A Tenno Awakens

[Keira Kelly]

A sharp, cracking sound awoke her out of the blackness that had held her in its grip. Muffled sounds met her ears but her mind, still in the grip of the sleep she'd been in, could not make sense of what she was hearing. It slowly dawned on her that it was the sound of battle but it sounded far away. The cracking sound though had been close, had echoed all around her. Slowly she forced her eyes open, resisting the heaviness that still lingered. She was in a small box, barely big enough for her; the glass view port in front of her face was badly cracked, one thing chunk of material missing as if something had tried to hack its way in. Her mind still didn't want to think straight but she knew she had to get out of this pod. She realized it was a cryopod but had no idea why she was in one nor where she was. The controls.. just beside her hand.. She remembered that much almost instinctively and keyed the code. The hatch opened with a hiss and slid aside. Whatever had been holding her upright against the support inside the pod released and she collapsed heavily to the ground, body still weak and not responding as it should.

She let herself lay on the ground a long moment, recovering. She could see her hand in front of her now, clad in a black glove. What was going on? Where was she? Who was she? That question returned something of an answer in her own mind, a name only : Vara. That was her name but she could remember nothing else about her past, before waking up. She needed to get up. She could hear gunfire now and it was getting closer. She pushed herself up slowly on all fours, taking a moment; though her muscles were regaining some of their strength, they were a long way from normal. She had just put a hand to her head, preparing to sit up when she was sent reeling from a kick to her ribs. She rolled a couple of times before coming to a stop against.. something. She looked up; a grimy, corroded pipe of some kind. The rest of the room was similar in style from what she'd seen, totally at odds with the construction of the cryopod.

"Tenno skooom!" an almost digitized female voice yelled out. "You die, Tenno skoom!" Despite the distortion, the anger and hatred of the tone were absolutely clear. Footsteps, metal on metal came towards her.

Vara tried to roll over, to get up while looking for the source of the voice. Her eyes fell on a figure, tall and off-white. It's lower legs were metal rods and it's face was covered by some sort of smooth, metal mask with glowing yellow eyes. The arms though.. looked organic.. maybe. Was there a person in there, she wondered. The figure raised a long barrelled gun, pointing it directly at her. It wasn't here to take her captive, she realized quickly. It didn't want anything from her, it was going to fire without hesitation and she could hear the chaingun winding up.

Suddenly a violent explosion rang out and blood and tissue sprayed from the figure's head. The gun stopped, clanging loudly to the metal floor, followed seconds later by the body. Vara's strength waned and she collapsed to the floor as well but it was only a few moment before she heard more footsteps. She knew she couldn't fight in this condition but she wouldn't go down without resisting. She struggled to push herself up once more. On her knees now, she leaned back, using the pipe to prop herself up, ignoring the pain in her side from the kick. Her hands raised into an odd gesture instinctively for whatever was coming. A new figure appeared in the doorway, different from the first. Her heart rose in her throat. It was familiar to her, one of her kind she knew, but couldn't recall how she knew that. A Rhino. He went and kicked at the body as two more armoured figures, Tenno, pushed past him and came in. A Trinity came over, kneeling beside Vara, studying the newly awoken Tenno and then turning to her comrades as if to converse yet no sound issued forth. Warframes, Vara remembered. Their suits of combat. These fellow Tenno were talking but on internal communication within the suits.

The Trinity turned back to her, a thin, modified voice issuing from the suit. "Can you walk?" she asked.

Vara nodded despite having no idea if she could. She began to push herself up slowly and was grateful that the Trinity and the Ash both supported her, helping her. She stood there a moment, clinging to the frames, trying to get her balance. She could feel a warm strength begin to flow through her which fed her strength and made her ribs stop hurting. She slowly let go of the other two, feeling a bit more steady now thanks to Trinity's healing. "Thank you." she said finally, not just for the healing but for her life. The others looked like they wanted to leave quickly but Vara hesitated. "Before you came, when I was inside," she began, pointing at the pod, "I heard a voice. She told me that everything would be all right..." she said, still slightly in a daze.

The Trinity nodded. "That was the Lotus. She comes to us all when we first awaken. She informed us that you were here. We came here to save you from the Grineer. We can talk more but we must extract now. It is dangerous to remain." she explained. She followed Rhino and Ash to the doorway, gesturing for Vara to follow. "You will learn all in time."