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This story is pure fiction, any references to existing people/ events is pure accidental and unintended. The story is based on the DE owned game Warframe, but does not conform to its rules nor its lore. Though characters may appear, their rights belong to Digital Extremes. Until further notice this is a profit-free work, only for the intend of entertainment.

 

Slowly waking up to a blue halo, Ian tries to make sense out of what just happened. It had been a day like any other until now. Now he doesn't even know where he is, the surroundings may appear very familiar at a quick glance, but when he stands up it's unlike any place he has ever been before. The room he is in is very dark with some faint lighting indicating a shape of a window. "Damn," Ian says to himself ", just as I had taken my day of for a full day of non-stop gaming. Life sucks sometimes" .He looks towards the unusual shaped window. "It must be night. Or the sun just blew up, which considering the current situation wouldn't surprise me". Outside it is pitch black with stars as far as one can see. When leaning forwards to take a better look Ian accidentally hits a button, making the lights in the room turn on."What the.... No way?!"

 

"Shit, I'm bleeding!" Nick notices as he wakes up. Desperately looking around for a bandaid or something the like he fails to notice his surroundings have drastically changed form when he lost consciousness. Without a quick supply of any first aid kit Nick grabs his coat and uses it to wipe off some blood. "Oh, nothing more but a little scratch, what a fuss about nothing". He shakes his head and then mumbles to himself " Now then," as he stands up ", where am I?"

 

"Haha, nice joke lads" Matt says out loud. Waking up in this room was weird at first, but because it is this very room he is sure his mates are behind all of this. "Come on guys, I know it's you, fun gag!". Yet no one shows up." What a bother, why don't they just show their darned faces already?  But ,boy, is this well made. Like they really got it right to the detail. And the quality, is this really made out of junk? " Matt wanders on inspecting the room he is in when all of a sudden he hears noise coming from he back of the room. "Ha, got you now!" Matt runs off to the back of the room "They even made this whole mechanism, I can't believe it". The floor panel comes down revealing another room on a slightly lower level. Matt jumps down, prepared with a witty remark to throw at his friends he expects to be waiting for him down below, but what he finds takes not only his speech, but also his breath away.

 

"This is just unreal, impossible. No, this can't be real!" Ian says surprised.  The room which just looked so unfamiliar no turn out to be the room which he himself knows fully well. "Hell, I even decorated this". Little does he know that Nick just thinks exact same thing at the same time. " I cannot believe my eyes, if this is real, that'd be awesome!" shouts Nick out of excitement.

 

Even though Nick, Matt and Ian are not in the same room together, they are in very similar rooms, or rather cabins. Because the place where they are does not resemble the room they were in before, at their homes on the computer or gaming console, but looks suspiciously a lot like the Liset from the game they used to play, drifting in space.

 

Warframe: The Renegade Legacy

The Exile to the Known Universe

 

Chapter 1

 

"Wow, man, this is huge" even though there is no one around, the sheer size of the place is enough to make Ian say his thoughts out loud."If there is one place to find answers it has got to be here, assuming I'm not alone. That would be very bad. " Ever since Ian discovered that he was in a spaceship, resembling his in game Liset to the detail, he thought he was gonna use it the way it was meant, for transportation. And thus he is here, at the hangar of his clan's dojo. "Still , how am I gonna recognise my clanmates, and how are they gonna recognise me?"  Warframe was until now the online game he played at home on their PC, and even though he met his clanmates daily, he had never met them in real live neither did he have any clue what they looked like. He would soon find out, because just now another Liset made it's entry into the hangar.

 

"Holy smokes!" Nick couldn't contain his surprise when he saw the place he just entered. "That were exactly my thoughts" another voice says. Nick looks around and sees a person walking towards him from halfway down the hangar. It is a well-build young man, probably around his twenties. Though the voice sounds somewhat familiar, Nick cannot connect to a person he knows and espescially not this one ,whom he thinks, he has never met before. Nick proceeds to walk down and as he's nearing the other person he holds out his hand by means of greeting. "Hi, nice to meet you. My name is Ian." the other person says. "Nick" "Well, yeah, this is rather strange don't you think?" Nick nods. "I always thought that live was simple, you believe what you see, right? But even though I see this here, I have yet to believe." "I totally hear you mate" Ian says,"but I think right now we have to believe it, what else is there to do? Meanwhile does the following ring you a bell: GlorifiedBastard?" " Huh, what do you with... Wait a sec!" Nick says, "Is that your username on the game? Cuz I know a guy like that. He's my fellow clan master." "That's me in the flesh. And I'm guessing you must be Nick695." "Correct, that's me" "Ha, good to see you. Man, you look different from what I had imagined." What do you mean with th..". A voice suddenly interrupts Nick. "Are we done with the exposition guys?! All this conversation and conversation is getting pretty boring to see!". "What? Who's there?" Ian calls. "Just a guy who's getting tired of all this meeting and greeting and finally wants to see some action in this story, otherwise he's out. And I go by the name of TheDragonGangsta." "Really?! Oh good to see ya mate. Does this mean all of the leadership is here?" Nick asks relieved. "What's your real name by the way? Or do you want us to keep on calling you by your in game name?" Ian asks." First answer. No, we are all alone on this god forsaken place. Second answer. I'd rather keep my name to myself. Call me what you like. " "Okay ,Draco, Nick, let's find some answers" Ian says.

 

Having regained himself after a couple of seconds Matt slowly backs away. This was something he had not expected, neither does he know what to do know. "I'm dead, I'm so dead. I gotta get out of here" is the only thought which is in his head. Matt quickly runs up again and desperately looks for the lever to close the passageway. Pushing it down with all his might, he finally gets it down and jams it. "Phew, that was close.""But I gotta get out of here" he mumbles. "If this is a means of transportation then I gotta be able to control it in some kind of way." After he walks to the front controlpanel,Matt studies it and, with a bit of trial and error, he activates it. "Mmm, only preset destinations." he mumbles "Well then, this will be my best option"

 

"So, what are our plans, captain? Or do I need to say captains?" asks Draco. The trio has left the hangar and moved to another room where they sit down to discuss.  "Well," Nick begins,"maybe supreme..." "Just Ian will do for me, and Nick for him. I don't like formalities, especially not when we are just with the 3 of us" says Ian as he leans over to sit more conformably. "For our plan, we will need to figure out what happened and if it is just the 3 of us which are here or if there are more people." "Well, what I would like to know is whether this really is the game we play, it just sounds so irrational,but I can't think of something else." says Nick clearly frustrated by the fact that he doesn't know what is going on . "It's Warframe alright, or it was, since for the time being we have to accept this as our reality. A reality in which we don't know anything, only that if this were some kind of novel it would have been terribly boring up till now" Draco answers. "Wait a minute, what did you say there?" Ian asks. "That this is a terrible story?" "No before that." "Of course, we are already losing readers by the minute." "Huh?" "Nothing much, I said that this reality is one we don't know anything about, only that it is Warframe." Ian stands up and snaps his fingers "That's it, it's Warframe! We don't need to find a way in this reality, we already know it!" "Well, someone is losing his mind here." Nick mumbles a bit too loud. "No, you see, how did we know how to get to this place? Because it is our dojo, the one we build! How did we find the captain's room we are in now? Because we made it! So going by that logic there should be a way" replies Ian, excited by his own reasoning, and he starts looking around. "I still don't get a thing of what he is on about" says Nick to Draco. "I think this is going to be interesting." replies Draco.

 

"Who would've thought that?! A whole hangar! Why wasn't this in the game before?!" shouts Ryan from excitement. "RyanRyanRyan, is that you?" asks Nick who was waiting in front of the dock. "That's me, but just call me Ryan." " I figured as much" says Ian who is there with them. "Yeah,my mom always used to say it when I was gaming too much, so I decided to make it my username" "Well, welcome to our dojo. I'm GlorifiedBastard, but just call me Ian. And that's Nick, Nick695 and TheDragonGangsta, we call him Draco" "Pleasure to meet you guys. Even though we sometimes used voice chat, still since that was so crappy I have never really known who the people I was playing with. That was until now". Ryan looked at the 3 guys in front of him. "What a remarkable group of people." he thought,  Nick is tall, taller than everyone else, and lean too. Ian is about the same length as me, but,wow, he's been hitting the gym. And Draco, Chinese, Japanese,I don't know." "Anyway, did you manage to contact more people or is this the whole lot?" Ryan asks. "Well, eversince Ian discovered that the messaging system is still online,because frankly it is still the game, we have so far contacted everyone in the clan." answers Nick. "However you have been the only one to reply yet." adds Ian. "Oh well, let's make the best out of it, shall we?" says Ryan.

 

After showing Ryan the already explored parts of the dojo they head on to the Captain's room. The room perfectly suits these kinds of meetings, since it's large and has enough space for quite some people to sit in. With half of the room consisting of large windows the room also becomes quite impressive for those who enter it. "Right now, I think our priorities are the following. First we need to keep on sending messages out for clanmates to gather here" Ian begins. "I guess most of them are still wondering what the dark place is they just woken up into." adds Nick trying to ease up the situation. "I feel them, I remember waking up only seeing a red light blinking" says Ryan. "Well, personal experiences aside, let's move on," says Ian, a bit bothered by this unnecessary interruption,"secondly I think we need to see if we can contact other clans and then get out of here asap." "Wait a second!" interrupts Draco,"why should our priority be to get out?" "Well.." No, Ian think about it, the chance of us finding a way out in this in a day is none. Hell, even a week or a month would be amazing." "Why? We got here in a day and we must be missed by people, so we will get back pretty quickly." Nick says. "Two things. First of all we got to find out how we got here and once we figured that out, we must find out how to get back. That will probably even be harder. And secondly no one wants to read a story which is finished in a day." "I kinda get your first point, but what do you mean with the second?" Ryan asks. "I guess they care about it." Draco answers "Who are they?" Ian asks. "That's a bit too hard to explain. Yet we have gotten more important matters on out hand. We have to learn to survive in this world or die." After having said this Draco points towards the window. There is something coming closer and closer.

 

Chapter 2

 

"What could it be?" asks Nick. They are running down the hall to the hangar. "I've got no clue, I guess it is one of us." answers Ian. "But no one has read our message besides Ryan" Draco states. When they arrive at the hangar they are almost blinded by the light of what is entering their hangar from the outside. "Well, we are sure to find out soon,aren't we?" says Ian. "No, everyone follow me! We have to hide!" shouts Ryan. He turns around and starts to run. The other three are stunned by Ryan's sudden reaction, but decide to follow them anyway. "What's this about,Ryan?!" shouts Ian, who is running all the way at the back. "We have got to find a place to hide ourselves!" answers Ryan. "Hide?! For what?! Our other clanmembers?!" calls Nick out with surprise. "How do you know they are one of us?" asks Draco to make Nick rethink his ideas. "That's exactly what I mean! Listen, I've been in the military for quite some time and I've learned to spot aircraft even in the dark. Now I don't know shit about these things here but I'm sure as hell that don't look like my Liset!" adds Ryan. "Point granted, but where you propose we are going to hide now?" asks Ian who has caught up with Ryan now. "Hide?! Why hide?! We are with the four of us and we are seasoned Warframe players! If they are hostile they should hide for us!" shouts Nick angrily. "Well, what're you gonna do mister? If they whip out their guns, what's your plan? You're gonna fight them barehanded and hope you can dodge the bullets?" asks Draco sarcastic. "Well, eh.." stutters Nick. "So if you have a well thought up and better plan than me, say it. If not, shut up and follow me!" says Ryan. "Here, right" Ryan directs. They turn and follow down the hallway. Another right turn and then they enter a power station. "If I am to be right, then here it should be..." Ryan mumbles and he starts looking around and feeling the walls. "What're were looking for Cap?" Ian asks as he sees Ryan clearly looking for something. "Air vents, they should be about here." Ryan answers. "Ah, there it is, the air vent".  With a bit of force they make their way into the air shaft. " Wow, I never knew this was in the dojo!" exclaims Nick. "And that's exactly why we are in here." Ryan answers. "But, where are we gonna move now?" Ian asks. "Follow me, if you'd allow me to take the lead, officer" says Draco. Ryan indicates him to go and the rest follows.

 

Going through a maze of shafts they manage to navigate their way around back to the hangar. The design of the shaft is made in such a way that air can pass through the celing freely, but there are no vents to be seen. It proves as a nice design feature which made this systems unknown to the in game players,but it also proves as a nice way to move stealthy through the dojo.

 

Upon arriving at the hangar, the group discovers that the incoming spacecraft has nearly landed into the hangar. Thanks to a better lit location the craft can now be clearly seen. "Well, I guess you were right. That is no Liset right there." says Ian to Ryan. The ship is very different from the Liset. It is much bigger and has has a more stretched design with spikes. "What is that?" Nick asks in awe. "I've seen it somewhere before." Ian mumbles." It's a grinder galleon, but then the small version." Draco explains. Everyone turns their heads. "How did you know that?" Ian asks. " I have seen it in game before. They used to fly around in earth maps." A bit stunned by this detailed knowledge the others turn their heads back to the galleon which has now landed in the hangar. It is slowly turning off its engines and after a little while a door opens. "They're grineer." Nick mumbles. "From the looks of it they're only lancers and troopers." Ian states. There are about 15 of them together with a commander, who apparently leads this unit. They stand in formation while the commander shouts at them in an unfamiliar language. "What could they be saying?" Ian asks, but to no result. No one speaks the grineer language. "I don't care on what they are saying, I wanna know how strong they are." Ryan says. Ian and Nick nod to show their agreement with what Ryan just said. If they were to be up against Grineer around level 50 in game they would have no chance at all. If they were low level, maybe a miracle we possible. Suddenly Draco brust out laughing. He receives some mean looks in response. "Was that really necessary?" Nick grunts. "Hell yeah." Draco responds,"see we are probably going to die by the hand of about level 2 Grineer. Ain't that funny? After all the easy T4 runs we did?" Ian stands up and wants to reply to Draco, but hits his head since the space they're in isn't very high. "What did you just say? How can you possibly know their level?!" "The scouter." Draco answers and he holds up his arm. Around it is some sort of band with a display on it. "I found it somewhere, probably an alternative to seeing the levels on top of your screen. You just point this little sensor towards the enemy and you can read its level." It may be hard to comprehend, but it still amazes the others, especially Ian. "Woah man, that's so cool. You gotta show it to me when we get out of here." he says excited. "If we get out of here" Draco corrects him. "No, when we get out of here" Ryan corrects Draco. "And how do you plan on that?" Draco asks irritated by the fact that Ryan just stole his momentum. "Watch and learn."

 

The Grineer have already started to move out, in squads of 7 they move out with only 1 Lancer remaining to guard the galleon. They apparently do not really expect any life here or not something which could pose any resistance. However Ryan is about to prove them wrong since he has set off already. Moving through the air shaft he manages his way towards a blind spot next to the galleon. There he gets out into the open and moves stealthy along the side of the galleon until he is very close to the Lancer.

 

Whatever it was what hit him, the Lancer will never know, because Ryan's hit was spot on. With one hit on the head he loses consciousness. After checking to see the result of his actions, Ryan signals the others that they can come out of hiding. "Wow, how did you do that?! That was so cool!" Nick is the first to come out. "Being in the army does not only teach you how to recognise Grineer galleons" Ryan answers.

 

Then they move into the galleon. "I could only take this one down because he was alone. If we want to do anything against a squad, we need to find ourselves some weapons" Ryan explains. The galleon is not very luxurious. There is a control room to fly it and a compartment for the units. This does however make it easy to find the weapons depot. Luckily there are still some weapons left. Ian, Nick and Draco take the burst weapons and Ryan the shotgun. "You guys are better off staying at a bit longer range since you are not experienced with handling guns." Ryan says and the others agree with them.

 

They move out again and advance to the exit of the hangar. "Which way do we take?" Ian asks. "I guess we have to take chances." Ryan answers. Everyone had been too occupied with Ryan's actions to notice which way both units went. "We go left," Draco says,"I can smell them." Having no good reason to counter Draco's statement the others decide to tag along with him and they take the left turn. It turns out not to be futile, because soon they hear movements close by.

 

Chapter 3

 

After scouting through the complex without finding any lifeforms,this sudden attack is something which even the commander has not expected. Added to the surprise-effect comes the inexperience which concerned frankly all units. They could fight, that much was sure, but this was mostly genetically implanted and they have not yet fought any real battles. That's also why they were send to this place, as it appeared abandoned and the possibiliy of weak beings could prove a good practice for this newly formed unit. However, the surprise is not too bad. Sure, it would have been better to see the enemy coming, but the total surprise makes the genetic encoding take over and that is set to fight until nothing is alive anymore.

 

"Now!" Ryan shouts and he runs around in the corner. The others follow him on a bit of distance. Within seconds Ryan takes down 2 Lancers. Nick and Ian try their best with the weapons, but since they have never used guns before, they have a hard time countering the recoil. Draco appears to be less affected by it and even manages to take down a Trooper. Then Ryan turns around and runs back. "Retreat!" he shouts. The others decide to follow on his orders. Running through the first door they can find, they enter a cross section. "Which way to go?" Ian asks. "Or are we going to ambush them?!" asks Nick who,despite the little effect his aiming had, is all fired up for a next round. "What the? What are you thinking of?" Ryan reacts, "What just happened was a lucky shot. They weren't expecting us, neither did they think of anyone being alive on this vessel. Furthermore we just got away with it, so we better not go push in our luck too far." Nick had not seen that reaction coming and ,combined with his idea that the recent battle was just a routine battle, he wasn't going to agree with this. "What are you so afraid of?! Aren't they just useless level 2s?! And if one of us can handle them, it's you! You just took 2 of them down with ease!" "So, what you want me to do, jump in front of them and get myself shot?! This ain't a game now, getting shot does not mean you just get hurt and then regain your health! You friggin die here man!" "Like hell, I.." Nick is interrupted by the sound of the Grineer squad closing in. "Shall we get a move on gents?" Draco asks," For both our survival and the interest of our audience it is better that you stop you discussion and get a move on." Both Ryan and Nick decide that what Draco said is the best choice. "Now, which door to take?" asks Nick. "We've got to take the right door" Ian answers. "Yeah,of course, we don't want to be taking the wrong door or we will get shot." says Nick irritated by Ian's answer. Now it's Ian's turn to be irritated, " I said right, as in the opposite of left!" Nick realises his mistake and keeps quiet. "Well, leader, go ahead. We will follow you." Draco says to Ian and they take the right door.

 

 A few moments later the Grineer unit enters the room. Upon seeing the cross-section, the commander shouts out of frustration and had to wonder what to do. He had split his unit in two smaller squads of 7 and left one Lancer to guard the Galleon. Now 3 of his unit had been killed in the last attack, leaving only 4 besides him. Maybe because his unit is so small or because presence of living things wasn't expected on this ship, whatever the reason, he had not been given communication devices. So he had no means to communicate with the other squad and sending one of his units would be too risky as then they wouldn't have the small advantage in numbers. Were he to split his units now over the 3 possible ways, he would be even at a disadvantage.

 

"And how exactly was this the right choice? We've been running in a straight path for a while now, if they open the damn bloody door they will spot us with ease!" Ryan asks. Until now he has had little problems with following someone else's advice. However, since the argument he had with Nick he has been a little irritated and this situation ain't helping him to relax either. "Take it easy, it's all right. We will take the door to the left pretty soon." Ian answers. "Well, how do you know? " Ryan asks. Up till now this place has been a maze to navigate through for every single one of them. "Well, whilst you two were fighting, I went ahead and used my brain. It's funny how much you can remember if you think hard. You remember all kinds of stuff, like the things you postponed and forgot, the bills you still need to pay and the map of your dojo of your favourite game." Ian answers. "Are you kidding me?! This is the biggest maze ever. Even in the game this thing was hard to figure out." Nick says surprised. "Well, let's just say it is one of my talents. Anyway, beyond this door coming up to your left is an elevator. If we take that we should be arriving in one of our grand halls and in that grand hall there should be a teleporter." "But if you know all the routes, why not take one of he other two doors, where we are less likely to get shot!" Ryan shouts. Before Ian can answer him, Draco starts talking. "Well, what would you do? When you arrived at a crossway with only 5 men. What did we do? We wait and think, think about our options. And that, my friend, takes time, enough for us to cross this path." Then they turn left and arrive at the elevator.

 

Meanwhile the commander has hatched a plan to tackle the current issue. He is gonna send 3 of his units to check out the three ways, one per path. He himself is gonna be looking for the other unit with 1 Trooper. This will give him the biggest chance of survival, now all that's left is to command his units according to his plan.

 

Chapter 4

 

"Wow, this thing is huge!" exclaims Nick. "You're entering the hangar again, aren't you?" Ian asks. Nick laughs "You could say so". " Quite nice, this room is. Look at the details, this one is the older version, if I'm correct." Draco says. Then Ryan bursts in, "Can you cut the tea party?! If we have time to talk about this shit, then rather think of how to handle these Grineer!". Then Ian replies in a way Ryan had not expected, "We already have a plan. But we do first have to go there." and Ian points to a door across the room. Not having a better plan, the others decide to keep following Ian on whatever plan he might have.

 

Despite the losses of today, luck must have returned. That's the way the Commander feels, because already pretty quickly he found the other squad and he did not encounter any armed enemies whilst on his way. Now he can at least split his troops in decent units to search for the enemy. Upon arriving in the room where he split his troops, he discovers that his units are already back. Two of them found themselves towards a dead end, while the third has some interesting information. This one, apparently, heard an elevator move while he was scouting. This being his only clue, the commander is quick to decide on following it. Even if the enemy would attack, they would find themselves fighting a full force, also he might set up a full force surprise attack. All indicates that the odds have turned to his favor.

"What is this place? Where do we go next?" Ryan asks. "We go there, if we can make it" Ian points at the other side of the room. This place is about the size of a grand hall, but not very well lit. "What do you mean? Make it? Of course we can, it's just right across there!" Nick says full of confidence. "Well good luck then, and watch out for the drops" Draco says. "What dro...?". Before Nick can finish his sentence he finds himself nearly falling into a huge gap in the floor. " That one" Draco answers. "How did you know?" Nick asks after he hurries back. "Because this is the obstacle course room" Draco answers. "You brought us to the obstacle course?!" Ryan asks Ian angrily. Ian in turn ignores Ryan and directs himself to Draco. "Well then, shall we guide the other two then?" "Fine by me" Draco answers,"and Ryan stop your whining and get going."

 

As of now there has not been a surprise attack nor did the unit of Grineer find any one of the enemies.However this sudden change of style in room was unexpected. It appears to be very old, more Orokin-like design. Some Lancers are distracted by it, but the Commander orders them to concentrate only on finding those who just killed three of theirs. They could be hiding in this room. The Commander orders a full search through the room. With his complete squad working on it, he quickly learn that the room is empty. Besides this, there is another thing he learns about this room. It is only one way.

 

"And how the hell are we gonna cross this Captain?" Ryan asks. Since Ian just ignored him he has been a bit irritated. They've made it across the first bit of the obstacle course with not too much effort. Yet now they find themselves at the part where you are normally only able to get across with wall-run. This wouldn't have been too hard with their Warframe, but by themselves this is close to impossible. "Well, there has to be a way around this." Ian mumbles. "Better be quick," Nick says,"because they're hot on our tail" and as Nick says it they can hear the Grineer going about. It appears they're searching the previous room.

 

With weapons ready the Grineer unit moves into the room. The first thing the Commander notices is that the room is about as big as a grand hall, but not very well lit and a dead end. It takes a few moments until they are used to the darkness in the room. Then it takes but a few seconds before there is a long awaited confirmation.

 

"Shit! They're on to us!!!" Nick shouts. All the Grineer are turning to their location and the Commander is about to give the order to fire. "Great, let them all line up" Ian says."What you say Captain, what you say." Ryan says affirmative. The Grineer get ready, take aim. Then there is the sound of gunfire, despite the Commander having yet to give the order to fire. The the first Grineer collapses followed by the one next to him. To everyone's surprise the Grineer are falling one by one. When about 5 of them are down it appears the magazine is empty. Now the Grineer squad recovers and starts shooting in the direction the gunfire came from.

 

The Commander thinks quickly. This was of course a surprise attack, but with the advantage of numbers this won't happen again. Also, they're reloading now, so now is the time to attack. Maybe, if they pinch them, it's gonna be over quickly. Now he only has to relay his orders. But before he can do that he is struck in the head by a bullet, much earlier than that he expected the enemy to reload. The rest of the unit is momentarily shocked by the sudden death of their commander. That's also the last noteworthy action of the squad, because they getting mowed down one by one.

 

Chapter 5

 

"Phew, that was a close call!" exclaims Nick. "Still, I have some excuses of to make," says Ryan," That was one hell of a plan." They managed to kill all the Grineer, with great credit to Ian's plan. By going to the obstacle course, he made sure there would be a big space between them and the Grineer. This would give them several advantages. First of all he expected Ryan to be much more accurate over the bigger distance than the inexperienced Grineer. Also getting across to the other side of the course would be hard to do for them, but even harder for the Grineer which, even if they tried, would be easy targets to shoot if they moved towards them. "Thanks, but if it wasn't for such accurate gunman this plan wouldn't have worked out." Ian replies. When they got into position they gave Ryan the burst weapons, which were much more effective over a distance and with several guns at your side there was no need to reload. "So ladies, if you're done complimenting each other shall we move back?" Draco asks.

 

When they get back to the start of the obstacle course they are greeted by the lifeless bodies of the Grineer. "In the game they would just disappear. So how long do we have to wait?" jokes Nick. "Wait as long as you like, they aren't gonna disappear." replies Ryan. "Let's just dump them down here." says Nick. "And have them start rotting down there." Draco replies. Now Nick is out of ideas and the others seem not to care too much about the issue at hand. "Besides this, I'm starting to get hungry, how about you guys?" Ian asks. "Same here, is there any food here?" Ryan wonders out loud. "Have you ever build a kitchen in the dojo? I'm guessing not. So, we don't have any food here." answers Draco. "What!? How're we to survive?!" Nick asks shocked. "Then we gotta move out. So let's move to the hangar." Ian answers calm.

 

"So, if I get this right, we are just gonna go by and grab ourselves some food? Do you know the nearest supermarket here?" Nick has been keeping this question in for a while, but now they have arrived in the hangar he cannot resist the temptation to say it out loud. "As to your first question, yes. As to the second, no." Ian answers, "We go to a place where we are sure to find ourselves some food, earth." This answers does not satisfy Nick at the least, neither does it to Ryan. "Isn't that just back home? Did you figure out a way to get there?" Nick asks, followed by Ryan "And how long do you presume it takes until we get there? We will be dead by that time". "Easy guys, don't get too excited. If this were to be the same universe as ours then wouldn't NASA and the like have found out about these Lisets and our dojo? So, we can only assume this is another universe. This means it should by no means necessarily follow the rules of our universe, think of something like the distance between one place and another." Draco says. "What Draco says is right, I figured this is another universe, much like ours, but actually based on the game we played. If we follow that idea the travel times between us and the other planets shouldn't be too big, since it never took long to get anywhere in the game." continues Ian. "Usually Nick would make these remarks, but are you out of your mind?! Risking our survival on loading screens in a game?!" Ryan asks furiously. The only way to calm this, Ian knows, is by being completely honest with Ryan. "I know it's a huge gamble and I cannot say for sure my theory is right, but looking at the given circumstances I'd say that this is very likely to be the case. Of course if you have a better alternative, please speak up." As much as Ryan wants, he knows there is no alternative. The game never mentioned anything concerning food and water, so in a dojo, which is completely game-designed, the chances are slim on finding any of it. "Okay, we will go with your plan, however there is one thing." "What is it, Ryan?" Ian asks. "Well, going by your theory all things here are like the game, which means earth is crawling with Grineer. So I'd say we check out what we can plunder from their galleon to prepare ourselves for battle."

 

"There are not really any suitable weapons left here," Nick says, "or we have to go back and scavenge them off the dead corpses." They're moving through the galleon looking for something useful. "Well, just keep on looking" Ian replies. Nick turns around, but then turns back. "What are we actually looking for?" "Well...". Before Ian can finish his answer he is interrupted by a hard sound and then Draco calling out to them "Guys come on over here!"

 

"What's up?!" Ryan shouts as he runs into the room Draco is in. Besides him, also Ian and Nick have assembled after Draco called out for them. "Look at this" Draco point to a screen. "And what are we to make up from this? It's all in gibberish" Nick asks. "Actually it is not in gibberish, it's the Grineer language." Draco answers ,"and it says something both good and bad." "Wow, can you read that?" Ryan asks. "More importantly, what does it say?" Ian asks. "Well, as a matter of fact I can read both Corpus and Grineer language. I had a bit of time on my hands, so I studied them. As to what it says. Well, the good news is that earth is just a bit of half an hour. The bad news is that it is crawling with Grineer, like Ryan expected." Draco answers. "Okay, then we just have to think this through and find a good place to land" Ian suggests. "Actually that's the worst news, while I was discovering this I pressed some buttons and now we are set to land in the middle of Grineer territory and we're heading there right now" Slowly the ship sets off and exits the hangar.

 

Chapter 6

 

Ready to engage, a Grineer commander awaits until the galleon is finally docked. Even though this is a small Grineer settlement on earth, it still accounts for about 200 individual units. Even though higher command pays them unexpected visits from time to time, mostly for bringing new and upgraded troops, they do respond to the radio. This particular galleon hasn't. It might be that the radio is just broken, no one has ever taken over a Grineer galleon and used it to infiltrate the settlement. Still, the Commander is not at ease with this situation.

 

Now the galleon has completely docked the Commander orders it to be opened. When it's open the Grineer move in. Then they discover something unexpected. There is no Grineer crew on this ship, no one to answer the radio and no one to control the ship. It is completely abandoned. This makes the Commander feel even more at an unease. He orders a thorough search and move towards the control panel. Then it becomes all clear. The galleon came here on autopilot and appears to be from another Grineer base. It must be sent here from higher command. The Commander calls off the search and declares the galleon to be unsuspicious. The Grineer move out and away.

 

"That was fu..." "Language, Nick!" interrupts Draco "...ing close" says Nick. "But you are right about that" says Ian. They are hidden behind a ceiling panel in the inside of the galleon. "I must say, for the second time today, that I have some excuses to make..."

"...and that it was one hell of a plan, right Ryan?" Nick interrupts Ryan. "That's right" replies Ryan. Ryan was the most furious at Draco when they discovered that the galleon was on route towards a Grineer settlement on earth. At first it seemed like this was gonna be bad business, but Draco had a plan. After a bit of fiddling with the control panel he changed the location they set-off from their dojo to anothe Grineer base. Then he told the others to find a good place where they could hide. "Well, once we're done with recalling how everything went, shall we think of a way to get out of here?" Draco asks.

 

"You guys all know the plan? Keep low and keep still." Ian whispers. They slowly move out of the ship. Having waited until night to be able to hide in the dark they sneak their way through the building. "Take a left here." Draco whispers as he has got a map on his display. The security is low in the halls, however once they get to the exit they find themselves facing a group of 5 armed Grineer. "Don't these guys have anything else to do?" Nick whispers with a trace of irritation. "No, they're just cloned with only 1 purpose, so they don't have any personal life" answers Ian. "Okay, I got a proposal, we do a surprise attack, kill those guys and run through the door and hide outside" says Draco. "Are you nuts? Did you see how well it went the last time? And how are you so sure we can hide outside, you've never been there." reacts Ryan. "It's the earth tileset, always very foresty. And if not, we just lay low and they can't find us in the dark." Draco answers.

 "Why do you think everything has gone so smoothly up till now?" Ian asks ,"Because these are just low lever Grineer. Sure, like we knew when they were in our dojo, if they hit us it could turn out pretty bad. However their reaction to things is just very slow and their aim is pretty much off. Compared to how we would run through such a tileset in game we are doing even worse than an unmodded and unarmed Mirage." "Well, how about you guys? Last time I say you shooting a gun you were lucky not to kill yourselves, now you think you are better than these Grineer?" asks Ryan. "Of course we're no experts, but that first time was just a bit of a failure. I was unprepared and had never used a gun like this before. Now I know what it is like to shoot, so I guess I can take down at least one." Nick answers. "Well then, ready your weapons, were gonna go on my mark." Ryan orders.

 

The Grineer had no chance at all. Not only was the plan well thought up, but, unlike last time, also well executed. Ryan came first running over to the other side of the hall while opening fire. By chance he happened to take one Lancer down already. Whilst all were focused on Ryan Ian, Draco and Nick opened fire on the squad. Their reaction time was slow as expected which enabled everyone to take one down for themselves.

 

"Quick, let's move out!" Ryan calls to the others. Following his lead they run towards the exit. This luckily isn't locked and they run outside, hearing faint sounds of units moving through the settlement. Outside they find themselves in a big forest. "Move downhill, as much into the green as you can!" Draco shouts. Making their way as quickly as they can through the dense bushes they hide themselves more and more from view. "Everyone down now!" Ryan has stopped and falls to the ground followed by the others. "Why do we need to do this?" Nick asks after grasping his breath. "They're coming out now, looking for us. If we move they will find us for sure." Ryan whispers back. And, as if they were speaking of the devil, a couple of Lancer come out of the settlement. Everyone keeps themselves as quiet as they can. And then, after a few moments, the Grineer move back in again. "Phew, that was close." says Nick. Just as Ian wants to answer he feels a presence very close to them and not only one, but more. Before he can warn his mates his mouth is covered and he cannot make a sound.

 

Chapter 7

 

Ian thinks about the whole way from the Grineer settlement to here. Where? Where did he missed a Grineer he should have seen? He cannot get to the answer. He also has to make the others knowknow, let them run away while they still can. He feels around and finally finds himself a rock on the ground. With the precision of a noob he kicks the rock towards the others. Luckily Ryan notices it and they all turn around.

 

"Keep clam, we're still in enemy territory, remember." a voice whispers before anyone has the chance to say something. The hand then releases Ian, who on his turn needs to have a few words with whoever in their right minds did this."Keep calm?! Keep calm?! How am I supposed to keep calm if I'm being strangled from behind?!" "It was meant to keep you quiet, so lower your voice or do you want to be found?" the voice asks. Ian realises that calming down is his only option now the Grineer are alerted. This gives him time to take a good look at the one who was assaulting him. It's a man with short hair and appears to be in his late twenties.  "Well, never too late to introduce oneself. My name is Matt, pleased to meet you."  "Hi Matt, I'm Ian, the guy you tried to strangle." Ian says as he shakes Matt's hand. Then he moves on to Ryan, Nick and Draco. "And who are you guys, his sidekicks?" Draco asks pointing at the other two guys who are with Matt. "I'm Ace and this is my little brother Jake." one of them says. Ace is a bit younger than Ian and Jake even younger than that. However as Ian is tired and it's getting dark he cannot really estimate their age.

 

"Do you guys live here or so?" Ryan asks. "No, of course not. We're just like you," Matt answers, "We all just happened to find ourselves in this world all of a sudden." "So, you also have no clue about this?" Nick asks. "No, how could we? We're thrown into this world where we are just prey to everyone else. We have had no time to go think about how we got here." Ace replies. "Anyways, as a compensation for scaring us would you tell us where we can find some decent water and food?" Draco asks. "Oh yeah, you must be quite thirsty I guess. It is quite unbelievable that there is just no water to find in our Lisets. Here, I'll show you the way." Matt gets up and goes down the hill, turns around and signals the others to follow him.

 

"How wonderful! Water tastes so much better when you're thirsty!" Nick calls out after drinking some refreshing water. They're at the shore of a fresh water lake to which Matt lead them. "Boy, it sure is." Draco says after he's been relieved of his thirst. "How did you find this place?" Ryan asks. "Well, our base is right there." Jake says and he points across the lake. Just as Jake says that Matt stands up, but Ace holds him down and whispers something in his ear. Then he turns to Ryan, "When you're done drinking, we'll take you there."

 

The building in question appears to be an abandoned Grineer base. It's very tiny in fact, providing suffcient shelter for about 10 people with the rest being all in ruins. "Well, I wouldn't say sweet, but nice job finding this." Ian says whilst looking around. "We were actually more lucky that we found each other then this rotten piece of junk." Matt replies. "Of course, that is totally true. We happened to find each other by chance, but our other friends we haven't been able to contact." Ian says, a bit worried that he may have said something wrong. "Hoe many people did you guys actually contact?" Ace asks. "We messaged everyone we could find on the clanlist and our friendslists." Nick answers,"I don't really know how many people they are, but quite a lot." "And did you get an answers?!" Matt asks furiously. "Only Ryan replied and here he is." Ian answers. "Then you, sir," Matt says while walking up to Ryan,"are very lucky." "What do you mean?" Ryan asks. "Well, count all your friends as dead," Matt says,"because wherever they are, they're not safe."

 

Chapter 8

 

"What do you mean?! You're kidding right?!" Ian asks. "No, what I said is true, all people who are still missing are to be counted as dead. It seems a large Grineer Base happened to be close by when lots of people were spawned in this universe. They've been all taken captive." Matt answers. The answer sends a shock through the room. Only Draco seems to be unaffected by the news as he asks "How are you so sure they're dead then? Can't they fight their way out?" Draco hit the wrong nail with this question as Matt furiously replies "Fight their way out?! Fight their way out?! These Grineer are about level 30 to 40 and do you assume they all had combat training?! No of course not!" "I'm sorry, I should've realised it." Draco says realising his mistake. "Well, I've had combat training," Ryan says," and I'm pretty damn sure I'm not the only one in the Warframe community. So why don't we lend them a helping hand?". "You saw how accurate we were with guns." Ian shakes his head. "I could train you guys a bit. I mean, they're not gonna get killed straight away and if we can find some others around here we could try a sneak attack." Ryan appears confident in the plan he just offered. "It's still impossible. You gotta remind yourself that we are facing a powerful enemy. Even the weakest posed a problem to us. Furthermore, they have the advantage of numbers." Draco says. "Well, yeah. You're right in that." Ryan realises the situation more and more and how unrealistic his idea is. "Oh well, I don't know what is worse, the Grineer or dying in your own liset." Matt exclaims. There is a big silence. Most have their words taken away by what Matt just said.

 

However Nick has been captivated by the structure of the place he is in ever since he has arrived. Or so it seems as he has not been paying attention to anything which has just been said. Therefor he is also the first to break the silence. "Liset, liset. Draco! How long until they arrive?!" "Lemme check, oh they should be coming any minute now!" Draco replies. "Oh cool! Let's go outside everyone!" shouts Nick and he runs to the door. "No! Wait! The Tenno..." Matt can't finish his sentence before Ian calls to Nick "What is this about?!". "Well, think! You said this was the game and we should   think like the game.  What have we yet to see?!" Nick replies before he runs outside. "No, that can't be, can it?" Ian realises what Nick is on about. Then he turns to Draco "Are you positive? Is it real?". "The chances are very high and it is one of the places we haven't looked yet." Draco answers. Then Ian feels a hand grabbing his shoulder. "Don't go out there. These things are dangerous, you can't trust it." Matt sounds very concerned and possibly a bit frightened. "Matt, my friend, we've just found our reinforcements. Be happy!" Ryan says.

 

When they've all moved out the Lisets appear in sight. "How did you manage to get them here?" Ian asks to Draco. This device here," Draco replies pointing at the device he used to scan the enemy levels before," Its called Electronic Support & Communications, ESC for short, and you can use it to call your own Liset and with a bit of effort I can also call yours. I just set them to land here on this open field." Ian studies it a bit, but still cannot make real sense of the device. "It is just all too complicated for me at the moment." Then Nick calls out to the others. "Here they come!" The Lisets come in at quite an incredible speed, but land with no troubles. "Come on guys, let's take a look inside!" Nick calls and he already he's making a break for it towards the landing site of the Lisets. "Wait!" Ryan's army legacy did not only grant him combat abilities, but also a loud and persuasive voice. Nick is halted in his tracks immediately and he turns to Ryan. "What's this about?" he asks confused. Ryan tries to answer his question but his voice is overwhelmed by the landing of the Lisets. After a while Ryan, Draco and Ian catch up to Nick while Matt, Jake and Ace stay behind on their own account. "What was this about, Ryan?! I've had to wait so long for this moment to arrive. Hell man, this is not even since when we came here, even before I dreamt of this!" Nick shouts. "No need to shout," Ryan says," It's just that Draco here wants to tell you something." "Well, there are two things," Draco says,"First, do you have any clue as to how to get in?". "The way we got out right?" Nick mumbles as this was something he hasn't thought over until now. "Well, shall we try it then?" Draco asks as he walks up to his Liset. Everyone follows and Nick is given the chance to discover how easy it actually is to get in. But there is no way to get in as the Liset is shut from the inside so Nick is forced to give up. "I really don't have a clue, please Draco show us how to open it." Draco steps forward and begins to explain, "It actually isn't that hard. I can open it just easily with my ESC, but there is another thing I wanted to warn you about before we open this Liset." "Draco, do you think the same as what I'm thinking." Ian asks. "Yeah, we're gonna cause quite a commotion with this." Draco answers. "And probably a lot of rage." Ryan adds as the Liet opens up, revealing what's inside.

 

Chapter 9

 

"Gentlemen, may I introduce you to the Tenno in all their glory." Draco says. Even though they had either expected or hoped this, the actual situation was still quite a surprise to everyone. "It is even more spectacular since you've got all of them here, its just..." Ian mumbles. Ryan has his breath taken away as out of the Liset come 35 individual Tenno. Nick, on the other hand, is quick to come up with a fitting response. "Wow man, this is so cool! But imagine how we would have reacted if they only were a foot tall or if they were like giants, that would've been hilarious!". Even though he unerstands that Nick's humour is a way to deal with the situation at hand, Ian feels the need to keep him under control. "Funny, Nick, but how would you like it if someone joked about you first time you met them?". Nick is quick to respond, " How do you know they can understand me? Hell, they might even not speak at all for all we know." This aspect is one Ian hasn't thought of before and it appears none of them knows how to handle it. The situation was about to turn pretty awkward.

 

Meanwhile, without Ian, Nick or Ryan noticing, Draco had gone over to the Tenno in order to get into contact with them. "Even though I assume they're even more confused about this situation than we do, they still look so elegant." he thought by himself as he approached even closer. "Greetings, I go by the name of Draco and wish to make contact with you. Do you understand what I'm saying?" he tried hoping it would be this easy. The result was that right now Draco as in the centre of the attention of 35 Tenno. Even though Draco was not the type to fear speaking in public, he did feel a slight uneasiness. So he repeated himself once more. This time it has the effect he hoped for, more or less. The Excalibur steps forward and moves towards Draco. "Can you understand me?" Draco repeats his question. Excalibur makes an affirmative gesture. "Interesting," Draco mumbles,"Can you also speak?" This time the gesture is negative. "This I could've expected," Draco thinks,"It's all just like ingame. The lotus can give commands in English, but never gets reply ".

 

"So, do you guys have a clue on how we can communicate with them?" Ian asks after his efforts to think of a solutions has so far been without good results. "Well," Ryan begins," it's not like I have an idea, but there is something else. Speaking of communications, how did you Draco manage to get the Lisets down?". "Well, he told me. It was with his device thing or so." Ian answers. "Yeah that's true," Nick adds," He explained to me how it works. It's a device which is made for controlling electronics, supporting you in the field and enabling communication between users. Remember when he used it to measure the Grineer's level? Well that's an application on it named the scouter. It scans the enemy and gives you data on it's relative level and more. Another application will let you control your Liset. You can call it to your location, but also manage your ship's functions like the radio and codex." "Sounds complicated, but handy." Ian mumbles and as he is about to bring up the topic of making contact with the Tenno again he can hear Draco calling for him.

"What's up?!" Nick shouts towards Draco, who in turn signals them to come over. Nick turns to Ian and Ryan, "Well, let's see what he has in store for us." 

 

"Gents, may I officially introduce you to our newest reinforcements." Draco says when they've arrived. "Wait, did you manage to get in contact with them?" Ian asks. "Yeah, I did". Before Draco can say anything else he's interrupted by Nick, " Cool! That's so awesome man! How did you manage to do that?!". "Well, that's what I wanted to tell you guys before you interrupted me, but nevermind," Draco replies,"It is in fact all like Ian had predicted. All things in this universe are exactly like they were in the game. This also means that they can fully understand English". Now Ryan and Ian try to interrupt, but this time Draco saw it coming. "Ah, don't say a word. I know exactly what you're gonna ask, so just let me finish my talk. Because, no, I have no clue as to how they've ever learned that as, just like in the game, they cannot speak or perform any form of vocal communications. That brings me to your next question, yes they can communicate with us. First of all via body and sign language and secondly via the written word of Tennobet." Before Nick can reply Draco quickly adds," Don't ask me how I've discovered this. That would only be fun for the people who like standing and talking, we better get to some action or this becomes very boring.". "So, how do we learn Tennobet and how did you?" Ian asks. "You will one day as I shall personally teach you. For now, I'll go with each one of you and help you as a translator, so shall we get a move on?" Draco replies.

 

Chapter 10

 

"So, how did it go?" asks Jake as Draco returns. He, Ace and Matt had been waiting back at base since they didn't want to come over to the Lisets. "Well, pretty good I'd say. But you can better ask the Ryan, Nick and Ian when they get here. I've been speaking way too much today and I need to get a drink before my throat gets sore." Draco answers and he goes off to get some water. "Do you think they've found them?" Jake asks to Matt and Ace. "I don't know. I expected them to find out, but judging by their carefree attitude they may have been just very lucky." answers Matt. "Why don't we all go and check outside?" Draco,who just returned into the room, tries to encourage them to share some of the enthusiasm he and his mates felt before. He reckons that if things keep up like this that they will never form a group, but will rather remain two separate groups working together every now and then. With no knowledge of how many people are in this universe and how many of those are still unnoticed by hostile forces, gathering as many allies as possible is crucial. Therefor Draco just forces them outside, even though Matt showed signs he rather would've remained at the base.

 

 

Nick, Ian and Ryan are just arriving at the base the moment Draco and company come out. "Hey guys! Yoooo! Come see this! You'll love it!" Nick calls as he fastens his pace. Ryan and Ian keep their pace, though this does not prevent them from seeing the reaction of Ace, Matt and Jake. Because what they see is a sight to behold. Besides Nick, Ryan and Ian there are also also a couple of dozen Tenno coming towards them. "What the...!" Ace cannot retain his surprise, nor do Matt and Jake who seem both surprised in their own way. "Hey guys, say hello to our old, but now new, friends." Nick says as he has arrived,"What do you think? How are our chances now against those Grineer?!".

 

Once everyone is together and Jake, Ace and Matt have overcome their surprise, important matter can be discussed. "Like, are these the actual Tenno we had in the game? Do they talk, do they understand us? And what about...." "Take it easy! First we need to know the most important question," Matt interrupts an over enthusiastic Jake," Can we trust them? Are they really on our side?" Nick had been preparing an amazing tale about how he managed to figure out the Tenno language, but decide to teach them English so everyone could speak to the Tenno, but due to the short amount of time, around 30 minutes, he couldn't teach them to speak. But there wouldn't be any worry since he would be working on that if time allowed it. However this question he wasn't prepared for, so, a bit disappointed, he kept quiet. Luckily Ryan stepped forward to answer Matt's question with full confidence. "As far as I'm concerned, they are as much my comrades as any of you. If it's a matter of trust or on who's side they are, can we be sure we're all to trust and on the same side? But we have to, even with a little natural doubt, we don't know anything about this world, but what we do know is that we're being threatened in our freedom as we speak. If we want to be able to fight to protect our freedom we need to increase our power as a group, so we can bring freedom to our brothers who are held captive now and create stable living conditions in which we can work out a way to get home." It can easily be sensed that the atmosphere has changed. Matt is the first to break the silence. "The way you state it, I have to admit that there is no way to go about this situation than it is. Alright then, I'm fine with it, as long as we can successfully free our brothers in need."

 

 

The rest of the afternoon is spent on retelling the events of meeting the Tenno and attempts to get acquinted with the new group of friends. Though communication is rare to occur as only Draco can understand Tennobet, even without words it appears possible to get familiar with each other. With the little resources available they do manage to throw a bit of a party. Both to celebrate the new hope which now shines on the rescue and to relieve themselves from all the events which have happened.

 

Chapter 11

 

In the evening it is time to talk business as there is no time to waste. At the request of Draco, everyone comes together and sits down to discuss their plan of action. Draco takes the lead in the meeting. "Okay, gents, if there is any time to take action, it is now. Both because our situation is not sustainable and we have got to act with a good and solid plan before others will meet with their Tenno and go out for unthoughtful attacks which will either get our allies killed or the Grineer's defenses improved." "I can't disagree with what you said," Ryan replies,"And I get the idea that you already have something figured out. So why not skip the part where we all come up with half-assed plans which will never work out and go directly to your plan?" Everyone agrees with Ryan, so Draco gets ready to start his monologue.

 

"Okay, I propose that the first thing we do is locate the Grineer's galleon. I assume that our best chance to find it is to locate our friends' Lisets and see where most of them are. That's where it should be since I assume that the Lisets got captured along with them. Once we know that we need to attack in two waves. The first wave will be one to scout the enemy territory. With that intel we can set up the plan of attack and do the actual operation where we will make use of the surprise element to free everyone without having to battle much." "Soooo, who will go out on the scouting? Or are we all gonna go?" Nick asks. "No, definitely not. Everything depends on the success of the first mission, so I cannot have you go in inexperienced and making a mess of everything before we even have started." Draco answers. Now it's Ryan's turn to ask a question. "Then who of us is experienced enough to go, you think? And do we need everyone over to the galleon with the result that we leave those here defenceless?". "Oh no, definitely not!" Draco replies, "The survival of our base here is as essential for the mission to succeed as the gathering of intel is. Therefore, the only one who will go there am I. The reason for that is that I am a bit skilled in stealth and the use of weapons and above all I can communicate with the Tenno who will be joining me." "Sounds fair," Ryan says before anyone can criticize on Draco's plan, "but you must promise me that you can succeed in this mission or I'm gonna kick your ass, even if you end up dying, I'll find a way to revive you just for that. On a more serious tone though, who will you be taking? I do not expect that you will be taking all Tenno, will you?" "No, I'll be taking the Ashes and Lokis as staying invisible is their specialty." Draco replies, "And if we all agree on this, I'd like to go and prepare my squad for this mission.". Since the plan sounds okay to everyone and no one appears to have a better alternative, they agree on the proposed plan and Draco and his squad are going into a separate room to discuss the details of the plan."

  

Meanwhile the remaining people in the room move on to another point which needs to be discussed. "As Draco said, the survival of this base is as essential as the success of his mission. So how do we ensure our survival with the tools we have?" Ian starts off. Matt raises his hand and says, "Well, what is most important is sustenance. We already had a hard time obtaining food and water, but now we're with this shitload of people and, well whatever they are, we are in need of much more. That's a first, second is that we need protection. If we would all go to sleep now and the Grineer invade we're defenseless. If we managed these things, we're doing good in improving this rotten place. It's literally falling apart as we speak." There is no denying that these are the priorities which need to be addressed, however finding a way to deal with them takes the rest of the night to discuss.

 

"...and that's why I'm telling you that if you're not speaking up clearly and people miss out the first bit of your sentence people are only going to get confused!" Nick says enraged. "Nick, take it easy. I know it is a heated debate, but that's no need to get mad at people." Ian says in an attempt to ease the situation. Then Draco comes into the room with his squad. "We're gonna move out." he says. "You mean right now?!" Jake is both surprised, but also fired up as this mission sounds pretty cool. "Yes, we don't know what the Grineer are up to. We need to handle as soon as possible and I'm confident that this is the best we can prepare." "Well, Draco, if that's your decision, we can only respect it, shall we see you off?" Ian asks.

 

In the dead of night they walk towards the Lisets. "We will only take one of them. So if there is any need for you to escape the planet, you'll be able to. Do let us know via a message." Draco explains as they're nearing the landing crafts. Then they go into Draco's Liset and take off while the rest stays to watch until they are out of sight.  

 

Chapter 12

 

 

"Go check out this room down here, I think it's safe to go down here." Draco points to the Loki next to him, who in turn turns invisible. They've arrived safely at the Grineer galleon thanks to the Liset's stealth abilities. The galleon was big enough for the Liset to land on and for the occupants to disembark and enter a ventilation shaft. Now, once Draco receives the "clear" sign, they all move down into an empty storage room. "Now, you know the objective. Take one of these and put it on," Draco says as he hands out the ESC-equipment, "These devices will scan the surroundings and with the combined data we can draw out a map of this entire complex. I want to know each and every corner of this thing. Secondly, locate the prisoners and check for their security measures. I'll be doing my business here since invisibility is a must. Do not let yourself be seen! Got it? Now go!". And on his mark all the Tenno move out.

 

 

Since the doors are fitted with sensors, one does not need to do anything to open them. This does not only make life easier, but it will also be clear when someone walks through the complex. It's common knowledge which all the Grineer soldiers are programmed to know. Therefor, the passing squad is surprised to see that all of a sudden a door opens, but nothing comes out. The Commander signals his troops to ease and to ready their weapons. After all, this door leads to an unused storage room where there is no reason for anyone to be in. The possibility that there may be intruders is very likely. For a second, the Commander wonders if he should raise the alerts or get another squad to reinforce him. However, everyone is already on high alert since the sudden appearance of these weird creatures and since they've captured them they could even be a target of a rescue operation. This means that if he was to set off a false alarm, things wouldn't seem so bright. 'Move in' he signals to his squad.

 

 

Meanwhile, there is no taking it easy on earth. "We got some more, how's the crafting getting along?" Nick calls as he enters the base. He has just gone out for another go at the nearby Grineer base. Together with a couple of Tenno, he scavenged some metal plates. "We're doing great, soon we will be able to supply up to 50 people with water for about a day or so." Ace replies. It turns out that Ace used to work at construction sites and happens to be very skilled at crafting useful items, like crafting water containers out of metal plates. With the help of Ember he solders them together. "Quickly enough for us to replenish." Jake says as he enters the base accompanied by Hydroids. Together they're going to the lake and back again to bring water in. "What kind of entrance is that?" Ian asks as he takes as he puts his hammer down. He and Matt are working on the repairs which need to be done to this base. Starting with the most necessary repairs first and moving on to less important ones, they're almost halfway done. "Well, I've heard Draco saying things like that as well, so I thought I'd give it a try." Jake replies. "Jake! If you have time to be talking nonsense like that, go and help Ryan with collecting food." Matt shouts from the other room. "Okay," Jake says as he has grown bored of collecting water, "where is he?". "He's out hunting, so I don't think you can find him that easily. Instead, go look for some edible vegetation around here, if you can." Ian replies. "I've been working on my family's farm for years, now you don't need to ask me if I know a thing or two about it, because I know more about it than all of you." Jake says proudly. "Well then, Mister know-it-all, get to work!" Matt shouts.

 

 

"Right, let's get to work shall we." Draco says to himself. First he begins with inspecting the room. It does not appear to hide any secrets, just a plain simple storage room. From the looks of it, it may even have not been used for months. "Perfect," he thinks, "this is exactly what I need.". While Draco gets to work, on the other side of the door the Grineer squad moves closer and closer to the storage room as they expect an enemy to burst out any moment. Once they're as close to the door as they can get without it opening, the Commander signs 'Halt'. A couple of seconds later they burst into the room, weapons ready to fire, if needed, at a surprised enemy.