An alarm blared throughout the entire bunker, bouncing off each wall, making it far louder and frightening than it actually is.
Yellow and red lights flickered rapidly and without stop, painting the once white and gray walls in sickening shades.
Anguished screams could be heard, raw terror clearly audible in them.
Be it parents or children crying out before they too, succumbed to the murderer.
Each time bullets could be heard, the screams rang out.
Each time the screams rang out, the laughter quickly followed.
There were only brief pauses of the bullets, but the maniacal laughter did not stop, never did.
There was only laughter and laughter, to the point of it being the most prominent thing that could be heard, louder and more terrifying than the ever blaring alarm.
In a hab a decent way from the ensuing slaughter and chaos.
We find our dear Tenno, sitting on his bed semi calmly, his fingers twitching rapidly.
Oh how he itched to run out through the door and stop this madness.
Oh how he wished to laugh while butchering the creature.
Alas, he wasn't quite willing to do so recklessly, not having a warframe to fight in yet.
But he didn't cower nor mute his sensors, letting every sound be heard.
He wouldn't forget this, his failure. His complacency being the reason for these deaths.
And so he continued listening to every anguished scream, every bark of amusement.
He listened and he envisioned.
Almost seeing the carnage with his own eyes.
The details being quite easy to imagine, having seen them numerous times, caused by his own hands no less.
The trance was broken by the entrance door of his hab opening with a creak.
Quickly he grabbed the weapon off his lap, the brilliant ceramic and gold painted titanium etched weapon resting easily against his shoulder.
The finger twitched rapidly on the trigger, ready to spray two hundred bullets at the target.
Alas, the weapon was placed down, as the now improved scanning software, showed him the person who had barged in.
It actually being multiple.
"Be silent and quick! "
A voice hissed out, their footsteps like drums against Tenno's hightened sensors.
He couldn't help but muse at the words.
'They call this silent?'
A slight bit of amusement entered his mind, which was brutally murdered by another scream ringing out far away.
Soon enough, his bedroom door opened slowly, the door creaking ever so slightly.
And he saw a person he hadn't in a month, perhaps even more.
The others, difficult to say, considering he hadn't bothered to ever talk to them.
Quickly, the first drone entered.
Her beanie barely held onto her head, having half fallen off and revealing her hair more than usual.
Her bright purple optics locked onto Tenno's own dull black ones.
Her step stopped half way.
Uzi's eyes fell towards Tenno's lap, noticing the weapon aimed towards her.
A simple glare from Tenno was enough to send a message, Uzi quickly walking in, letting the others follow suit.
Low and behold, Tenno didn't recognize a single face.
Well he did, but he sure as hell didn't know their names.
Although the green eyed one looked at least polite.
But Tenno sure as hell didn't like how the kid's eyes narrowed at the sight of the weapon.
Uzi smacked her palms together, looking truly nervous and scared even, for the first time in front of the black haired drone.
"U-uh,"
She quickly coughed to remove the stutter.
"You don't mind us staying here, right?"
Tenno rolled his eyes, his attention fixed on his scanner results and audio sensors.
"Be quiet."
He replied after a few moments, eyes boring into his bedroom's door.
Uzi only showed a zipping motion on her mouth, sitting down onto the floor without pause.
Tenno didn't dane to look at her, nor her companions.
As long as they stayed quiet, they could be here till this madness ended.
At least, that's what he told himself.
He quickly placed down the beautiful assault rifle, silently and slowly walking towards the fridge.
"Turn around and don't look."
He said silently, scanning to make sure they did as told.
Quickly getting in the line of sight of the fridge, he pressed a particular spot on the side, the lower part extending outwards.
Quickly, the foundry came to life and the hologram of his latest craft manifested, revealing the completed blueprint.
He selected it without fuss and confirmed it, watching as it materialized into the material plane.
Without much worry and inspection, he grabbed it and closed the foundry.
It receding with a silent hiss.
Tenno walked and sat down once he reached the wall directly opposite of the door.
Leaning his back and head against the now gray painted wall, he picked up the large weapon and checked the chamber.
A single bullet. A single chance.
He had made it, the Vectis prime.
The one bullet, ten kills sniper rifle.
It shared a similar color scheme as the assault rifle, albeit bringing primarily white and gold, rather than black and gold coloring.
With the quick inspection done, he placed the built in golden tripod onto the floor between his knees.
The stock rested comfortably on his shoulder, albeit being far larger than it.
Uzi, finally done with her compliance, turned towards him.
Optics hollowing at the sight of the magnificent weapon.
"Wher-"
She was cut off mid question, Tenno interrupting her without pause.
"Bring the other one to me."
Pausing slightly, she did as asked of her, nervously carrying it.
Although her eyes continued to show her excitement and shock of the weapon, she held her synthetic tongue.
Realizing Tenno wasn't in any mood to even talk.
Her excitement fell at the thought.
Of course he wouldn't want to talk, her not even visiting him after what had happened.
Her line of thought stopped as Tenno spoke once more.
"To the bed's wall."
He didn't even raise his eyes, nor point.
He just ordered, his usually calm if not bored voice being a cold whisper.
Uzi and her two companions did as told, all three of them sitting on the now far larger bed.
Meanwhile, Tenno continuously tracked the new moving object that entered his range.
It being far too fast to be a worker drone, not even a normal bullet.
It barreled from room to room, stopping briefly from time to time before moving again.
'This is it. '
Tenno mused inwardly, raising the Vectis into the air and standing up.
The others noticed his actions, crawled on the bed up until their backs met the wall.
One of them jumped off and went under it to hide.
Albeit their optics were clearly locked onto the lone drone standing in the room.
His posture like a statue's, unmoving and silent.
A large bang could be heard, as the entrance door was completely launched off its hinges, a thud signaling its embrace with the now black colored tiled floor.
A sickening giggle could be heard enter into the living room, what sounded like crawling being barely audible, even to Tenno's highetened audio receptors.
Tenno didn't breathe, the only movement being the tightening of his weapon.
The door clicked open, ever so slowly opening.
Tenno didn't bite, suspecting the trap.
And sure enough, the door opened to reveal nothing.
One of the drones hidden released a sigh of relief, only to smack a hand onto his mouth.
The giggle returned, and yellow light flooded the entrance.
In a single instant, a figure appeared, massive claws replacing the hands, a maniacal smile on its face.
And a sickening yellow colored X on its visor.
Which was quickly replaced with two yellow hollow ovals, that locked onto Tenno and the weapon pointed at it's direction.
The Vectis roared to life with a brilliant blue hue all around it, before a single slim and long bullet escaped the barrel.
The murder drone vanished the same second, a screech of pain the only signal of it receiving the bullet.
Tenno himself groaned, the wall he stood against cracking all around him in a spider web fashion.
Nonetheless, void energy swelled once more.
His right arm cocked the chamber, nothing falling out, just another bullet appearing magically inside.
He fired the weapon once again, this time slamming into the wall from the recoil.
This time, instead of a screech there could be heard an animalistic roar of pure pain.
Tenno dropped the weapon, heaving.
In its stead, he picked up the Soma prime.
It starting to glow a blue hue just like the Vectis prior.
And then he walked out the door, his eyes locked onto the position his scanner told him the murder drone is in.
Instead of a yellow X, he was met with a headless body.
One that was quickly and worryingly regenerating at super natural speeds.
Tenno quickly rushed over, shooting several times at each limb, then dumping another dozen into the half healed head.
While not obliterating whole parts of each, the damage was far from useless, the bullets piercing the limbs easily enough.
The human lamented silently to himself about a lack of a melee option.
Then dumped another dozen rounds each into the chest and stomach.
He noticed the regeneration wane, sighing in relief.
Oh how he hated fighting such things, you never know when you do actually kill them.
He turned around, the soma still held tightly in his grip, starting to slowly walk away.
'3, 2, 1.'
He turned around and fired a dozen more rounds, the half risen drone falling back to the ground.
'Knew it wouldn't be that easy.'
He sat down, ready to sit and wait. Since clearly, the murderer was happy to do the same.
Probably expecting him to run out of bullets before managing to kill it.
In the meantime, he started his deep scan of the drone. Although already, he was thinking of counters for the regeneration.
It wouldn't be easy, but there were options, several of them.
One of them being Frost, the ice warframe. Able to freeze targets eternally.
Another, modding weapons with ice, having the same effect as Frost, but on a far weaker and smaller scale.
And of course, there was the option of just annihilating the drone to a molecular level.
Although Tenno did doubt such was needed.
There had to be a weak point somewhere, something that allows the healing to even work in the firstplace.
After all, these were drones. Not warframes or biological life forms. They need parts for functions.
And he would tear them apart to find each part.
Noticing the ever so slowly approaching tail that had a small canister filled with some sort of yellow liquid and having a spike on the end, Tenno threw himself sideways, barely avoiding it.
Four shots fired, the canister exploded, spraying liquid in all directions.
The newly awake drone screamed bloody murder, all the while it's tail continued to melt.
Until it finally managed to cough up some sort of liquid that replaced it's saliva, slapping it onto it's melted tail.
The melting stopped, and soon enough the tail regrew anew.
Tenno stared at the display, curious.
That was definitely a unique weapon to have, reminding him of modding his weapons with corrosiveness.
Or Saryn, the toxic wielding warframe.
His thoughts were cut short, as the murder drone lunged right for him, perhaps not thinking straight after enduring such pain, as many animals do.
Jumping back to buy him even a seconds worth of time, he fired the weapon.
While it managed to avoid the first dozen of bullets, it sure as hell didn't manage to do the same with the other two dozens.
Once the drone was downed, Tenno sprayed another dozen into her chassis and head each.
He stared at the murder drone's body, absolutely calm for the first time in this universe.
This was him. His life. What he did best.
There was no fear of death in either of the pair of eyes he had.
Nor was there any other emotion, just a apathetic gaze that saw a problem, and will do anything to remove it.
The murder drone's head regenerated, a white almost full circle spinning.
Then, the two yellow eyemotes appeared, which quickly hollowed at the end of a barrel pointing right at their head.
The eyes quickly changed to a yellow X, grin returning.
Tenno pressed the trigger, but to his dismay, it managed to avoid the first spray of the now once again slow bullets.
'Perhaps I should have gone for a sub maschine gun?'
He mused inwardly, eyes tracking the crawling and flying drone with the help of his scanner.
Finally, perhaps bored with the game, it lunged from directly above Tenno, claws outstretched.
Only to meet the ground, a dust cloud rising from the impact, the floor shattering under the immense strength.
The feline-like drone turned it's head to the right, just in time to notice Tenno crouching and already aiming at it.
It swung around it's wings in front, the bullets piercing them but lacking the power to damage it's body.
It gnashed its teeth, the grin replaced by a scowl.
'Who the hell is this toaster?!'
And with that, it finally stopped playing around.
Taking flight, it shot around from corner to corner, hands transforming into SMG's.
With an insane cackle, it returned fire.
Only to miss.
Tenno was already moving, gracefully avoiding every bullet's path as if he could see the world in slow motion.
Alas, the seeming absolute predictability ended as the murder drone appeared right in front of him, a claw outstretched and mere centimeters from his face.
Finally, the impassive expression Tenno wore broke, replaced by hollow optics.
Pouring void energy into the assault rifle, he used it to block the strike head on.
The force sent him tumbling across the cracked floor.
It flew at him again, but Tenno was now further away, the attacker was sure of its victory and flying in a straight path.
Four shots fired, the drone able to dodge them.
However it failed to do the same just a few seconds later, as the rifle quickly ramped up to its legendary speed, dozens upon dozens of rounds tearing into the murder drone in the matter of three seconds.
Tenno groaned, the weapon in his hands releasing a hiss of steam.
The blue hue started to glow brighter, signaling that it's reloading.
'Don't stand up, don't stand up.'
He chanted inwardly, praying to Lotus herself.
Luckily, the drone did not indeed stand up.
Its body riddled with holes.
Half of its head missing entirely.
Just as the Soma finished reloading, a ping rang out in Tenno's head, signaling the completion of the scan.
Only for his human brows to furrow.
Because almost the entire code was completely jiberish, as if corrupted.
Although there was the common data.
[Data of target:
Name: Serial Designation V.
Body type: female.
Age: unknown.
Workplace: JCJenson.
Squad: JVN, led by Serial Designation J.]
"Huh."
Tenno coughed out loud, a digital brow raised.
"A name? Check.
Prominent gender features? Check.
Hierarchy? Check.
Suspiciously sounds like sapience to me, don't you think? "
He asked out loud, eyes boring into the playing dead V.
Her visor turned back on, the darkness replaced by two yellow ovals.
And what looked to be worry or stress lines in the outside corner of each.
The wings spread once again, but instead of charging at him, she shot away like a bullet.
Tenno only shot a few bullets her way to impact her flight.
Then he collapsed to the ground, in a pool of his own oil.
***
I awoke with a gasp, a splitting headache already present.
That did not stop me from checking my condition.
Sore, very much so.
The back also felt like I got hit by Atlas himself.
And not to mention my void suit was ever so slightly damaged.
Not a cause for concern as of yet, but I would need to get it fixed up as fast as possible.
Then I raised my arms, the drone body responding sluggishly, as if weighed down by water.
Raising my eyes, I stared at a drone who was staring back at me with hollow optics.
"Can I help you?"
I asked slowly, the words coming out of the drone body sounding as if I was drunk.
Maybe drugged me? No, that doesn't even make sense, I think?
Lotus, I feel like shit.
"How are you even moving?!"
The drone finally shouted, jumping to his feet.
I raised a digital brow.
"Because I wish to? Now, can I go home?"
I answered and asked a question back, letting out a yawn.
Was it just me or the world is getting darker?
And just a few seconds after that thought, I was greeted by darkness.
Great! The drone body failed. Now what do I do?! Just sit here and wait!?
*
The doctor stared at the slumped body, processor frying at trying to figure out what had just happened.
He couldn't wrap his cpu around the act.
How could the patient move? If he should have been dead?
How could he move, without oil, without internal wiring in his chest?
It isn't physically possible!
By all definitions, the drone was fully dead until he would have his chassis changed completely, as well as a complete new batch of oil sent through his system.
The drones fingers trembled slightly, already contacting the only person he knew may have some clues.
"Yes?"
A voice answered the call.
"I have a situation in the infirmary, please arrive as fast as you possibly can."
There was a sigh, one filled with nothing but exhaustion.
"Is it truly that important? You know I have my hands full, I need to improve my doors!"
The voice exclaimed at the last word, the exhaustion momentarily forgotten.
"I have just witnessed a drone come back from the dead, then die again."
Coughing sounded out on the other end, what seemed to be a drink spewed out.
"What?!"
"I don't know! But that's what happened!"
The doctor finally shouted, the slowly growing panic inside him finally overtaking him.
"It's also the same one who fought the murder drone! He could be infected?!"
Heaving heavily, trembling in his entirety.
The drone stared at the badly injured body of Tenno.
"We must do something about him!"
Over the lime, rushed footsteps could be heard now.
"Don't do anything stupid Ridley!"
***
The door slammed open, four drones running in, all with The "WDF" logo on one part of clothing or another.
Their optics hollowed, as they stared at the doctor who held a scalpel plunged through another drone's head.
Khan, fury rising for the first time a decade, shot forward, wrench in hand.
Slamming the side of his makeshift weapon in the doctor's arm, he managed to push him away from the corpse.
"Get him!"
He roared out, the drones behind him doing so with barely a hesitation.
Khan whirled around, his energy first time not focused on his doors.
He quickly grabbed the scalpel, ever so slowly pulling it out centimeter by centimeter.
Until finally, it was out, it covered fully in the black substance that was their oil.
The drone silently prayed to his Robo-God that the small blade didn't damage the memory box, sitting down while his fellow drones dragged out the shouting doctor.
Now being alone with a corpse, having time to think of the past few days, he couldn't help but grab his head in loss.
Everything was going downhill so rapidly.
He couldn't help but think he had failed somehow.
Khan turned his attention to the body on the operating table, guilt growing within him.
He knew what had happened.
Not to its fullest, Uzi being far too shocked and nervous to even get her words out properly.
But he learned enough.
They had rushed to the boy's hab, seeking refuge.
And then the murder drone came.
From what the old drone could understand, Tenno, the apathetic drone, rushed out to fight it.
And by that action, the other three kids hidden in his home were left in peace.
Hell, Khan read the list of injuries of the boy himself, being semi familiar with him.
Being the reason he was kicked out from school even.
But Robo-God he didn't wish it upon the kid, even if he did hurt a student enough that replacements were needed.
And now? In this injured state, attacked and maybe even fully killed by the drone that was supposed to fix him?
Khan's thoughts halted to a stop, as he saw the visor of the boy starting to grow a weak teal color.
Standing up and approaching, he noticed a symbol forming.
It was a simplistic pattern, consisting of three parts.
The central part of the logo being a four nested downward-pointing crescent shapes that graduate in size. Creating a layered effect resembling the opening petals of a lotus bud.
Two small, mirrored chevron-like or bracket-shaped accents sit on the far left and right sides, giving the entire emblem a wider, crown-like appearance.
It looked so simple, yet so mesmerizing, full of unseen depth.
As if it was much more than a simple icon.
Then the body jerked roughly, starting to shake violently upon the table.
Khan stepped backwards, optics hollowed.
Remembering the doctor's words.
Yet as soon as the shaking had started, it stopped.
Leaving only a groaning boy upon a metal table, looking around like he's dreaming.
*
Looking around and noting Khan's presence, I couldn't help but do a little dance in my head.
I knew it, I knew the great Lotus wouldn't abandon one of her children, even if we have grown far apart!
Albeit I was confused of how she managed to even use her powers on me across the universe, I ended up chalking it up to: Yeah she could always do that but never had a reason for it.
There was also the fact she managed to effect me in the drone part, not my true self.
Which begged a question, why? Surely, my life wasn't in any danger.
Unless… unless I tie myself to the drone body to the same extent as a warframe, which shouldn't be possible, unless the drone body itself had void energy.
My brain starting to hurt from the possibilities, I finally decided to stand up and be done with it.
Only to meet eye to wrench.
"Tenno…?"
Khan hesitantly asked, digital sweat drops forming on his visor.
"Yeah?"
I raised an eyebrow in return.
"You are still you, right?"
The second eyebrow rose as well, and I checked myself out.
Arms? The same. Legs? The same. Torso, reconstructed with void energy… What the hell?!
I stared at my body with shock and awe, not quite comprehending.
She did not.
Surely, the great Lotus, the mother of all tenno, didn't make this toaster of a body into a half warframe, right?
Yet as I clenched the fists, I could feel the void energy synchronize so perfectly, so beautifully, that it couldn't be denied.
It wasn't just my energy in the drone's body anymore, no. It was far more complete and not weakened like my own.
Releasing a sigh, I turned my focus to Khan.
"Yeah i'm me."
I assured the slightly panicking older drone.
"Please keep this to yourself. "
I added after a brief pause, before walking out, my mind already focused on getting a drink, as well as trying to figure out everything that had happened in the short moments.
How could the Lotus dare to do this? Don't get me wrong. I'm happy, that she helped, that she cared enough to do so.
But she wasn't been allowed to effect anything in centuries by now if I had to guess.
Perhaps something had changed back home?
Or is it that this was just a final gift for me?
Either way, this was only beneficial. Since I would stay in this body for quite a while, even when I'll have a warframe.
And it now being empowered? I wouldn't be so vulnerable anymore.
Hell! Maybe it got some powers!
***
The drone body did not, in fact, get powers. Saddening, but oh well.
At least I could now probably tank the murder drone in the torso area, hopefully.
Although I'd rather not test that out, one time was enough.
I also have no idea of how the claws even managed to slip through my guard, I thought I had blocked them perfectly.
Alas, it didn't matter now.
I was free to roam the bunker once again, having been on probation for the last month.
And I'm still banned from the school's sector entirely.
So you could say I just keep winning.
Indefinite free time.
No school other than sending complete assignments to the teacher which were done in mere minutes.
So you might ask me what I do in my free time.
And my answer to that question? Renovation!
The floors were done, the walls were done, the ceiling completely changed.
Everything had changed in the past month.
And I'm Lotus damn happy with what I've done with the place.
Firstly, the floors.
They were all the same across the hab, being black tiles with dark gray wood like patterns.
The walls.
Other than the bathroom which were just large gray tiles.
And the kitchen food making area which had gigantic white plates.
The bedroom and living rooms are painted a dull gray color, slightly textured with small indents.
And the ceiling was painted a full white, contrasting the floor fully and beautifully.
I had also gained a better coffee table for my living room, it resembling my kitchen's one on a smaller scale.
I also got a much larger TV, it being over one and a half meters diagonally.
Yes, it's absolutely massive, and I love it.
And I have gotten a corner couch, it being far more versatile and useful in my opinion, since it has:
A large drawer and an extendable part to make a bed.
It wholly being black in color.
So yeah, a pretty nice place I got set up now.
Except that one of my bedroom's walls is in ruins.
Not literally, nor the damage being anything too severe.
It was just… caved inwards.
I sighed, already deciding on fixing it up some other day, while I silently questioned how this previously fragile body even withstood the force.
I silently sipped at my drink, focusing internally.
Not on a program, nor anything software related.
No, something much more powerful and unique.
On the fresh and untampered void energy coursing through the wires and metal of my chassis.
On its absolute feeling of emptiness yet fullness.
Ah, how I missed feeling it.
The sheer terror and peacefulness exuding in equal parts of it, able to calm my mind without issue.
It was refreshing. So much so that I didn't even feel my eyelids closing, nor the drone body going offline.
Thanks for reading!
[Comment any warframe suggestions you have, as well as any weapons you would like to see!]