before letting off a burst. The gun flares to life, two out of three of the rounds hitting right on target. I watch as nearly black blood spills out on the sand, but the Martian creature seems mostly unperturbed.


    "Annie, climb!" shouts Rease, as a long brrrt rings out from above me. Metal peppers the sand around them, and some shots hit the exposed tails themselves, but none of the creatures seem to be deterred, still heading towards me with a grim surety. The tail at the front winds back, and my eyes widen, before I make a Rushing dive behind some rocks. The spike - some sort of ossified material - thunks into the cave wall beside me, adding to the sounds of chaos. From my slightly more obscured position, I let off a few more bursts, while Rease tries to cover me from above. Even with the minimal practice with the newer weapon, the accuracy of the Burston helps, and I manage to fully saw off the tail of the one closest to me.


    The skate unburys itself, a miserable squealing wail filling the air. It tries to make it''s way towards me, it''s manta ray-like body only a foot off the ground, but I fire into its back over and over until it collapses on the sand, dead. The other 7 aren''t put off by the display of brutality, and are only a few feet behind it''s corpse, quickly closing the distance. I run the numbers in my head, and feel a moment of grim resolve; I won''t be able to kill them fast enough before they reach me. "Grenade!" I hear echo around in the cave. I don''t see it, but I don''t need to, and as I drop behind the rock face, I manage to hear the gentlest displacement of sand. The frag goes off, a loud snapping bang, and as I scramble to my feet, I catch the sight of a huge cloud of sand in the air, just at it''s apex. As it falls down around me, I see three more skates are in various states of dead or dying, and I feel a small smile crawl onto my face.


    Five more round the corner.


    I drop a few English expletives, before reloading and introducing the swarm of creatures to Tenno engineering. "ANNIE! CLIMB!" shouts Rease, and this time, I heed his word. I fling the rifle onto my back, the magnetic clamping system grabbing it and holding it in place, and I throw myself up the rock face, hands and feet finding holds even in minimal lighting. I hear the sound of three more spikes hit the wall next to me, then feel two more hit my shield. The blue bar in my top right hand vision drops precipitously low. Two more spikes, one on the wall, and one on my arm. The blue bar disappears. The volley only took a few seconds, but it''s more than enough encouragement for me to pick up the pace. The climb isn''t long, but it still takes time, time I know I don''t have. I''m 90% of the way there when I feel a pressure, then an incredibly invasive internal sensation.


    Then, pain.


    More than I''ve ever experienced before; a hammer strike to the leg that causes me to gasp out and lose my grip on the wall. I feel my frame of reference shifting as I desperately try to recover my grip, before I feel strong, warm hands reach out to grasp mine. Rease yells in exertion as he nearly singlehandedly pulls me up and into the tunnel, before supporting me a few dozen feet away from the edge, where the skates can''t get an angle on us. My leg is throbbing intensely, and I feel lightheaded as I roughly collapse into a seated position.


    "Fuck," I bite out, as Rease busies himself with something. It''s a moment before I see him bring out the clotra, I give him a frantic nod, with tears in my eyes. "I need to pull it out first. You need to lay on your stomach," he says, as I desperately try to avoid looking at the spear sticking entirely through my leg. It''s a pointless exercise; my mind takes in every detail of the ridged, cone shaped object, a foot or two feet long, off center and covered in gore. My gore. My blood red on the bumpy projectile, on the floor, on Rease. My insides not where they should be. My stomach revolts at the thought, but I clamp down on the impulse, and turn my attention to getting in position. It takes more effort than I expected to lay down, and the protrusion on the front makes it so my leg is askew, the muscles pulling on the wound. "On three," he says, his hands on the back of my leg. I feel him grab onto the spike, and without a word, he immediately yanks it out.


    "AGHHH you JACKASS," I yell in English, fighting the impulse to grab at the wound. My eyes burn, my cheek sting from the torrent of salt pouring from my eyes. He ignores the outburst, and I feel him press the medical device down, causing the surrounding area to spawn a new burst of pain. Then, a numb wave, and a sensation I can only describe as "thick" as the clotra goes to work on the surrounding area. I slowly rotate around so that I''m no longer on my stomach, and watch in morbid fascination as a foam-like material spills out of the wound, hardening almost instantly. The pain subsides, and the throbbing decreases, but doesn''t fully dissipate for a couple minutes; time I take full advantage of to catch my breath, to let the adrenaline drain from my system. "So..." says Rease, after what''d been nearly five minutes of silence. I open my eyes to glance at him, from my propped up position against the tunnel wall across from him. "Not that way."

 Enemy Of My Enemy

    For the first twenty minutes of the trek back to camp, I''m confident that the injury isn''t that bad. It''s only after I narrowly avoid a bad spill that Rease rolls his eyes and forces me to use him as a support. "I don''t know what sort of point you''re trying to prove," he says, as he helps me hobble back towards camp. "I know exactly how bad that hit was." I ignore the pulse of sensation from putting my injured leg down on the ground too heavily, and huff at him. "I''m not trying to prove anything," I explain. "I just don''t want to be a burden. I can make my way back to camp myself." He shoots me a flat look, and I feel my face turn red, but I keep my eyes locked on his, refusing to back down.


    "Sure, you could," he says, "if you were willing to take it slow, to avoid tripping or hurting yourself even more." I can read between the lines, and eventually, I break eye contact. "Annie, seriously. What''s this about?" he asks, an undercurrent of worry in his voice. I take a deep breath, turning his words over in my head. "What is this about? Frustration at getting hurt, at not being fast enough at climbing? The worry that if a few skates could fuck me up this bad, what might a platoon of Grineer soldiers do? Maybe denial at the injury itself? Some sort of childhood trauma manifesting in an odd way?" I wonder. There''s a moment of consideration, before an important question occurs to me. "What am I trying to accomplish by refusing help?" I don''t have an answer.


    I flick my eyes up at Rease, who''s been patiently waiting as the gears in my head turn. "I don''t know," I answer truthfully. I can tell there''s worry there, genuine concern, but I''m unable to give him a satisfactory answer. Instead, I just give him a cheeky grin, as a way to lighten the mood. "Maybe I was just hoping you''d get so fed up at my hobble that you''d scoop me up and princess carry me back to camp," I say with a teasing lilt to my voice. He chuckles, a quiet sound that I can feel vibrate in my arm wrapped around his neck. "I can, if you want," he responds, a single eyebrow raised. I giggle, the image of Rease carrying all six feet, one inches of me into camp in his arms, then feel a touch of heat in my ears as I really think about it.


    Then, of Ko-lee, who''d quietly worry about us, and refuse to communicate. Sure, I''d be able to make the case that he was just helping, and that we''re poly, and that it doesn''t matter, but ultimately it would just be adding stress to an already stressful situation. "I mean, in a perfect world she''d have more time to come to terms with it, after the convo on the ship," I think. I can''t read the future- well, I can''t read this future, so all I''m able to do is play it by ear. As entertaining as it''d be to have Rease carry me, it''s just not worth introducing new problems. "I think I''ll take a rain check," I tell him, a small smile on my face. "Maybe after Lunaro. Those games are brutal." He nods, and we continue the trek down dusty red halls towards base camp.


    By the time we get back, we''re the second to arrive. There''s motion through one of the stone windows; clearly someone on lookout for us. At first, it''s casual, but even at a distance I can read the energy. Recognition, then panic, then leaving the lookout to tell the others... "I''m okay!" I shout across, in an attempt to stem any possible panic from my appearance. It still takes a minute for Rease and I to cross the gap from tunnel to ruins, and by the time we reach what was likely at one point the front door, we''re met by the rest of the squad.


    "Why didn''t you message us?" "Are you okay?" "Are we under attack?"


    Of course, I''m immediately peppered by questions, and I raise my hands, in an attempt to stem the tide. "Guys, seriously, I''m fine, we''re fine. Sort of fine," I say, as Rease leads me over to a rock bench. I try to sit down gracefully, but awkwardly collapse the last few inches into the seat. "We didn''t message because the whole thing happened in like a minute. By the time either of us could''ve sent anything, it was already over, and we didn''t want to worry you," I explain to the three.


    "But what happened?" presses Caz. His keeps glancing between my eyes and my leg, his jaw tight and his eyebrows impressively furrowed. "A shit ton of skates is what happened," says Rease, drawing their attention. I nod my assent. "Yeah, pretty much," I say, causing everyone''s attention to swing back towards me. "We''d mapped a few tunnels, found a few dead ends caves and collapsed portions, that sort of thing. Then we ran into this one cavern. The tunnel led into it, but it was 15 feet off the ground, so you needed to climb down to get the ''floor''," I explain with air quotes. "So we spent a few minutes in the tunnel, trying to see what we could see, but it seemed empty. So then we drew lots on who''d actually climb down," I tell the three. Rease gives me a glance, but I don''t react to it at all. It''s a minor lie, but I figure it''s better to consider my injury dumb luck, rather than having them place blame on Rease for what was effectively a freak accident. "So yeah, I ended up climbing down first. That''s when they swarmed."


    "Yeah, at first, there was like eight of ''em. But then we popped a few, and then more rolled around the corner. It was like every damn skate on the planet decided to swing by; they just wouldn''t stop coming," says Rease emphatically. "I tried to cover Annie as she climbed back up, but they didn''t seem to care that I was tearing them to shreds. She got hit right as she got near the top. I pulled her over the edge, pulled out the spike, and hit her with some clotra." Ella''s brows furrow, clear confusion in her expression. "Eight skates?" she asks, putting emphasis on the number. "At first," I tell her. "Maybe seven or nine, and then there was the second group that rolled up."


    "Skates don''t normally group up more than four at a time," she says slowly. "They''re very territorial. To see that many in one cave like that... well, it''s really odd behavior." Her expression is thoughtful, as though trying to recall what info she can from her late night research session. Rease scoffs. "Yeah, well, you should tell them that," he says. I nod in agreement. "Yeah, they didn''t seem to care about anything except me down there. It was like, the second I hit the sand, they came running," I explain. "Maybe they''re running from the Grineer," Ko-lee offers. "If they got pushed down the tunnels, that ledge would''ve forced them all together." I can''t quite parse her expression, but it almost seems like she''s happy about that.


    "Yeah, well, next time I''m in the neighborhood, I''ll ask them," I respond cheekily. "What about you guys? Was it as dramatic as mine and Rease''s adventure?" Ko-lee wobbles her head back and forth in a "so-so" motion. "Lots of dead ends, same as you. Also, more ruins. We spent most of our time exploring those before we turned back around," she explains. "Hmm. Anything interesting? What did it look like?" I ask. The ruins we had were neat, but small, and it had only taken me an hour to memorize every nook and cranny of the space. The most interesting thing are the carvings dotted here and there, but I''m unsure if they''re some sort of pictogram language, or just the equivalent of Martian graffiti.


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    "There was one place," says Caz, his fingers moving. "I think it was a place of worship, or something along those lines. I took some notes, and snapped a few pictures," he says, right as a I receive a notification. My attention shifts to the icon in the corner of my vision, and a few thumb swipes bring a number of images to the forefront. "Mostly the layout gives that impression," he explains, as I jump between pictures. "Otherwise, pretty much the same as this one; lots of dust, a bit of metal, and basically nothing else. A lot more carvings, though," he says, as my eyes land on one set of pictograms. I zoom in, and I can feel my brows furrow as I look at the figure.


    "I mean... maybe I''m crazy, but that kind of looks like Inaros..." I think, as I stare at the picture. "Is this just me seeing what I want to see? Pareidolia, or something?" My eyes scan what might or might not be Martian script, and I try to deduce some sort of meaning from them. "You didn''t happen to find some jars while you were there? Like, wrapped in cloth... maybe a glowing symbol on them or something...?" I ask. There''s no response, and I pull my attention away from the pictures, finding nothing but puzzled expressions from the others. "Uhm, never mind," I say, waving them off. "So, what''s the plan then? Keep exploring the ruins? Try to find the front door? Or are we going to fight our way through the skates to see if there''s something in that direction?" I ask.


    "Go gung ho on them," Rease says, nodding. I feel a smile form on my face, but I do my best to prevent it from pulling my attention. "Maybe," says Caz. "It''s clear that they were running from something, but I don''t know how we''d bring the fight to them without putting ourselves in a tight spot. You said they didn''t come running until you touched the sand?" he asks me. I respond with a nod. "So maybe we could drag the cart down the hall, and toss that down onto the sand to draw them out. The lifter panels should displace the sand at least a bit. Maybe they''d think it was footsteps," he muses. "We don''t know if there''s anything down there though," Ella points out. "I am sort of interested in why the skates were acting like that, but we could end up using a lot of resources for no reason. The ruins would be easier to explore; we could even move our base further in and camp out in one of those ruins so we don''t have to make the trek back and forth."


    "We could end up using a lot of resources explore the ruins as well. We don''t know if there''s anything in either location," counters Ko-lee. "But we do have a count of supplies now, and we could-" Caz cuts her off. "We''re not using the Talons to excavate the tunnel," he says. "We''ve already been over this." I look between the pair of them. "Hold on, I haven''t been over this? What''re you guys talking about," I ask. Caz gives a tiny sigh, and gestures for Ko-lee to speak. "I was thinking we could use the Talons to excavate the original tunnel, and bait the Grineer towards us. They''d be in a kill box, and we could trap the area with explosives." She seems confident in the idea, almost excited.


    "They''d have to be suicidal idiots to push into a tunnel after we used enough explosives to blow a hole in the rubble," Rease points out. "They are idiots," Ko-lee responds, a frown on her face. "Suicidal idiots," Rease reiterates. "We''d just end up in a standoff." There''s something hidden under the word "standoff", and my imagination briefly runs away with what sort of standoff''s Rease might''ve run into back in his smuggling days, before I refocus on the discussion. "The ruins are more likely to have an exit attached to them," Ella says, obviously attempting to drive attention back to her idea. "If we-"


    Our conversation is halted by a low, rumbling growl echoing through the ruins. There''s a pause, and more than one set of hands moves closer to their weapons. Nearly 30 seconds go by, before anyone feels comfortable enough to speak. "Maybe we should just have the lakotay bore a tunnel out for us," jokes Ella. There''s a round of chuckles, and it''s enough to lighten the atmosphere for the rest of us. "Yeah, and it''ll eat the Grineer along the way," continues Rease, a goofy smile on his face. "Well, if any of you know how to speak spider worm, I''m all for it," I say, leaning into the bit. "Oh, yeah, I''m fluent," says Rease, before letting out a rumbling belch.


    There''s laughter from me and Caz, and a smile from Ko-lee. Ella scrunches her nose, but it''s clearly an over exaggeration for the sake of humor. Rease just shrugs nonchalantly. "Yeah, that''s ''come on over'' in lakotish, although my accent needs work." The image of one of us summoning a lakotay is followed by one of us leading it with a rope, followed by another one where we''re corralling it like a sheep dog. I sit straight up, as though hit by electricity. "Could we?" I mutter. "What?" asks Ko-lee, a curious look on her face. "Could we? Could we actually?" I repeat, this time for the rest of the squad. "Could we... get the lakotay to bore a tunnel out for us?" Caz repeats, slowly. Rease gives me a look of bemusement, but Ko-lee looks thoughtful.


    "Yeah? Sarg-Sarge said that they move towards rumbling sounds, but away from impact sounds. Obviously we don''t have the tech to make a loud rumble to draw it towards us, but if we could get around it somehow..." I say, getting more and more excited. "You mean with the Talons," Ko-lee clarifies. I nod excitedly. "Yeah! We could corral it where we want to go! Like a sheep dog!" I explain. There''s a few confused glances at my simile, but I press on regardless. "I mean, obviously, we''d need to find a lakotay, and get behind it... but besides that," I say. "Oh, sure, besides that minor issue," says Rease, giving me a bemused grin. "Did you have one in mind?"


    "Uhm..." says Ella, drawing our attention. I trace her gaze towards the tunnels; specifically, the tunnel that me and Rease had come from. "Maybe the skates weren''t running from the Grineer?" she offers cautiously. By this point, any exhaustion I had from the trek over is entirely gone, my body flooded with endorphins and adrenaline at the idea. "Let''s... take a break for now," says Caz, killing my momentum. "We''ve been moving since we woke, but we can''t run at 100% all day. Even if we do end up exploring those caves, that won''t be until at least tomorrow." He tells the squad.


    "And that''s if we explore that cave, over moving into the ruins. And I''m not saying that we''re going to try to corral the lakotay, even if we do end up in the cave," he continues, his eyes on my eager expression. He rolls his eyes at me, just a bit. "Whatever we end up deciding to do, it''ll be when we''re a little fresher." He sighs, and it''s like I can see the weight of leadership fall off his shoulders. His gaze shifts towards the supplies, then slides back to us, as a vulpine grin forms on his face. "I don''t know about you guys... but I could use a drink."

 Worm Grunting

    I wake up the next morning with tightness in my temples, the previous night''s dream slipping though my fingers. I can''t remember the details, but the emotion lingers; a feeling of importance, of something greater that I''m missing out on, something that''s quickly being washed away by the mundanity of real life. "Although, I guess it''s not really that mundane anymore," I think with a chuckle. The sound makes my head pound slightly, and memories of the night before come back to me in fragments; more explicitly, the excessive amount of spirits we had been mixing with the powdered juice''s from our MREs. The alcohol was strong, some sort of grain spirit, but it had an aftertaste that I couldn''t quite put my finger on, which likely led to me drinking more than I should''ve in an attempt to nail it down. The drinking, while maybe not the smartest thing to do behind enemy lines, had helped us relax in the chilly stone ruins, something we''d all needed after the firefight with the Grineer... and Sarge.


    "Probably not the healthiest way to deal, but it''s a good bandaid," I think. My eyes glance over to the now currently dry patch of stone where we had "poured one out" for our field officer. Nobody had wanted to change the watch rotation, so Ko-lee''s the only one currently awake, and she watches me as I slowly make my way to my feet, and over to the MREs to start prepping breakfast for the two of us. "Ready for some wildlife corralling?" she asks, a bemused grin on her lips. "Assuming Caz still wants to do it," I answer offhandedly. "He said he was," Ko-lee responds, and I grin at the memory. "Yeah, well, our esteemed squad leader said a few other things too, so I don''t know how much we can hold him to his drunk ramblings."


    "None of it," groans Caz, causing me and Ko-lee to chuckle. "...except the lakotay bit," he continues, after stretching and yawning. He gives a non committal shrug, before looking at me and Ko-lee. "I doubt we''ll find the thing, but yours and Rease''s tunnel won the coin flip. If we''re headed down that direction anyways, we might as well prepare for it. Even if it is a long shot," he explains. "Hell yeah," say Rease, his head popping up from behind Caz. Caz jumps, a look of confusion on his face, before it grows red, eliciting another round of chuckles. "I guess I win the bet," Caz mumbles mumbles, very intentionally not looking at Rease.


    "Money well spent," I say, digging into breakfast. Caz just rolls his eyes in response, pointedly not responding, before hopping to his feet and making his way over to the half filled bottle of spirit from the night before. I watch with morbid fascination as he takes a swig straight from the bottle, and swishes in his mouth, before swallowing it. "What the fuck?" I say, a bit more forcefully than I''d intend. Caz frowns at me, but I shoot him a look of confusion back. "You just woke up!" I point out, in defense of my exclamation. "Yeah? And I was drinking the night before," he states, like I''m the weird one. "It helps with the headache." I open my mouth to tell him that "no, it doesn''t work like that," when I''m reminded of hair of the dog. "Oh, yeah, I guess that is a thing," I think to myself. "Maybe not in quite such a viscerally stomach turning way, but still."


    "I''ll stick with electrolytes and greasy food," I say, before turning back to my watered down juice and dry nutrient cubes. He just snorts and caps the bottle, placing it next to the three empty ones. He takes a few steps over to Ella and kneels down, gently touching her shoulder. "Mouse, you awake?" he asks, uncharacteristically softly. She opens her eyes, and looks around at the rest of us, before sitting straight up, a shocked look on her face. "I''m sorry! I turned my alarm off last night! How long was I asleep?" she says, the words spilling out half formed. "We''ve only been awake for a few minutes mouse," Ko-lee says to the smaller recruit. "You didn''t miss anything."


    "It''s been an adventurous minute, actually. I don''t know what you''re talking about," I joke, before turning my attention back to Ella. "Also, we all owe Caz money." Rease clears his throat, a goofy grin on his face. "Correction, everyone who Caz didn''t use as a pillow owes him money," I reiterate. The chatter continues for the next 20 minutes or so as we all go about our morning routine as best as we can in the ruins. As we do, I keep getting distracted by flashes of something, words being said that almost-but-not-quite dredge up memories of the previous night''s dream.


    It''s clearly outwardly noticeable, as Ko-lee shoots me a message asking if I''m okay. I shoot her a quick thumbs up, while refocusing my attention on the current conversation. "I mean, Caz got to cuddle someone, and you all got a bit of enjoyment, but what about me? I didn''t get anything out of being a pillow!" says Rease, with faux frustration. I raise an eyebrow towards Rease, a lecherous grin on my face. "Nothing at all?" I say, prodding. "Not the way my ship flies," he responds, shaking his head. "Bummer too, cause otherwise I''d be swimming in it," he exclaims, sighing dramatically. There''s some more laughter, and during the pause, Caz takes the moment to stand, drawing everyone''s attention.


    "Okay," he says. The atmosphere sobers up as he glances at the four of us, not speaking a word. He doesn''t need to say anything, since the plan is relatively straight forward, but there''s clearly a moment where he considers laying it back out again, just to have something to say. He opens his mouth, then closes it, and gestures towards the tunnel with a hand. "Well... let''s go see if we can catch a ride."


    <hr>


    The walk to the cave is shorter than I remember, likely because we aren''t taking any of the closed off paths, but also because my leg is in more of a functional state than the day before. It still hurts slightly, but it''s a dull ache, easy to distance myself from, only noticeable when I place too much weight on it. I end up with a noticeable limp because of it, but I''m still able to make my way down without needing support from anyone (although Ko-lee is clearly keeping a close eye on me regardless). Trailing behind us is an empty hover cart being pulled by Rease, occasionally rising and falling as it maneuvers it''s way around the rocky terrain.


    "Fingers crossed that it draws the skates out," I think to myself, as I glance at the cart. The plan was that if it couldn''t, Ko-lee would be bait, as she was confident she''d be able to climb back up much faster than any of us. No one fought her on that; even though we''d all markedly improved on every metric - from shooting to climbing to the rest - Ko-lee had managed to hold her position in this particular instance, even if the gaps between the placements had narrowed significantly. I''m a touch nervous, but unlike before, there''s four people able to lay down covering fire, rather than just one, which should drastically improve our odds of this going well.


    Still, the idea of using my girlfriend as bait sits uncomfortably in my stomach as we get close the drop. Like before, approaching the cave itself feels like approaching a void; it''s only as we move closer that the light from the fosfor flare is able to reach the back wall and illuminate the space. A quick glance down doesn''t show a pit of skates patiently waiting for their demise (as convenient as that would be) and so we all make room for Rease to maneuver the cart towards the edge.


    It takes him a second for him to remove the harness, walk around to the "front" of the cart, and begin pushing it off the edge. I watch as the lifters on the backside of the cart suddenly have nothing to push off of, and with a loud clunk and a screeeeech, the cart begins tipping over the edge. Rease gives it one more shove, in an attempt to keep the cart upright as it hits the sand. It doesn''t quite work; the cart tilts to one side as it goes down, landing with a whumph in the sand below. "I mean, if they have ears, they probably heard that," I think. The five of us stand there in silence, as the right side lifters push the sand away from the cart, creating little divots that slowly grow in size.


    "How long did it take the skates to show up last time?" asks Caz, glancing over at me. "Instantly," I respond, as I try my best to spot shifting sand or strange, upright pillars. Nearly a full minute goes by, until Caz sighs and turns to Ko-lee. She doesn''t even hesitate as she swings one leg over the edge, then the other, quickly scrambling down the rock face to the cave floor below. I''ve got my gun raised, sights aimed at roughly we''re I''m imagining they''ll come from, and I note from the corner of my eye the other three doing the same. Ko-lee tilts the cart back the right way up, but her eyes are scanning the cave floor, her body primed and full of untapped motion as she busies herself.


    She paces back and forth a few times, and even gives a few shouts, but after 10 minutes of no activity, it''s pretty clear that no skates are coming. "Guess they moved on," I mutter. I feel oddly disappointed. "I''m glad Ko-lee''s safe, but it would''ve been nice to absolutely lay into the pricks," I think, as I make my way down the small cliff face. It''s a few minutes before all four of us descend, and Ko-lee has her gun pointed down range the entire time, just in case. Luckily, it''s entirely uneventful, and once we''re all gathered, we head towards the barely visible tunnel entrance at the opposite side of the cave. There''s a few glances; apprehension, eagerness, and so on, and conversation is light as we begin to map the new tunnels.


    <hr>


    Much like the previous expedition, there''s a lot of doubling back, as we encounter one dead end after another. The ever growing map shows a digitally rendered labyrinth of tubes as we make progress farther and farther in; some terminating, some hidden by the fog of war as we chose one route over another. "It''d probably be a smidge faster if we split up," I think, as my eyes scan the stone, "although I doubt anyone wants a repeat of last time." The ground vibrates under our feet, the sound of rocks tumbling over themselves bouncing down the tunnel, but we barely react. After the first ten times, the event had stopped being particularly noteworthy, and other than an indication that the lakotay was, in fact, located somewhere in the tunnels, the noise hadn''t been particularly helpful.


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    "Any guesses?" I hear Caz ask, from in front of me. "Farther away," I say. Ko-lee shakes her head. "Definitely closer," she counters. It''s a pointless exercise; with the amount of split paths, and the way the sound echoes, it''s entirely impossible to orient with. "An emotional roller coaster, honestly," I think. The plan to corral the lakotay had started as a pipe dream, but there had been an upswing in excitement when we started hearing the growls near the beginning of the hike. But as the day wore on, the idea began to slip back into the realm of impossibility, and with it, our high spirits. Caz''s footsteps slow in front of me, and I mimic him to keep a distance, my eyes peeled for anything noteworthy.


    Instead, he takes a breath, and turns to the rest of the squad. "Let''s take a break," Caz says. There''s silent assent from the rest of the team, and we go about setting up a perimeter with two fosfor flares some distance out from where we''re sitting down; an arbitrary stretch of tunnel that looks identical to every other stretch we''d passed through in the last six hours. "Well..." starts Ella, drawing our collective attention away from the MRE''s we''d started to dig into. "We haven''t found the lakotay, but we''ve made a lot of progress," she tells us, her voice upbeat. An attempt to inject some cheer into the subdued atmosphere of the group. "Right," says Caz, after a few moments of awkward silence. "We haven''t found the lakotay, or the Grineer... or anything, really, but we''ve probably mapped somewhere between 12 to 15 miles of tunnels total so far. Which, that''s not too bad."


    Ko-lee nods in agreement. "If they didn''t twist so much, and all the tunnels we''ve explored were end to end, we''d probably be out of the field by now," she points out, in between bites of food. "Yeah, but that just means we need to keep going," Caz responds in agreement. "Not-not all day," he clarifies, likely in response to something I don''t catch. "Every step in that we take, we need to take back out. But maybe we push in for another three to four hours, before we turn back? Remember, the trek out won''t take nearly as long; we''ll have a straight shot, relatively speaking, instead of running into dead ends."


    "I just wanna know where those knock off stingrays went," I say, trying to find a comfortable spot to rest my head against the rough stone wall. "They had to have come down this way. Think they slipped under like, some part of a collapsed tunnel, or something? Juked us with all the dead ends?" I ask to no one in particular. "They probably just took one of the other paths that we haven''t explored yet," answers Ko-lee, in response to my musing. "Yeah, but what was it mouse said? That they were running from something?" says Rease, jumping in. "I mean, we haven''t seen anything; no skates, no conims-"


    "Conits," says Ella, over enunciating the T. "Be healthy, mouse," responds Rease, instantly, as though she had just sneezed. Ella scrunches her nose, and he gives her a grin, clearly having baited the response. It gets a chuckle out of the rest of us, and Rease smiles, satisfied, before it melts off his face. I almost ask "what''s wrong" on instinct... but I already know what the problem is.


    "A dead FO. Being stuck underground, behind enemy lines. An unprepared squad leader, and no HQ support to lean on. A general lack in field expertise that this operation was supposed to solve. Although, getting thrown in the deep end like this? It''ll end up being one hell of a learning experience once we get out," I think. "Or if we get out," a quieter part of my mind responds. I pull myself out of my head, and focus instead on my friends, my food, and the vibrations against my skull, in an attempt to avoid spiral-


    "Wait," I say out loud, interrupting a back and forth about whether or not a conit would taste better than a nutrient cube. Everyone stops talking, and in the silence, it''s easy to notice that the vibrations, which had been consistently inconsistent during our trip, aren''t stopping. The recognition dawns on the others, one at a time, but I''m too busy readying myself. My MRE falls to my side, and my hands swing to my gun as I use the wall raise myself out of a sitting position. The other four do the same, and within mere seconds we''re positioned back to back, our eyes scanning the tunnel in both directions for the source of the sound.


    The vibrations, which were barely noticeable less than a minute ago, are violent. The tunnel itself is shaking, aggressively shaking, and I can feel my heart rate pickup as some primal part of my mind is stuck in yellow alert. The earth feels likes trying to tear itself apart, and I lower my center of gravity to avoid getting knocked on my butt. A stray rock bonks off the top of my head, and I glance up, my eyes widening at what is first a trickle, then a full on downpour of rocks. "GUYS," I yell, projecting my voice over the sounds of the tremors. I don''t see their reactions, as my eyes are glued to the ceiling, and so I get a horrifyingly cinematic view of a monster breaking through.


    A void with teeth; spindly legs attached to a cylinder of flesh and bone and chitin bearing down straight on top of us, dentine smashing and chomping and gnashing as the tunnel is lit by gunfire. The legs on it''s face/head reach out, a horrifying fusion of spider and worm that almost feels designed to evoke fear, and no command is needed to convince us to book it down the hall away from the front end of the beast. It''s body fills 90% of the cavern, and the legs near its face scrabble around, supporting it and pulling it so that it doesn''t just come slamming down into the empty space. Small mercies.


    As it becomes fully exposed, I unfortunately get a better grasp on it''s size (roughly 10 feet or so in diameter), but with it comes the tiniest spark of hope in the dire situation. The creature - the lakotay - is only moving at a walking pace as it heads down the tunnel towards us. "Stop firing!" yells Caz, over the sound of scraping and groaning. "Fall back!" It doesn''t take more than a single command to convince the squad, and we begin sprinting down the dark tunnels as quickly as we can, our fosfor flares sacrificed to the Martian terror. We have spares, but there are a few tense moments as we navigate the tunnels lit only by the point cloud representation of our headsets.


    "Space Trauma!" yells Caz, and if I wasn''t so tense I''d giggle at the way he said it. "It''s not moving that fast! We need to pace ourselves, we can''t keep sprinting!" His words are a light balm, and we all manage to slow our footsteps, at least to the point of not having Rush active. There''s still urgency, but after some physical distance from the jarring sight of the lakotay nearly coming down on top of us, we all manage to get our panic under control. "Holy shit!" says Rease, his expression flush with excitement and exertion. He laughs, and it''s tinged with nervousness, but it''s infectious, and we all chuckle for a few seconds, as we power walk back towards camp.


    "We should figure out how to get behind it," says Ko-lee. For a hot second, I''m convinced my girlfriend is insane, until I remember the plan. "Oh, fuck me," I think with exasperation. Any excitement I''d previously had had been doused by the appearance of the creature, but her eyes are shining with glee, and her familiar focus sparks something in my heart. Caz, on the other hand, is clearly not enamored with the idea, but credit to him, he doesn''t immediately shut it down. "Well," he starts, "maybe if we use one of the other tunnels to back-"


    The tunnel explodes.


    Stone is thrown against the opposite wall, as the lakotay makes a violent reappearance. "WHY''S IT TRYING TO EAT US," I yell, as we all lean on Rush to make an expedient trip out. A quick glance at the map makes it clear what the problem is; the tunnels twist and wind and double back. The trip back to the cave is twelve to fifteen miles if you''re forced to follow the path. The lakotay isn''t. We''re moving faster than it, but we have to take the long route while it can just barrel straight forward towards us. Why it seems to want to do that isn''t entirely clear, but nightmare worm doesn''t seem willing to open a dialog. "Double time!" order Caz, and there''s not a single hint of disagreement amongst the squad.


    We push ourselves, running a half marathon in what would''ve been records times back home, leaning on Rush during nearly the entire trip. Based on the decreased intrusions from the lakotay, we''d managed to put some amount of distance between it and us during the trek, but it isn''t entirely clear how much. Still, any distance is good distance, and so as we break into the cave room, we all start climbing up the wall, sorting ourselves from fastest to slowest without needing to say a word. Ko-lee, of course, reaches the top fast enough that I imagine even Terror Wins would be impressed.


    Ella, using Rease as a springboard, is nearly as fast, and Rease manages to follow up with an equally impressive showing. Caz''s hands are on the wall itself when the lakotay decides to make it''s appearance. I watch for a moment, as it''s spindly arms crawl it''s heft towards the two of us, before I glance over to realize that Caz is back on the floor. "Yeah, I don''t think I''d want to rock climb in an earthquake either," I think briefly, before locking my gaze on the lakotay. One of my hands strays to a Talon, as a half baked plan forms in my mind. Something involving tossing the talon to scare it off, hopefully in some manner that doesn''t involve me losing limb or life.


    I never get the chance. Moments before it reaches me and Caz, it veers slightly to the left, and Caz takes the opportunity to tackle me onto the ground to the right, only an arms span away from the creature. It tears through the rock, and I watch as it''s rough, chitinous form slides along the sand, headed towards some unknown destination, before exiting completely, leaving behind nothing but a sour smelling goop and a third tunnel out of the cave. Me and Caz have a perfect view of the tail of the lakotay, and we watch in silence as it tunnels in a straightish line, with only a small tilt up. After a minute or so, it fully disappearing, leaving us with nothing but a slowly quieting rumble. "Shit," says Rease, from above us. "Guess it already knew the plan."

 The Cavalry

    On rough estimation, Rease''s words don''t even seem that far fetched; the path left by the lakotay did, in fact, seem to head in the direction of the exit, or at least the tunnels near the exit. Still, the plan had been to lead the lakotay in the direction we wanted. Instead, it was taking on a life of it''s own; an opportunity that we''d need to jump on immediately, or be left behind in the dust. "Buh dum, tsk," I think, as the cloud of sand and rock dust settles around me and Caz. We had come prepared with the resources we''d need to direct it, and even follow it into battle, but now that we''re actually being presented with the option, there''s a general sense of unease, of unpreparedness amongst the squad.


    "Or maybe I''m just projecting," I think, my hands fiddling with the various equipment strapped to my body. Rease, Ko-lee, and Ella all make their way down from the ledge as me and Caz stare into the tunnel left behind by the lakotay''s jaunt. The opening yawns, vaguely reminiscent of the void inside the worm''s gullet. There''s no doubt on whether or not we''re following it into the darkness... but the question remains on whether we''ll be chewed up by Grineer armaments as we forge ahead, or if there''s a light at the end of the tunnel. "Spooky," says Rease from my right, succinctly putting into words all my feelings on the matter. "I''ll be honest, I wasn''t really expecting the whole ''lakotay'' thing to work out," Caz admits from my left. "I was just hoping we''d be able to get out from under the suppression field as we explored the tunnels, and radio out. I''m honestly really surprised this went according to plan."


    "It didn''t," Ko-lee points out. "The plan was for us to force it towards the Grineer. But, for some reason, we didn''t need to." The unsaid is clear as day. "If it''s moving in that direction, but we''re not making it do that, then what is?" Caz shrugs, a ghost of the irreverence that had pervaded his every action since first meeting him. To be fair, it had never really gone away, merely lessened over time, but it''s uncomfortable seeing him be so flippant about leading us into an unknown danger. "Squad leader," I prompt, giving Caz a jolt. "What are our orders?" There''s no humor in my expression or my tone, and I watch his level of detachment recede, as his eyes jump between me and the others.


    He blinks a few time, then looks back at the tunnel, as though seeing it for the first time. "Right," he says, before once more looking at the four of us. "Right. Well, our plan was to point the lakotay towards the Grineer, and either use it as an escape option, or as cavalry in a fight. From what I can tell, it seems like it''s already doing that. However, I can''t be entirely sure which of the two options it''ll end up being. That means we need to go in expecting a fight." My hands drift towards my Burston, and Caz notices the motion, a small smile forming on his lips.


    "So, it''s a good thing we''re equipped for one. It might not be exactly on our terms, but no plan survives contact with the giant spider worm." It doesn''t feel like he''s being flippant, more like acknowledging the absurdity. It helps lessen the tension a bit, and he locks eyes with each one of us before continuing. "If we don''t capitalize now, we likely won''t have another chance. What''s more, the tunnel means that we''re likely no longer cut off from the Grineer. So the options are to do this on their terms, or ours." He pulls the Braton off his back, the gun held comfortably in his hands, ready to end life in an instant; a preference stated. He smirks. "Let''s go introduce them to our new friend."


    <hr>


    The five of us make our way into the tunnel left by the lakotay and begin hiking after it, trying to close the gap to more effectively capitalize on our friend''s arrival. But even with it''s slower pace, the creature is some amount ahead of us, and ours is slowed by the need to clear the occasional gaps in the stone and full on intersections that the lakotay had crossed through. Each one is like a stop sign as we scan for enemy combatants, human or otherwise. Our pace is also slowed by the darkness of the tunnel, since we''re avoiding the use of fosfor flares. Not as much as it would''ve been in one of the lava tubes, but it adds up. The odds that the Grineer would somehow miss the giant stone chewing worm but manage to notice a flicker of light after the fact are slim, but it''s still not a risk worth taking, and by the lack of suggestions otherwise, it seems like everyone agrees.


    "Still, I''m glad the tunnel is nice and even. Easy on the feet," I think, forming a mental map from my various senses. Even in the darkness, the point cloud representation, the touch of my hand, and the steadiness of my feet creates an image in my mind of the smoothness of the tunnel. I take a deep breath, the acrid sting of the hot mess left in the center of the tunnel causing me to scrunch my nose. The smell is off putting, but more frustratingly, the material is hot, filling the air itself with heat. It''s not enough to be dangerous, but it''s enough to be unsettling; to cause sweat to drip down our noses, to clash with the heat being generated by our own, adrenaline fueled bodies.


    I carefully place my feet, making sure to avoid the refuse, same as everyone else. "I feel like in a different context, this would be very funny," I think. Instead, the tension in the air is thick, and the five of us continue down the tunnel in resolute, stoic silence. My eyes glance up to the map in the top left of my vision, and I feel my heartbeat speed up slightly. What was five or six miles of curvy tunnels has turned into barely one, and I can see that we''re approaching previously mapped terrain. A message popping into my headset causes me to startle; the artificial brightness aggressive against the encompassing darkness we''d been moving through.


    CV: The lakotay is headed towards something, but the upcoming intersection is one we''ve already passed through. We can keep following it, but it might not lead us anywhere effective. I''m thinking we split off here, try to head towards the entrance instead. Hopefully the lakotay will keep the Grineer distracted for the few hours it takes for us to leave.


    It''s clear from the message what it is he''s doing. He''s giving us the information he has, and the reasoning behind why he''s making one choice over the other. Commanding, but leaving room for us to interject, to disagree. Just in case. I''m suddenly hyper aware of how close I was to being in his position; of having to make a decision with limited information, of having the lives of my friends in my hands, of not having the experience of leading but being forced into the role regardless. "Do we stay or do we go," sings a part of my mind, the chorus of the Clash song at odds with the apprehension in the air. Another message comes in.


    KL: I agree. The tunnel is too straight, and I''m not sure that rumbling is coming from the lakotay.


    It takes me a minute to understand what she''s saying, and when I do, my eyes open wide. The ever present vibration beneath our feet had been building and falling, building and falling, but I had just assumed that that was a quirk of how the lakotay processed the tunnel; each gap of air from an intersection lending to periods of decreased shaking. It''s only as I focus my attention on it that I''m able to parse out two different sources; one organic, of a creature moving through stone, chewing and grinding and groaning, and one mechanical, a mathematically perfect sine wave cutting in and out on a dime, with seemingly no pattern to it. I stand there for a few moments, taking it in, before another message pops up.


    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    CV: The idea was to take the fight to the Grineer. But this might be something else. Infrastructure, or maybe Corpus interference. If I was confident it was just soldiers, then I''d say we keep following the lakotay. But I''m making a call here; we leave the way we came in.


    I can hear the tiniest sigh of relief in the otherwise roaring silence of the tunnel. There''s no more discussion, and I watch the little blue dots on my HUD in front of mine start to move forward once again, this time turning away from the newly formed tunnel and back into the familiar territory of the lava tubes. We slow as we trade old for new, the flooring janky and unsteady, but there''s an electric feeling in the air. One of barely concealed excitement, of the sense of a finish line just around the corner. A quick zoom out on my map shows that it''s maybe a two hour trek before we''re once again under open sky.


    I feel my heart skip a beat, but a pragmatic part of my mind dampens the flame. "Closer to three or four hours at this pace," it says. "A lot can happen in four hours." I do my best to relax my jaw from it''s clenched position, and try to shut out the bleak voice from invading my psyche. I''m so focused on my mental state that at the gasp from Ella my heart jumps into my throat. My gun snaps up and my eyes desperately scan for targets in the gloom. There''s a second before my eyes are able spot the form of the Grineer low to the ground, fractionally lit by the subtly emissive glow of his eyes. It takes all my willpower not to immediately put a bullet in his face, and the only reason I don''t is because I''m fourth in line; if the other three hadn''t already pull their triggers, then I don''t need to as well.


    A few more seconds go by before I realize why, and when I do, I feel the MRE in my stomach turn. "What the fuck?" asks Ko-lee, her voice soft, as she kicks the boot of the dead Grineer. "Shit. You think the worm did this?" asks Rease, his eyes trained on the crumpled form of the soldier. "It didn''t go this way. Also, the lakotay would''ve eaten him," Ella responds, somewhat robotically. The Grineer''s face is smashed in; bones and teeth and cartilage and flesh all in the wrong place. Flaps of skin are squished out of cracks in the armor, as though trying desperately to escape some sort of overwhelming force, and finding any and every exit to do so. It''s legs... his legs, the body''s legs, the legs of the man... and his arms... and his chest...


    The tunnel feels oppressive, claustrophobic, even more than usual. That ancient, reptilian part of my brain focused solely on survival is screaming at me to get out of there, to flee from some unknown danger. As though that isn''t something I''m actively working on. "There''s more," says Caz, a few yards down. It''s a trip through the world''s most gruesome museum; an example of the myriad ways someone can be killed. There is, of course, the standard brutalization that all of them seemed to have experienced, but they all have something special that makes them stand out.


    One has wounds similar to the first one, but on his chest instead of his face. His bulky armor is shattered into so many pieces, scattered around like macabre confetti. Another is missing limbs; shear lines cut straight through armor and bone and flesh as though the obstructions merely suggestions than any real defense. One even gets Rease to snap out one of his more creative smuggler curses, one I''ve only had the chance to hear once or twice - usually while drinking - in more lively, upbeat, environments. "Did he eat a fucking grenade?" Rease asks, trying to piece together what had happened to the man to cause him to end up in multiple parts about the place.


    I glance around, and do in fact spot more than one or two scorch marks. It''s clear that whatever event had fallen upon these soldiers, explosions played a significant role. "It''s still warm," says Ella, leaning away from a pool of blood. A thermal scan with my headset shows that the the temperature is 15 degrees above the cool temperature of the tunnel. "This is weird," says Caz, "but it doesn''t change anything. Our goal is to extract, and we already knew we were down here with the enemy. We''re not gonna get any answers from staring at corpses, not without spending more time here than I''d like."


    I don''t exactly agree; it feels like not taking the opportunity to get information just means we''re entering a situation blind. But the corpses are unsettling, and the light at the end of the tunnel beckons, and so I hold my tongue. He takes a quick breath, and hefts his gun in front of him, before gesturing for us to follow behind. "Keep your trigger finger limber, and let''s move," he tells the four of us, before taking point once again.


    <hr>


    It only takes 30 minutes before we stumble upon another scene of devastation; this time, in a wider part of the tunnel. A single minute of examination of the corpses and scorch marks reveals an unsettling fact. "They''re fresh," says Ko-lee, her expression unsettled, but focused. "But how? How haven''t we heard anything?" asks Ella, a clear note of fear in her voice. Even now, when speaking, we''re quiet, and beyond the occasional vibrations, there''s been no sound during the trek. The black marks on the wall and the shell casings on the floor insinuate that whatever happened to this squad was loud and dramatic; something we should''ve been hearing 10 miles down the tunnel.


    But the warm pools of blood and corpses barely into rigor mortis insinuate that the event could''ve happened right before we rounded the corner. The two facts are incongruous, and in that pin drop silence, every single once of us hears the shift. We spin around, our guns raised and pointed at one of the previously-assumed-corpses. "HOLD FIRE," orders Caz, his voice snapping out across the four of us, and bouncing down the hall. I cringe at the volume, but otherwise don''t react. He closes the distance, only a few steps covered near instantly with Rush, and kicks away the Hind that the solider had been feebly reaching for. The man is wheezing, his movements limp and puppet like. His hand grasps for his mask once, but fails to connect to it, the weight of gravity and armor plating to much to overcome. Caz reaches out, but halts at the last inch.


    It''s only for second, and then he closes the gap; touching the mask, turning it and removing it, allowing us to see the man face to face. He looks rough; blood drips from his nose, and his eyes are a jaundice yellow, with an aggressive red mark stretched across his face. "Yeah, how much of that is normal though," I idly wonder, as the Grineer wheezes on the floor. "What attacked you?" asks Caz, in awkward Grinesh. The solider hisses, and tries to spit at Caz, but instead burbles up a bloody bubble, the weakest of attempts dribbling down his chin and into his suit. "Ramn... Tenno... skum," the soldier wheezes. I don''t need my translator to fill in the blanks for me, the expletives clear across language barriers.


    "What. Attacked. You?" asks Rease again, his expression severe, his voice sharp. "T-TENNO," says the Grineer, his voice carrying hatred even in his dying moments. I''m not the only one that takes a few seconds to realize what he''s saying. "It''s one of us," I think, looking over the mutilated and eviscerated corpses. "The good guys." Caz sighs, his expression aggressively neutral, as he stands up out of his squat.


    He says nothing as he reaches for the Magnus at his hip, leveling it at the Grineer''s head. "SON OF A GUT-" is all he manages to croak out, before the loud CRACK CRACK of two rounds pierce straight through his unarmored skull. He turns to look at the rest of us, and I can''t help but glance around as well to get a read on everyone''s opinion of the execution. Unbothered, shaken, grim, resigned. "It''s cold, but it would''ve been crueler to leave him to slowly die out," says some pragmatic part of me. "Plus, leaving a living enemy combatant at our backs? It was the right thing to do."


    "Even if I agree it''s the right thing to do, it doesn''t mean I can''t feel bad about it," I argue with myself. The internal back and forth is cut off by movement out of the corner of my eye, and within a fraction of a second, five guns are leveled at a form in the hallway. Trigger discipline is - thankfully - immaculate, and no one fires on what clearly isn''t a Grineer. They''re lithe, imposing, and feminine, but it takes a few seconds for me to be able make out any details in the dark. The excessive shoulder pad, asymmetric. The wide helmet, touches of gold filigree, mixed with blues and grays and whites; a simplistic form, a human form that later designs would end up straying from.


    A legend.


    A spirit of death.


    A warframe.


    Banshee.

 Banshee

    A familiar voice echoes out in the darkness; professional to the point of detachment. The sound is nerve wracking and soothing all at the same time. "Hello, Space Trauma," says the Lotus, through Banshee. "It''s good that all of you are alive." There''s no pause to her words, no shift in body language, but I can feel her attention on me. Her gaze from the void, passing through Orokin engineering to pierce through layers of tech infused polymers, through skin and muscle and electrical signals to some ineffable essence that represents my truest self. "Your ship was being monitored as it passed through the blockade; once we were unable to ping your transceiver, the closest warframe was dispatched to your location."


    The voice continues speaking, but there''s a change in some hard to pinpoint quality of the sound. "I was able to use my Sonar to locate you, although there were a lot more Grineer here than I expected. They were dug in like ticks. If I''d known, I''d''ve brought something a little heavier," says whom I''m assuming is the operator, via Lotus, via Banshee. Her words cause me to look around at the devastation surrounding us; the pockmarked ground, the corpses dismembered, eviscerated. Then, back towards the Banshee, who''s stood in front of us gracefully, casually, spotless. Not a single scratch or speck of blood resides on the frame, as though the entire event was merely a casual stroll in the park for her.


    Effortless.


    A silver, rectangular weapon dangles in one hand, and I can feel my brain whirring on a different thread to try to identify the familiar weapon. A glance at the black spots on the floors and walls helps me join the puzzle pieces together. "A Penta. A grenade launcher," I think, with more than a little apprehension. "Still doesn''t explain why we never heard it being fired." Caz steps up towards the frame, and the Banshee gives him what I can only imagine is a confused glance. Or maybe bemused. Or hungry. "Or I''m just reading into expressions where there are none," I think. "Uhm, miss warframe? ...Lotus?" starts Caz, in a subservient tone I don''t think I''ve ever heard him use before. His body language is subdued, and I watch as he struggles to say something to the warframe. "I''m Caz-V, Squad Leader for Space Trauma. The... uhm, the Field Officer..."


    "Come on kid, speak up," says the killing machine, and I fight to avoid reacting at their words. The idea of it being my operator - a four foot, black and yellow haired teen - calling Caz - a mid twenty something - a "kid" is inordinately funny, although I can''t help but wonder if maybe I''m just starting to lose it a little with all the stress of the day''s events. "Starting to?" prompts my mind. I ignore it. Caz takes an unsteady breath, and closes his eyes for a moment. When he reopens them, it''s like a mask has dropped over his face; his expression ice, detached.


    "Sargent Letmin is dead," Caz explains, his tone clinical. "Upon entering base camp, he took command of the squad, and ordered us to fall back towards extract. During this, we encountered a trip wire linked to explosives. During the process of disarming the trap, we made contact with the enemy. Sargent Letmin was injured during the initial conflict, and succumbed to his wounds at some point during the retreat. His body is located near base camp, behind the collapsed tunnel connected to the restroom. We were unable to bring his body with us, as we had no way to preserve the corpse, however, we have his ocular display as a token." The Banshee just looks at him, or mimics looking at him, but is entirely still. Unbreathing.


    "Let''s get the five of you out of here," says the Banshee, after a few moments of silence. I can fee a minor weight lift off my shoulders. A single straw off the proverbial camel. I know we''re not safe, not until we''re out of the tunnels and back under amberglow sky, but having a warframe leading us feels like a sharp increase in our odds of survival. The Banshee moves past us to take point, and sets a brisk pace as we continue our trek towards the exit. I, and everyone else, have our guns at the ready like before, but the Banshee is moving fast. Too fast for us to check every patch of shadow or person sized crack in the wall. I take the time to ruthlessly squash the impulse every time it flares up. "If there was an enemy nearby, the warframe with built in Sonar will probably notice them," I tell myself.


    Logically, I trust that they''ll do their job, but I can''t help but be apprehensive about placing my life in the hands of a faceless kid, no matter how good at murder they might be. A memory flashes in my brain in response; every in-game rescue mission I had ever played. Barring the first few, the process had stopped being "carefully lead the Tenno towards the exit, killing any and all enemies along the way", and had morphed into "bullet jump to the end as quickly as physically possible, then let the game auto teleport the rescuee to the exit".


    "Still, as sketchy as it''d be for Banshee to fly off without us, I''d absolutely take it, if it meant a free teleport to safety," I think with a slight smile. My semi idle musing is interrupted by a ping in my headset; a group message specifically, one started by Caz.


    CV: The Lotus sent a warframe after you?


    I cringe. I''m not entirely sure how to answer the question in a way that won''t just invite more. I take a few seconds to think of a response as we half jog down the tunnel.


    AN: To be fair, she sent a warframe after all of us.


    Another ping, the clear tone causing me to flinch slightly.


    ET: No, she didn''t. Standard operating procedure says to send an investigative squad first, not to escalate straight to a warframe. Plus, she said that our ship was being monitored, and I''m pretty sure she didn''t mean in the regular sense. It''s obvious that you are downplaying your importance, just please don''t treat us like idiots.


    Her words cut straight through me. I open the prompt to begin a new message, then close it, unsure of what to say. "Fuck, I hate this," I think. My gaze flicks towards the warframe in front, who''s every step is elegant, flowing. There''s no reaction, no hitch in her step, nothing to indicate that the Lotus is monitoring our messages. "Just like how she wasn''t monitoring our conversations with Ko-lee in the Unum. Or like how she wasn''t monitoring our conversation with the squad during lunch. Be realistic," my mind reprimands.


    I glance over towards Ko-lee, catching her eye, and she shoots me the slightest eyebrow raise, along with a shrug. My head is spinning from exhaustion, and I can''t even begin to fathom what the microexpression is meant to convey. Ultimately, it''s irrelevant; I know that I''m sick of having to dance around the squad with what I know. I''m clearly important enough for the Lotus to have a warframe on standby, and I feel confident that I can make a case here, now. I know I''m being impulsive, but I''m too off-kilter to care. "I want to tell-" is all I manage to voice, before the Banshee shouts.


    It''s not her voice, but it''s a voice. It''s the sound of the corporeal under stress as a wave of force shoots off down the hall. The fabric of reality itself warping and wobbling, space tinged an invalid blue as air rushes in to fill the displacement. There''s not exactly... light, but an emissive glow; some noneuclidean touch of void located in some undefinable direction from the effect, pushing everything along. Then, sparks. Actual, real particle effects; flashes of light where the air is hyper compressed, sparking in tiny dots that feel like static in my eyes.


    And then I''m on the ground, around the corner, my body moving faster than I can even really think, as the Banshee fires down the hall, towards enemies that hadn''t even finished rounding the corner. I scramble to find a more advantageous position, to try and draw a bead on the enemy from cover, to help in the fight, but the lack of gunfire towards any target other than the warframe makes it clear how little of a threat we pose compared to the six and a half foot tall weapons platform. I watch as the grenade launcher in Banshee''s hands spit out three grenades in quick succession, but there''s no expected thump accompanying the shots.


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    The Grineer fire back, and their''s don''t seem to have the same issue; the weapons spitting and shouting in clear opposition to the warframe''s. A background thread that had been running in my mind from the moment of meeting the Banshee sends me an alert. "Banshee passive. Silent weapons," I think, watching her direct violence like a conductor. "The first thing was Shout. She mentioned Sonar. And her four..." I watch, frozen in a heady mixture of awe and fear as the Banshee places her hands on the floor.


    The tunnel roars to life. It tries it''s best to shake itself apart; rock dust falling to the ground, cracks forming as the warframe channels eldritch energies straight into the ground beneath out feet. I feel like I''m standing on a fault line, barely able to keep upright, even with the support of the rough stone wall to my left. But for all the difficulty I seem to be facing, it appears to be a thousand times worse for the Grineer. I watch as the remaining few still standing after her initial assault seem to... fall to pieces, in a very gruesome, literal way.


    The sound of the Grineer''s bones popping and cracking like wet fireworks is a nightmare, but the entire battle - if it could even be called that - is over in less than twenty seconds. As the last corpse slumps and stills, the Banshee rises, slowly, steadily to her feet. The motion is slow, elegant, full of intent. Her head turns slightly, and that self same presence I''d felt when encountering the Ember all those months ago comes crashing to the forefront. The absolute devastation that I knew that they could cause, now actualized; on full display for the five of us to see. Even though I know logically that they''re on our side, the sight of the power at their literal fingertips causes my body to fill with fear, the breath in my throat catching. "Ready to go?" asks the Lotus/Banshee/Operator, their voice unperturbed. Not clinical, or cold exactly, but truly, genuinely unbothered. The same sort of tone you''d use to let your friend know that the crosswalk sign was green. We couldn''t have crossed before; we''d be hurt. Now we can.


    It''s safe.


    We walk past the fresh corpses; some ripped apart by the initial Shout, some by grenades, and some internally shattered by the Quake. "Fuck me. Which one these poor bastards got off the easiest?" I can''t help but wonder, as we step past the Bashee''s handiwork. "What did you do to them?" asks Ella, her voice barely a whisper. From the direction of her gaze, it''s clear which ones she''s referring to. "I can channel my energy into the ground, causing it to shake. That, in turn, creates elemental stresses on the body, which in turn rips them apart from the inside out. Minor explosive fractures, veins popping, organs rupturing, that sort of thing," the Banshee explains, their voice matter of fact.


    "But... how are we okay?" asks Caz, voicing the question I didn''t realize I had. "Because I didn''t want to hurt you," responds the Banshee. From the tone, the words are clearly meant to reassure. "Why would the Banshee want to hurt us? We''re all Tenno! We''re all on the same side," the words seemed to say. But somehow, that just makes it all the more unsettling. That the only difference between unsteady footing and vibrating to death is the Banshee''s perception of us. "Can a warframe go rogue?" I wonder. "You mean like the Stalker?" My mind helpfully replies. I try to force the voice out of my head, to focus on putting one foot in front of the other, to avoid spiraling on the thought.


    Instead, I get a follow up. "Dead is dead is dead. A single bullet while we''re unshielded can kill us. Banshee isn''t any worse just because she''s more creative about it. Also, there''s no point in worrying about Banshee turning on us. I mean, Ko-lee could slit our throat while we sleep. Rease could turn his Braton on us. But they won''t, and it''s not something we worry about, because it''s a stupid thought. Don''t think stupid thoughts." It''s comforting... in a weird, derisive sort of way, and helps pull me back from the edge. "Probably not healthy, but, eh," I think humorlessly. I shift the weight of my gun in my hands, and turn my focus back towards the hike.


    <hr>


    We continue walking for another few hours, and only encounter the Grineer a single other time. Just like before, they''re dealt with quickly and effectively... and messily. "Still, dead is dead," I think, doing my best to avoid staring at the mutilated corpses. On more than one occasion, Banshee had cast an ability which shrouded us in Silence. Not only did it fill in the missing ability I had been wondering about, but it allowed us to cross certain area''s without needing to get into more firefights. "Although, that''s really more of a bonus for them," I think, my eyes flicking back and forth between the map and the path in front of me. "I doubt they''d say thank you though."


    The roughly hour and a half it''d taken for us to get to where we are now had given the five of us time to grow a little more comfortable with the human shaped WMD. "I was going a few rounds back and forth through the tunnels cleaning up," the Banshee explains to Ella, in response to why she''d been behind us when we encountered her. "I was going to try to locate you via Sonar, after I was confident the tunnels were empty, but the Grineer were like an infestation. Every time I killed five, ten more would show up out of nowhere. And then you just... showed up out of nowhere!"


    The voice is still the Lotus'', and so it has that same cool, slightly synthesized tone to it, but I can almost imagine the operator behind the words themselves. "Oh, yeah, it was the worm," Rease helpfully fails to explain. "The... worm?" questions the Banshee, her head turned slightly as though trying to hear him better. "I wonder if that''s an affectation, or if there really is some sort of audio in where her ears are supposed to be," I think. I''m so caught up in the idea of warframe physiology that it takes me a second to realize we''re coming up on the exit. Tendrils of sunlight are just about able to reach in, hinting at an end to the endless winding tunnels. I''m simultaneously wound up and tired, but the sight opens the floodgates on my emotions a little.


    My vision grows a touch blurry, and I blink a few times to clear the moisture collecting, fighting the smile that keeps trying to form on my face. "Don''t start celebrating too quickly," my thoughts remind me. I know we still have the flight back, and the debrief, and everything else, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel in more ways than one. "A lakotay, they''re called. They''re very, very neat!" responds Ella, excitedly. "I think it was attracted to the sound of your shockwaves. It probably thought that you were another of it''s kind, and it was moving towards you because it wanted to... uhm. Mate." The Banshee laughs; an odd sound coming from the Lotus'' lips. The five of us step into the sunlight; first the Banshee, her attention on Ella directly next to her. Then me, Rease, Caz, and Ko-lee. I hear a sigh of relief or two as the sun warms us; spiritually, if not physically. "I wasn''t aware of the creature," says the Banshee. "I''m not deployed to Mars often, so-"


    There''s a loud crack from somewhere above us, behind us. Rease and Caz dive to the left. Ella''s diving forward, a step ahead of the rest of us, but not really towards anything, just forwards. I try to dive to the right, with Ko-lee, but there''s a sound, a sound in my ear, a high pitched keening. My eyes are locked on Ella for some reason, on her prone form, making it hard for me find cover. She can''t be there, in the open, but I know it doesn''t matter for some reason, and I don''t


    I don''t know why it doesn''t matter, but


    Why doesn''t it matter? Why would it matter? Why? Why?? Why??? WHY???? <strong style="font-size: 1.4rem">WHY??? <strong style="font-size: 1.5rem">WHY!? <strong style="font-size: 1.6rem; text-shadow: -1px 2px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4), 1px -3px 1px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.4), 3px -4px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2), -4px -3px 1px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.2), -6px 7px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2), 7px -5px 1px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.2), -19px -13px 1px rgba(0, 8, 50, 0.18), 21px 14px 1px rgba(205, 213, 255, 0.18), 14px -11px 1px rgba(0, 13, 80, 0.13), -15px 10px 1px rgba(175, 176, 255, 0.13), -10px 12px 1px rgba(0, 20, 130, 0.1), 11px -8px 1px rgba(141, 125, 255, 0.1)">WHY!? <strong style="font-size: 1.6rem; text-shadow: -1px 2px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5), 1px -3px 1px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.5), 3px -4px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3), -4px -3px 1px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.3), -6px 7px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3), 7px -5px 1px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.3), -19px -13px 1px rgba(0, 8, 50, 0.28), 21px 14px 1px rgba(205, 213, 255, 0.28), 14px -11px 1px rgba(0, 13, 80, 0.23), -15px 10px 1px rgba(175, 176, 255, 0.23), -10px 12px 1px rgba(0, 20, 130, 0.2), 11px -8px 1px rgba(141, 125, 255, 0.2)">WHY!? <strong style="font-size: 1.6rem; text-shadow: -1px 2px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.7), 1px -3px 1px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7), 3px -4px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4), -4px -3px 1px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.4), -6px 7px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4), 7px -5px 1px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.4), -19px -13px 1px rgba(0, 8, 50, 0.38), 21px 14px 1px rgba(205, 213, 255, 0.38), 14px -11px 1px rgba(0, 13, 80, 0.33), -15px 10px 1px rgba(175, 176, 255, 0.33), -10px 12px 1px rgba(0, 20, 130, 0.3), 11px -8px 1px rgba(141, 125, 255, 0.3)">WHY!?


    I break, and then, so does everything else.

 Second Dream

    22 hours ago


    I''m eating dinner at Denny''s.


    The best part of waking up, in my cup. I take a sip, but I''m not a huge fan of the syrupy taste; too aggressively sweet compared to the food I''ve been eating. "Too much creamer," I think out loud. I look down at my plate of edible. "And why Denny''s?"


    "It''s your dream, Mona," I respond, in the bench booth across from me. The shattered ceramic in my hand unexplodes, each piece clicking in, and as it finishes, I read the writing on the cup. "I''m dreaming," I read out loud. It takes time for the words to fully register. "I''m dreaming," I repeat, now truly cognizant. I look up at the thing that looks like me; a self same twin with eyes of void and darkness, pinpricks of light shining in their eyes. They''re wearing my security jacket, the one destroyed so long ago, while I''m still dressed in the TEPA I fell asleep in. "I''m the fingertip impressions pressing in on this world, why would I be dressed in anything else?" she murmurs. I can''t tell if it''s to me, or to themselves.


    "Wally?" I ask, surprisingly less perturbed than I know I should be in this situation. A head loll; laziness and playfulness, corrupted whimsy in their grin. A chuckle on their lips, as though I''d said something funny. "Monaaa", they sing in reply, the voice a detuned chorus of itself. I furrow my brow. "What? Why are you calling me that?" I ask. I''m not really sure if I want her to call me anything, but the name she''s using isn''t one I recognize. My thoughts are molasses, pitch drop slow despite the lucidity. It takes me some time to remember why it feels so off. "Wally calls the operator ''kiddo'' specifically because it''s a nickname one of their parent''s called them," I think, with some amount of difficulty. My mouth keeps opening to voice every thought, and it takes nearly all my focus and attention to keep the thoughts inside. "No one''s ever called me ''Mona'' though, so I don''t really know what they''re referencing."


    "Au contraire!" It giggles across from me. "Well, that was a waste of effort," I think. "She does, and she does! But you don''t know what you don''t know," they teases, their voice at odds with what is clearly Tame Impala over the diner speakers. "All this running around, I can''t fight it much longer," croons Kevin Parker, while I do my best to get a read on the entity in front of me. "A thirty minute process to pick that song, and it was all for you!" it says, forceful on the final word, an off kilter emphasis. "Why are you in my head? Why are you in my dream?" I ask. I don''t feel scared, or angry, or really much of anything at all, as though my emotional impulses are dulled by the dreamscape logic.


    Mostly, I''m just confused, and a little annoyed at the nothing words my doppelganger keeps spewing at me. "Ah, ah, ah! No jumping ahead now, that''s spoilers!" they respond, with a cheeky grin. "Really? A Doctor Who reference?" I think, rolling my eyes. I pinch myself on the arm, to no avail. There''s the idea of pain, but none actually present, and more importantly, I don''t find myself waking up. She shakes her head despondently, tutting at me as though I''m a disobedient child. "Oh, if only it were so easy. You see, we all have our roles to play. You, the protagonist, obviously. Me, the trickster." They pause, and I open my mouth to cut them off, but they continues speaking before I have the chance.


    "You know, Lewis Hyde describes the trickster as a ''boundary-crosser''?" it asks, shooting me a look. "I don''t know who Lewis Hyde is," I respond flatly. It shrugs. "Me neither." I stare at the entity, trying to impress upon them my frustration I know I have, but don''t feel. "You sure you''re not the antagonist?" I ask. "Not in this story," they respond, shooting me a impish grin as though we''re sharing in some sort of inside joke. "And as the protag-"


    "No," I say, the words out of my mouth the moment I realize she''s about to offer me something. A laugh, a chuckle, a giggle, all three at the same time. A grin, a hair too wide, edging towards the uncanny valley. Character rigging stretched too far. "Hold yer horses there, cowgirl!" it says, in an aggressively bad midwestern accent. My attention is briefly pulled away by a tumbleweed rolling down the isle past our booth. "No thanks," I say, my words clipped, as I shift my attention back to the entity.


    "I don''t need to hear anything. Why would I make a deal with you? I know that you know that that''s a shitty idea. I want to get home, but I''m not going to doom everyone here to get it." In some ways it''s harder to be, but in some, it''s easier. I have none of the messy wetness of a physical form, of fear hormones pushing me to make a bad choice. My decisions are closer to how I feel at my core; logical, but not unfeeling. "Oh I GET IT," they snap. A flash of rage, buried so quickly, I can''t help but wonder if I imagined it.


    They sit in the office chair across from me, spinning slowly without any force acting on them. "You want to Do so badly," she taunts, a childish bent to her tone. To my tone. My voice. "Oh, but poor Mona doesn''t have the power to win, does she? Thrown in the deep end and told to figure it out. Alllll those people in Sharip... Toasted. Roasted." I flinch at every hard syllable coming out of my mouth/her mouth/it''s mouth, but I do my best to avoid rising to the bait. "It''s a fucked up world," I respond coolly, "but you gave power to the operators, and is anything any better? I think I''ll take my chances."


    "And what happens when you leave?" they asks, their head propped up on one hand. "What about the next person who slips through the cracks, hmm?" She bats my eyes at me, projecting innocence, confusion. The TV in the corner of the basement flicks on, showing the English writing on the engine I''d bought on the relay. I take in the notation once more, as though the words hadn''t already been burned into my mind.


    42 - Jaksun - Earth - Protected from cityWatch: No Touchy!


    "I''m supposed to believe you''ll give me enough power to stop you from pulling people through?" I scoff. I''m about to follow up, but I''m cut off by it''s chuckling. She shakes my head, the picture perfect representation of an adult amused with a child''s misunderstanding. "I''m not pulling people through!" they state, as the though the mere idea preposterous. "Why would I WANT you here?" it presses, and for once, I''m at a loss. "Wh-because! I don''t fuckin'' know! You''re the Man in the Wall! You just, like... do shit!" I exclaim, ignoring the irony of their current female form. There''s a touch of energy, a pushing against the current of the river, but it quickly fades as the emotions drain out of me.


    The pair of us watch as the antigreen colored material drifts away from us. "Nice reference," they say. I just stare at her uncomprehendingly. There''s a tilt of the head, hair falling in front of my face, and even though it''s not attached to me, I feel the urge to brush it out of my eyes. "I have all the toys I need in my toybox," it explains patronizingly. "But someone is throwing things across the rooooom and I''m NOT having fun picking them UP." There''s genuine frustration there, and for a brief amount of time, I entertain the idea that they might be telling the truth. "So... what? Someone else pulled me in?" I ask. A nod, and then, in a surprising twist, a name.


    "Sol," says the entity wearing my skin. "The... sun?" I respond, confused. I feel a flare of heat on the back of my neck, and she shoots me an unimpressed look. "Someone called Sol, then," I clarify, before continuing. "And... what, they''re in the void, reaching through dimensions, just... pulling random people through?" It nods my head, singling out a single grain of sand from the pile on the table. "And unfortunately, I can''t really stop them," they say, trying and failing to pick up the grain of sand by pinching at it.


    I''m able to get a clear view of the missing finger as it does, and I glance over to my hand to find it intact. "Why? Why would they pull me through? Like, me, specifically?" I press. "Why does anyone do anything? Because they wanted to," the entity explains unhelpfully. I sigh, and my breath blows all of the sand off the table into Wally''s lap. They look inordinately pleased. "So, you want me to... like, clean up for you? Remove Sol from the void?"


    "Would you kindly?" they quip, a clear reference to the trigger phrase from Bioshock. "You''re acting like I''ve said yes, but I haven''t yet. Maybe I want Sol in the void," I say. But I know it''s a weak justification. "Enemy of my enemy only works if they aren''t also fucking me over, which they''ve already done by dragging me into this universe," I think. I know Wally can hear it, but they''re pretending they can''t, so I continue musing.


    "Me, and at least one other, if the engine is anything to go by. With a name like ''Sol'', they''re almost definitely Orokin. And pretty much every high ranking Orokin has been a fuckin'' piece of work. Nihil, Ballas, Entrati... on top of that, reaching across universes is fucked up on a whole new, and specifically personal, level. Still, this seems like it''s way above my paygrade. Plus, maybe it''s relevant to the 1999 update or something, and it ends up being dealt with anyways." I shoot myself a look. "You haven''t really explained why this is a ''me'' problem," I tell the entity.


    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    "Sigh," they say. She literally says the word "sigh", drawing it out like a real sigh, before throwing their arms over the bench booth. "How''re the tunnels, Mona? How''s the rest of Space Trauma?" it says, resting my head back, gluing my eyes to the ceiling. I glance up, but don''t see anything other than the word "gullible" scribbled in pen. Even without looking at me, I can see the muscles of my face shift into a malicious grin. "Don''t fucking touch them!" I snap, a touch of that energy from before, returning.


    This time, it doesn''t fade, and I use it to lean forward, in an attempt to intimidate the eldritch being. I''m so focused on posturing, that it takes me a fraction of a second to react to my face springing forwards straight towards mine, only to halt a few inches away, at a speed so quick that I can''t help but flinch. I take a step or two back, and try to brush it off. "You''re so confident you''ll make it out of those caves without my help? So confident that you''ll be able to deal with Sol without my help?" Their expression flattens. "And don''t act like you didn''t add that one to your to-do list," she exclaims, at a level just under shouting.


    I bite down hard enough to make my jaw ache. I hadn''t actively thought about dealing with Sol, but on quick interrogation, I realize that my mind had made the choice for me, and I''m not happy with Wally knowing this information before I do. "I can help you," it exclaims, in a slick, oily tone. I feel something dripping from my ears, and raise my hand to find some sort of shimmering material, but quickly dry my hand with a towel before shifting my attention back towards Wally. "I can give you the power you need to save everyone. To make sure that no one like you ever suffers again. All you need to do is say


    YES


    Wally stares at me with my own face, and it''s unsettling, looking into the cosmic dark pits where my eyes are supposed to be. I had always considered the effect in game pretty, like the night sky, but looking at it now, it''s unsettling in a way I can''t exactly put my finger on. Like looking at the darkness between a cracked door, or at the bottom of an unlit staircase. "Listen, I know you''ve been unfairly maligned against me. So how''s this; you can have the powers WITHOUT any terms," they say, before splitting into a wide grin. "All you gotta do, is leave the caves without anyone dying." It''s eyes glance down at the lump between us, before glancing back at me. "Well, anyone else."


    I squint my eyes at the guileless look on my face. "I thought you needed me to be tweezers for you. What do you get out of this?" I ask the entity. A shrug. "Entertainment. I can figure something else out, and I think your story will be fun to follow, regardless." They giggle, like they just told a joke. "BUT," they snap, suddenly shifting into a snarling grin. "If I WIN, then you have to KILL Sol. I want them DEAD." Then, another shift, a smash cut into a nonchalant lean. "Besides, they pulled you into this hellscape. So, win win for you, really."


    I can''t help but grimace. I know it''s a monkey paw deep in my gut. It''s so clearly a "deal with the devil", and every single story I''ve ever consumed has shown me how stupid of an idea it''d be to even consider this. "How do I know you''re telling the truth?" I ask. "I never lie," it responds. It takes me a moment to consider those words. "Has Wally ever lied in game?" I think audibly. I''m unsure, but then again, this isn''t the game. "They don''t need to lie," continues my mind. The voice is different in some ephemeral way; mine, but not. Wally grins knowingly.


    "This is a monkey''s paw. Somehow, someway, they''ll get what they want." Then, more thoughts, different from me, and the me of just now that isn''t. "The goal is already to leave without anyone dying. So really, we''re just getting free powers for doing what we are already planning to do." Then, the first voice, the one that''s the most me. "But what if taking the deal is what causes Wally to nudge something or someone in our path? Something we can''t plan for? Are we really willing to bet the other''s lives?" The screen flicks to life once more, showing the text on the engine. A lower third scrolls past.


    "Others stuck here? English? Someone I know? Someone I don''t? How can we help? How can we track them down?" says the scrolling banner. Then, a vision, played out in full, immersive dreamscape fashion. Me, leaving one side of the warframe universe, only for another faceless person to slip in behind. Then another. Then another. "We don''t know that," says that first voice, but with less certainty, now. My eyes flick back up towards the entity wearing my skin. "To clarify. Take powers from you, but I have to deal with Sol. Or, get powers for free as long as we all escape Mars alive," I say slowly.


    "And if you don''t, then you need to kill Sol," they finish, a feral grin on their lips. And I know, at that moment, what choice I''m making. Because really, there was no path before this. To work with the Tenno, and somehow end up in the void? And then, and then? There were huge, unpassable gaps in the plan; gaps I had been actively ignoring while driving towards them at breakneck speed.


    I had never really known what to do, or how I was going to get home prior to this. Making a deal might be one of the few... possibly the only option I ever really had. "I told you you''d accept the job," it says with my lips, and I''m once again stood in front of that door. A memory, playing out anew. "If I say yes, will I be able to get home?" I ask. No words, just a nod of it''s head. I sigh, and allow myself to feel the weight of fate, just for a moment. Then, I look back up, determination in my eyes. "No one is going to die," I tell myself. "Let''s shake on it," I tell myself.


    <hr>


    now


    It comes to me in a flash. The dreams, the deal, the laughter laughing LAUGHING. Wally knew, he knew they knew it knew and now


    Ella


    I scream, and the air around me shatters. I wail, and waves of energy buffet the ground, tossing sand on my comrades in arms. I cry, and my alarms flash in my headset; energies that a regular Tenno shouldn''t have, that I have, at dangerous levels. My health in the red, my shields depleted but from the force of my anger and rage and despair. I force my gaze away from


    Ella


    towards the cliffside behind us. It''s an arduous movement, like I''m fighting the resistance of the universe to do it; the muscles in my neck straining as I lock my gaze onto the KILLER KILLER KILLER <strong style="text-shadow: -1px 2px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4), 1px -3px 1px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.4), 3px -4px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2), -4px -3px 1px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.2), -6px 7px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2), 7px -5px 1px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.2), -19px -13px 1px rgba(0, 8, 50, 0.18), 21px 14px 1px rgba(205, 213, 255, 0.18), 14px -11px 1px rgba(0, 13, 80, 0.13), -15px 10px 1px rgba(175, 176, 255, 0.13), -10px 12px 1px rgba(0, 20, 130, 0.1), 11px -8px 1px rgba(141, 125, 255, 0.1)">KILLER


    and then I''m there, inches from the masked face, the cold yellow emotionless eyes slowly pulling away from me. A rifle in hand, a Vectis, some distant quiet part of my mind recognizes, is in the hands of the Grineer. The soldier is trying to pull it up, but they''re slow, so slow. My eyes are burning, my limbs are on fire, my throat raw. I reach forward, grab the arm, and execute a perfect toss, landing the Grineer on their front. I''m on top of them now, reaching for their head, their helmet. There''s so much fucking ARMOR in the way, but I manage to pull it off, to a pained scream from the KILLLERRRRRRRR


    I don''t think it''s supposed to come off that way. I don''t care. I grab their face, and slam it in the red cliff, and add more red. Harder, and HARDER AND HARDER, the cursed knocker on death''s door. Every full powered slam is met by a scream, hard constants, curses in a language no one knows but me. The body is twitching, but there''s so much blood, and more and more and shards of white and things of gray on my hands and the ground but


    Ella


    is still dead. She''s still dead. She''s still dead. Dead like this Grineer. Like Sanza. And it''s not helping, and it hurts it hurts oh god it hurts so so so much, on some ephemeral inside. I can barely see through the flood of tears, barely breathe through the choked sobs, desperate for air.


    "Ella..." I moan.


    "Elllaaaaa..." I cry.


    "EllllaaAAAAAAAAAAAA!" I scream, in refusal, in anger, in so so much pain. I don''t know if I''m up there for a minute or an hour or a second before I feel the hand on my shoulder. Banshee, offering a pittance of comfort. Banshee, who''s job it was to get us out alive.


    BANSHEE, WHO WAS SO BUSY TALKING THAT THEY FAILED TO SPOT AN ENEMY DIRECTLY ABOVE THEIR HEADS.


    "BANSHEE!" I snarl, my voice ripped and torn in a way that I''ve never heard it before. My limbs feel awkward, janky, and I stand to face them, blood on my hands, rage in my heart. "I''m sorry," says the Lotus, or maybe the operator, or maybe the Irish myth herself.


    Platitudes.


    "FUCK YOU," I say, throwing a haymaker straight at their center. I see a wave of energy, compressed void stuff gathering around my fist as it screams through the air, until it makes contact with the warframe''s stomach. Their shields flash, and go down, and so do they, right off the cliff, clearly caught off guard by what I''d be able to throw at them.


    Then, barely audible, a cry from Ko-lee down on the burnt umber sand below.


    And then I black out.