Path of Honor

I do not own Waframe. It is owned by Digital Extremes. Nor do I own any references made in this story.

Hello readers, I am PrimedBlade141 and I have been playing Warframe since Update 17: Echoes of the Sentient in 2015. I had the idea for a Warframe fanfic for quite some time but couldn't manage the time to write one due to study pressure for some time and the fact that Warframe has changed a lot over the years. Since I got some time now, I decided to finally start writing and here is my story. Please note that this story will be a bit AU later on. Anyway, please enjoy.

Prolouge: Awakening.

Utter chaos.

These two words would be the best used to describe the war-torn state of the Origin system right now.

The Grineer empire were sweeping through the system like a wildfire, ravaging anything in its path. Under the command of the Twin Queens, the vast army of cloned soldiers spread far across the system for a single purpose: To create an everlasting empire in the image of the queens. Numerous colonies across the system fell to the vast horde of Grineer soldiers.

The twisted cloned army was made to be loyal and ruthless. They brutally murder all those that stand in their way of creating their so called glorious empire. To the queens they would be the perfect slaves, if it wasn't for their decaying nature. As they were made in factories like tools, they were born with flaws that included a much shorter lifespan and degenerative disorders which included lower intelligence and decaying flesh. But still they were monsters on the battlefield. Being equipped with cybernetic prosthetics to compensate their flaws while augmenting their combat prowess, the Grineer would charge head first into the battle to wreak havoc while equipped with heavy armor and crude but still lethal archaic weaponry.

On another side was the technologically advanced Corpus. They were a cult of greedy merchants who worshipped Profit, quite literally and have been living on scavenging on the remains of the Old War. While they did not have the vast cloned manpower the Grineer possessed, they compensated for it with their technology and robotics. They had a massive amount of automated combat proxies at their disposal to deal with any threat to their schemes. Their energy shielding technology allowed even the lowest ranking crewman to have decent enough protection from enemy fire. Those captured are either treated as salvage or is sold to the highest bidder.

And then there was the infestation. During the old war, when their technology failed against the sentients, the Orokin empire tried to create a new bio weapon to combat the sentient threat. This however, went out of their control and caused the Great Plague. The afflicted become twisted creatures whose sole purpose is to consume all those who are not infested. Despite their violent and mindless nature, these twisted beings show some form of coordination when they swarm colonies and ships alike to consume, indicating that there may truly be in fact a hive mind that directs these abominations. Many colonies and lives have already been lost in the hands of the infestation. The more fall at their hands, the more of these monsters rise.

But there was a small ray of hope for the people of the Origin system. From the ashes of the old war, rose another faction. They called themselves the Tenno. They were warriors. Masters of the gun and blade. Wielders of the warframe armor.

Guided by the mysterious being known only as "The Lotus." The Tenno fight on against the grineer, Corpus and Infested alike. Their discipline, mastery of both gun and blade and the devastating power they wield thanks to their ability to channel the normally harmful void energy through their Warframes, they were a force to be reckoned with.

While one might see the Tenno as noble and honorable warriors rising up to protect the weak and oppressed, others might see them as powerful opportunist mercenaries abusing their power for their own agenda, whatever that might be.

Either way, any hope the system has for peace lies in the hands of the Tenno….

Somewhere on Europa.

The frigid surface of Europa, a moon of the planet Jupiter is all but a large crash site of the war raging in the Origin system. The frozen landscape is littered with remains of Corpus vessels that have become victims of the Grineer fleet.

Despite the subzero temperatures, the Corpus crew work on to salvage any of their lost assets. Aided by heat generators and state of the art drilling equipment, they carry out their salvage operations in order to restore any and all salvageable items until financial losses are recouped.

However, there was something else on Europa. Deep below the frigid surface was the remains of a large vessel that was unlike anything the Corpus fielded. It was not a Grineer design either. Grineer ships tend to be large and crudely shaped. The porcelain white walls and gold decorations meant only one thing: The vessel was of Orokin origin.

The Corpus stumbled upon this ancient vessel when they were drilling the surface whilst were carrying out a routine salvage operation. It was unclear when exactly this vessel crash landed here but it was probably a long time ago as it was so deep under the ice that they couldn't detect it despite all the scans they made on the surface of Europa. If they had to guess, it was as early as the old war or even before.

They were delighted by this discovery. Hidden under their box like helmets, their greedy eyes were illuminated by the visions of profit as Orokin technology was highly valued by the Corpus and Grineer alike.

This is because the Corpus in particular had a deep interest in the advanced technology belonging to the now fallen Orokin empire. Orokin technology was so highly advanced that even the best examples of cutting edge Corpus technology couldn't come close to their Orokin counterparts. Be it weaponry or medical equipment, the Corpus were miles away from reaching such quality that the Orokin possessed.

And so, the Corpus put a high emphasis on acquiring Orokin technology for study so that they could utilize the knowledge gained to make their own versions of it. Anything they can find from the Orokin vessel was sure to bring them profit.

The greedy cult had already moved a sizeable number of crewmen for the salvage operation to the crash site, along with necessary equipment. They also assigned a large security detail to secure the crash site and defend it if necessary. Weaponized bipedal proxies known as MOA's guarded the area along with combat trained crewmen and corpus techs. All of them were equipped with state of the art plasma weaponry and energy shielding technology that was standard issue to them. Small twin rotor unmanned aerial units known as Ospreys looked for any signs of anomalies and were ready to act if any hostilities begin, be it using their on-board weapons or by providing energy shielding support to nearby Corpus units. They also moved large air defense laser cannons to deal with any threat coming from the air.

As the Corpus crewman worked on under tight security, a Corpus dropship approached the Crash site. It lowered itself down and slowly landed on a clearing beside the Crash site. A small group of armed crewmen led by a Corpus tech, identified by his red suit and orange glowing visor came to the dropship to greet the guests as some serious looking armed Corpus disembarked from the vessel.

"Who the hell are you? This is a restricted area. You are not allowed in here without proper authorization." The tech stated. He had his Supra aimed at the guests and appeared to be alerted by their presence.

One of the intruders that appeared to be the leader stepped forward. Or rather hovered forward due to the special hover boots he was wearing. His suit appeared to be blue colored with some white lines. His helmet is what set him apart from regular Corpus crewmen. His helmet was taller than what most crewmen wore and was cylindrical with text in Corpus language inscribed on it. This indicated that he was a Fog Scrambus unit, a specialized combat unit with an electronic warfare suite installed in his helmet. On his back he carried a large gun that could be identified as the Opticor, a high power directed energy weapon of Corpus design which strangely was not issued to such units meaning that he had a high rank, if not made obvious by the holographic shoulder guards he wore, which projected a blue rectangular hologram with a round insignia at the center. He was flanked by two others similar to him but had different helmets and no hover shoes. One of them had a helmet that had a box like protrusion from the upper part and his face was exposed. He wore a blue visor and carried an Arca plasmor, a weapon that look liked and worked similar to a pump action shotgun but fired a wave of radioactive energy. The other one had a tall boxy helmet with a single vertical light strip in the middle and had two large circular objects attached to his wrists, which could be identified as a tactical energy shield emitter that could also be used to deliver electric shocks to targets during hand to hand combat. Both of them were Combas, a unit similar in role to the scrambus but were not issued hover boots.

The leader took out a small square device and pressed a button on it. It projected a holographic screen and a face appeared. This man wore a blue metallic robe and had a strange blue disc like object on his neck. He wore a black headgear and his face had black markings. This was none other than the infamous Alad V, the director of Corpus operations of Jupiter and the Head of Grineer relations. He was also a prominent member of the Corpus board of Directors but he lost his position to Frohd Bek after the Tenno sabotaged his Zanuka project by raiding his ships where he experimented on captured Warframes. However, despite the setback and removal of funding from the board, he still continued his project with his own funding.

"My my. You people found an Orokin vessel so close to my base of operations and decided to not inform me. How insolent. You thought such news would not reach my ears? My informants have already informed me that this vessel has the possibility to have Tenno cryopods. And you know how much I need the Tenno for my precious Zanuka project." Alad said with disappointment in his tone.

"This operation was authorized by Frohd Bek. He is the one who ordered us to keep quiet about this operation." The tech informed.

"Bek? That old man only thinks about money and never had high ambitions. It's better that I acquire whatever artefacts this vessel has instead of that short sighted lousy buffoon who can't keep his mouth shut. So, listen up trash face. I'm taking charge of operations here!" Alad exclaimed. The tech however seemed amused.

"You? You have no authority over Chairman Bek and the board. You still have your position despite all your previous failures because the board seems to have some use for a useless pile of dirt like you. Why don't you work on your own little crappy science project instead of poking your nose into matters of the Chairman Shit Salad!" The tech retorted. Alad seemed startled by the tech insulting him but remained calm.

"Oh, my goodness. A lowly puppet tries to defy the orders of his superior. How…disgusting." Alad calmly said.

"Oh yeah, Chairman Bek is superior to you and once I report YOUR insolence to the Chairman and the board, you better be ready to face the music!" The tech exclaimed.

"Oh, but this territory does not belong to Bek. This is my turf and you have to play by my rules. Ren, how about you make an example of our little friend here." Alad ordered.

The leader, now known as Ren, quickly whipped out his lecta, a Corpus whip-taser hybrid weapon, and disarmed the tech before he could do anything. The helpless tech was shocked when he saw that the other crewmen that came with him did not do anything and stood still, indicating that they did not have the nerve to go against Alad V. So, he made a run for it. Perhaps he could inform Frohd about Alad V and maybe get him punished for his interference.

But he couldn't go much further as Ren acted quickly, swinging his lecta and ensnaring him by the neck. The weapon delivered a high voltage electric shock as the tech grabbed the whip with both hands struggled in vain to get free. But his movements slowed down gradually until he hit the icy ground, dead.

"This better be a lesson to all those who wish to defy me. If you obey my commands, I promise you will get paid well for it. If not…then I assure you won't leave this place alive." Alad stated coldly. The other crewmen were shaken up by the brutal execution of the tech and nodded, agreeing to the demands of the elite Corpus.

"Good. Then let's see what we can find here. If you find any sleeping Tenno, bring it to me so I can make proper use of them for my Zanuka project." That was all Alad said before his face disappeared from the screen.

Now escorted by the crewmen, the Alad's team entered the wreckage of the Orokin ship. Inside, it was just as grand looking as it appeared from the outside. It had clean, porcelain white walls and hallways and doors were adorned with gold. The crewmen informed the party that this ship seemed to be some sort of research ship for the Orokin empire. So far, they have scouted most of the ship and found some weapons and other things, including a smaller liset landing craft that was typically used by Tenno for quick infiltration and exfiltration. They said they took it outside and salvaged most of the systems that they thought were in working condition and left the thing intact. But they were yet to gain access to the inner chambers as they couldn't bypass the large security door and are probably going to have to resort to using explosives.

Soon, they reached the said door. It was a large, circular door. Made purely out of gold or perhaps a substance that looked like a door. There was some large machinery near the door, which appeared to be some sort of large laser cutter. And from the black markings on the door, it appeared that it was of no use.

"All right, set charges on that door. Looks like we have to blast our way in." Ren ordered. Some of the crewmen came forward with explosive charges and placed them on the door. They began arming them and soon a beeping was heard, indicating that the charges were armed.

"Clear!" A crewman cried as they cleared the door. The beeping continued. It became more frequent and suddenly, it exploded with a loud noise, covering the spot with smoke.

They waited for the smoke to clear, hoping that all their efforts would not go in vain. Soon enough, the smoke cleared and they were met with success as there was now a large hole in the door, large enough for them to move men and machinery in.

"Let's move in and look for anything of value." Ren ordered. Alad's team, along with a small group of crewmen and some proxies entered the inner chambers of the ship and began searching. At first, they found just some basic things typically found in Orokin vessels. Then they found some rooms that had…dead bodies.

The victims appeared to be young, aged between ten to sixteen. From the looks of it, they were experimented upon as most were restrained. Some of them had wires and other devices attached to them while some were dissected. There were few that looked like something burnt them and were beyond recognition. There was one empty room that had a large glass window that let outsiders see inside. The room was littered with pieces of broken equipment and had some burn marks. Most importantly, there was blood. There were some bloodstains on the floor. It appeared that something was experimented upon here.

The Corpus neither felt shaken, nor did they feel any sympathy for the poor souls that probably died a cruel and agonizing death. For starters they were not unfamiliar with war and bloodshed. And they too often experimented with live test subjects, usually captured colonists and Grineer.

Soon, they reached a large circular room. The center was empty sides were lined up with some large silver pods with glass viewing ports.

Ren smirked. This was exactly what they were looking for. These were no ordinary pods. These pods were used to contain Tenno. Wasting no time, Ren took out his communications device and called Alad V.

"Sir, looks like we found some warframe cryopods. Orders?" He showed his superior their discovery. The high-ranking Corpus seemed to be highly delighted.

"Good. Now look for any warframes you can find." Alad ordered.

"You heard the man. Move your asses and start searching!" Ren ordered his subordinates. The crewmen scrambled and began checking the cryopods.

One of the crewmen approached a cryopod and looked inside it through the large glass surface on top. But much to his dismay, it was empty.

"It's empty. There is nothing inside this one." The crewman informed.

"This one is empty." Another crewman reported.

"This one is empty as well." Reported another.

They kept checking but all they found were empty cryopods. Until one of the crewmen looked inside a single cryopod at the far end of the room.

"I've found one!" He exclaimed. "It looks like an Excalibur."

Ren and the others rushed to the cryopod. He shoved the crewman who found it out of his way and looked inside.

Inside the cryopod was a sleek humanoid figure. It was mostly white in color but with some grey bits and red linings. The helmet lacked any resemblance of a normal face. It had no eyes even, making one wonder how a Tenno saw the outside world. There was a single short horn like protrusion on the helmet.

"Sir, we found one. An Excalibur type it seems." Ren Informed Alad V. He seemed really pleased with the good news.

"Excellent. Bring it to me and I will make sure all of you will be rewarded for your efforts." The Corpus elite stated over the comms. "But until you deliver it to me, be careful about it waking up somehow or other Tenno coming to its rescue. I am tired of losing warframes for my project." He added.

"Yes sir. I will make sure you receive this warframe in Jupiter. You can count on us." Ren said. He put his communications device back and instructed the crewmen to begin preparations to move the cryopod on board his ship while he secures the landing site. He and one of the Comba that came with him left, leaving a handful of crewmen and the Arca Plasmor armed Comba with their prize.

As they began preparations, they failed to notice one thing. This particular Excalibur had something different. While he mostly appeared the same as a usual Warframe of its category, his shoulders had an unusual marking that was never seen on any others. It looked like an eye that was ready to be pierced by multiple swords surrounding it.

Inside the Warframe.

Everything was pitch black. He saw nothing but complete darkness and heard nothing. Then, something began to flicker amidst the darkness and soon some text became visible to him more clearly.

INITIATING SYSTEM DIAGNOSTICS.

WARFRAME INTEGRITY: INTACT.

INTERNAL SYSTEMS: INTACT.

EMERGENCY SYSTEMS: FUNCTIONAL.

NEURAL SYSTEMS: FUNCTIONAL.

SHIELD GENERATORS: FUNTIONAL.

ENERGY STATUS: EIGHTY PERCENT.

TRANSFERRANCE STATUS: SYNCHRONIZED.

NEURO OPTIC STATUS: DEACTIVATED, FUNCTIONAL.

SENSORS STATUS: DEACTIVATED, FUNCTIONAL.

COMMUNICATIONS STATUS: DEACTIVATED, FUNCTIONAL.

HUD STATUS: DEACTIVATED, FUNCTIONAL

EMERGENCY LOCKING PROTOCOLS: ACTIVE.

SYSTEM DIAGNOSTIC COMPLETE. REBOOTING SYSTEMS.

RESTORING HUD FUNCTIONALITY.

His HUD (Heads Up Display) flickered for a few seconds before activating. It showed his warframes' shield and integrity status on top left and energy status on bottom right along with some other icons. A small minimap appeared on his top left corner. He wondered why the damn HUD was rebooting before other sensory systems that let him to actually see and hear everything around him. It made him question the intellectual abilities of the one who programmed it to work this way.

HUD FUNCTIONALITY RESTORED.

ACTIVATING ALL SENSORY SYSTEMS.

ACTIVATING NEURO OPTIC VISUAL SYSTEMS.

He was momentarily blinded by the bright light but soon he recovered and started to see his surroundings.

He was inside some sort of pod. But through the glass, he could also see the outside of the pod he was in. It appeared to be in a large circular room with other pods lined along the outer rim. The walls were white with gold decorations.

He also observed that he was not alone. There were some men in that room. They were all armed and wore strange helmets that somewhat reminded him of those that workers wore when wielding. He tried to move but couldn't feel much of a response. He couldn't feel his body as though he was paralyzed. All he could do was observe.

ACTIVATING COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS.

In an instant, a smaller screen appeared to his left. On that screen, he saw the face of a woman. She was clad in blue and most of her face was covered by a strange helmet.

"Tenno, you are awake. I am the Lotus, your guide. But we must get you out of here. The Corpus have found you and they want your warframe. We cannot let that happen. Get ready to act as soon as you gain control." She stated.

"Copy that." The Tenno muttered. From his voice, it appeared he was a male and was not aged much. At best it could be estimated that he was not above twenty or so.

DEACTIVATING EMERGENCY LOCKING PROTOCOLS.

SYSTEMS REBOOT COMPLETE.

He then felt the rest of his body as he slowly moved his fingers, then his limbs. He was ready to go.

"Force your way out of the cryopod."

A corpus crewman was idly standing in front of the cryopod, oblivious to the fact that the Tenno had awakened already. As he looked at the cryopod and he felt that he saw something inside it move. So, he went close to the pod and tried to take a look inside.

In an instant, the Excalibur punched its way out of the cryopod, his fist shattering the glass and metal and grabbed the crewman by the neck, choking him. He struggled but was no match for the sheer strength the Tenno possessed and passed out. The Corpus in the room were instantly alerted.

Two nearby crewmen aimed their flux rifle at him. The Tenno simply threw the crewman he was holding, knocking both of them out. More crewmen converged towards him, weapons ready to fire.

"Quick. Use your power. Defend yourself." The Lotus commanded. The Tenno channeled his void energy to his right hand, summoning a golden blade of energy. In the blink of an eye, he charged forward at his opponents at a burst of great speed, being propelled by his void energy. He instantly cut one down then moved to the next, cutting him down as well. The energy blade in his hand disappeared as the others began to fire their weapons at him in panic due to seeing their comrades brutally killed in front of their eyes.

But the Tenno was quick on his feet. He rolled to avoid the burst of fire from their plasma weaponry coming at him. Most of the shots missed but few landed only to be deflected by his shields. He then summoned his blade once more and dashed at them, ending their existence. Once more his energy sword disappeared after use. It seemed as though he couldn't sustain summoning his Exalted Blade for too long and could use it in short bursts for now.

As he finished off the crewmen, he heard a pinging noise as his HUD began to scramble. He spotted something blue in the corner of his eyes and instantly rolled to his side as a large blue wave of energy narrowly missed him. He looked at the source of the shot, spotting a taller Corpus with a different helmet that exposed his lower face and had a large weapon on his hand.

The Tenno sprinted at him as the Comba fired again. But he quickly moved to the side, evading the deadly wave of energy once more. The Corpus unit kept firing while moving back to put some distance between him and his target but the nimble Tenno easily evaded the shots as he began closing the distance because he had enough energy for what he estimated was a single cast of Slash Dash. After a few more shots, his magazine emptied and the Comba tried to switch to his Dual Cestra plasma rotary pistols. But the Tenno had already closed the gap considerably, and dashed forward with his Exalted Blade summoned, cutting the Comba in half before he could even fire a single shot. The scrambling of his HUD stopped.

After all this fighting using his warframe, the Tenno felt a bit strange. While he felt far more powerful and faster than an average human, he had a strange feeling. He never felt as though he was wearing his warframe or any sort of armour but rather he felt as though it was his own body. His own flesh and bones that moved and fought.

He could neither remember who he was nor anything of his past. Only thing he knew that he had combat skills with Swords and Bows and had honed his battle instincts well, evident from the battle he had with the Corpus moments ago. The Tenno was cut out of his thoughts when the face of the Lotus appeared on his HUD once again.

"An extraction ship is on its way, but the Corpus will be hunting you. I have marked a nearby weapons cache for you. Arm yourself." The Lotus stated as a golden marker appeared on his minimap, indicating the weapons cache. He exited the room and quickly made a break for the weapons cache, bypassing a small group of MOA's and crewmen on patrol undetected. He took a left, through some hallways and reached the room that had the weapons cache. It was mostly looted but there were still some weapons and ammunition lying around.

"Grab what you can, Tenno." Said the Lotus.

He looked around and picked up a Paris, a standard issue Tenno bow along with some arrows and some Kunai throwing knives. He found an arrow quiver where he placed the arrows and attached it to the magnetic harness on his Warframes' back. He placed the Kunai he found on two pouches that he attached to his side. He then picked up what appeared to be a large sword and observed it.

The sword had a larger than usual grip meant for two handed use. It had a small wheel on its guard. The blade was a bit broad, with glowing purple edges while the surface was grey and white with some green lines. This was a Gram. A Tenno heavy sword that required a bit of strength to wield but was notorious for its splitting power and its large size allowed it to hit multiple targets if necessary.

But, to this particular Tenno, this blade somehow felt light. It was as though he was used to much heavier weapons. And the lack of a sharp pointed tip meant that this weapon was not that ideal for thrusting attacks. Still it was better than nothing and it would do for now. The Tenno then attached the Sword to his magnetic harness on his back and equipped his bow as he headed outside.

Moments later, he found a small Corpus patrol in his path. There were two Crewmen armed with Dera automatic plama repeaters, four green coloured MOA proxies and an Osprey that was boosting the shields of the other units.

The Tenno acted first, quickly notching an arrow and firing it at the shield Osprey, destroying it instantly. The Corpus started firing at the warframe but he took evasive actions and switched to his Kunai and quickly dispatched two of the crewmen and a MOA. As the remaining MOA's closed in, he drew his Gram and charged at them. Once he came close to them, he quickly executed a fast 360 degree spinning slash, hitting them twice and destroying all three of them as they were in close proximity.

He holstered his blade and retrieved some of his arrows and Kunai before headed for the extraction point, indicated in his minimap on his HUD. He soon exited the crashed Orokin ship and navigated the tunnels made under the icy surface. His comms suddenly picked up an enemy transmission.

"Alpha team, what's your status. Why haven't you reported yet?" A gruff male voice stated. There was silence for a few moments before he spoke again.

"All units, stay alert. Alpha team has gone dark. I repeat, Alpha team has gone dark."

"The extraction point is up ahead. Hurry before the Corpus find you." Lotus informed. The Tenno continued his heading towards the extraction point. On the way, he found two patrolling crewmen. He quickly dispatched them silently using his Paris and moved on. Soon he reached the surface.

He was alerted by the sound of engines and looked up to find a small white kite shaped ship that was slowing down and preparing to land nearby. This was a Liset, a type of landing craft used by Tenno.

"You made it. There is the extraction ship." Lotus stated. But before the ship could land, it was struck by a volley of laser beams which destroyed it."

"Tenno, it looks like the Corpus have deployed air defense systems. You cannot get out until you neutralize those lasers. I am marking its location on the HUD. Go and disable it and then I can guide you to your old ship. It's your only chance." Lotus stated as a marking appeared in his minimap.

As the Tenno headed for the objective, he was met with a large group of Corpus crewmen and Proxies along with a Corpus tech at a distance. He was spotted and the Corpus opened fire instantly.

The Tenno sprang into action almost immediately. Pulling out his Gram, he sprinted forward. The Corpus Kept firing but he moved quickly, evading most shots while deflecting the ones that came close using his blade. Once he got close to some units, he cut them down using the heavy blade and moved to the next closest group, repeating the process.

The tech and the remaining units tried to pin him down using suppressive fire but failed to do so due to the warframe's added agility that was far superior to them. The Tenno cleaved a crewman in half with his large sword and then used Slash Dash to dispatch three more MOA's.

As the threat was closing in, the Tech threw a cryo grenade at the Tenno, attempting to slow it down. But the warframe instantly caught the grenade and threw it back at him. It exploded, partially freezing him along with two other crewmen that were near him. The Tenno leaped high into the air with his sword and came downward executing a summersaulting slam that bisected the helpless tech while the force of the impact made the other two crewmen fall down on the icy ground.

The Tenno wasted no time stabbing one of the crewman through the chest with his blade and killing him on the spot. The other begged for his life. For some reason, he hesitated for a second. But he decapitated him with his sword afterwards.

The Tenno looked back at the carnage he created. The place was now littered with pieces of broken machinery and mutilated remains of crewmen that he had cut down a few moments ago. The air was filled with the stench of death and destruction as the icy surface was stained by the blood of the Corpus. The Tenno then looked at his hands. They too were stained by blood of those he had killed moments ago.

His mind was suddenly bombarded by images of death. He saw the remains of a city. Fires were raging on as smoke was rising from burnt out buildings while the streets were filled by rubble. The ground was littered with dead bodies of men, women and children alike.

There were also bodies of what appeared to be knights of old lying around. Somehow, they seemed familiar to him but he couldn't remember who they were or what they meant to him. But still he felt a strange sensation of sorrow in his heart.

"Tenno can you hear me, Tenno are you alright?" The Tenno returned to his senses as he heard the Lotus' voice on his comms.

"I'm fine. I just got…a bit distracted." He spoke.

"The air defense systems are just up ahead. Hurry up and disable it so that you can leave." The Lotus said. From the tone in her voice, she appeared a bit concerned.

The Tenno headed for his objective once again. He passed through the wreckage of a Corpus ship. While the Excalibur faced occasional resistance from Corpus proxies and crewmen alike on his way he dealt with them without much of a problem and pressed forward.

Soon he had his objective in his sight. He spotted a large automated turret which his HUD identified as a Corpus air defense unit. It was guarded by a sizeable group of combat proxies and crewmen. There was no chance of sneaking by them so his only option was to attack them head on.

The Tenno sprang into action, intending to land the first strike. He pulled out his Paris and made a Corpus tech his first victim, putting an arrow through the visor of his helmet. Then he gracefully evaded bursts of plasma that came at him while shooting down more proxies and crewmen with his bow. A prod crewman tried to sneak up behind him and strike him with his Prova, an electric stun rod but the Tenno heard his footsteps and quickly turned around to fire an arrow at him point blank. The arrow struck him on the neck and its force pinned him to a nearby wall.

It was at that moment a larger than average MOA with white ornate armour appeared and it began firing a laser beam at it. But the Excalibur dodged it by cartwheeling back out of range and quickly struck it with an arrow. Although it appeared that his arrow did some damage, it was not enough to disable it as its shields absorbed most of the impact. The backside of the bipedal proxy opened as a small attack drone took to the air and began firing its plasma machine gun at the Tenno. He wasted no opportunity, firing another arrow at the Fusion MOA to disable it before rolling away to avoid a burst of plasma from the attack drone. He switched to his kunai and threw one at the small drone. It got stuck to its gun barrel and caused it to explode when it tried to fire its weapon.

Suddenly his HUD began to scramble as he heard a familiar pinging noise. He spotted a pair of units like the plasma shotgun equipped one he fought earlier but with different helmets and weapons. One of them had a large hi tech gun and had hover boots. There were also more crewmen and proxies headed for him.

"All units, surround the target and lay down suppressing fire. Don't let him settle on a target!" The one with the hover shoes announced. He recognized him as the voice from earlier. The Corpus began spreading out to surround him.

Wasting no time, the Tenno threw his kunai at three of the crewmen, killing them and took evasive actions as the Corpus began firing their weapons at him. He skillfully dodged all the plasma shots targeting him and dispatched one or two targets with his Paris when he had the opportunity in between. He climbed up a broken part of a crashed corpus ship to gain high ground and sniped a tech and two more MOA's.

He notched another arrow and was about to fire it at another target, when he noticed the Scrambus aiming his Opticor at him. Instinctively, he jumped down as the electronic warfare unit fired a beam of blue energy from his weapon at the direction of the Tenno, missing him. The Tenno fired his arrow at him the moment he landed but the Comba unit got in front of his target and projected an energy shield from the circular devices attached to his wrists, blocking the arrow. The unit then switched to a pistol like weapon and fired a volley of small missiles from it.

The Tenno rolled to the side as the barrage of micro missiles struck his previous position and exploded. He quickly sent an arrow at the Comba, aiming for the head. The unit simply deployed his energy shields to block it.

This was exactly what the Tenno wanted. He noticed that the shield it projected was strong but only covered a limited area. So, he instantly fired another arrow downwards at his legs. This time, the arrow struck the Comba in the knee. He fell down on the ground, grabbing his leg in pain. The Tenno finished him off with a Kunai.

He then diverted his attention to the Scrambus. The electronic warfare unit aimed his Opticor and fired off a beam after a second or so charging it which the Tenno dodged. then charged his weapon and fired a second time but his target jumped out of the way and the beam hit a prod crewman behind the Tenno, vaporizing him instantly.

The Tenno dashed at him as the Scrambus tried to shoot the warframe down with his laser cannon. Every time the corpus fired his weapon the Tenno would evade the beam in a graceful display of acrobatics while closing in on him. After another failed shot, it appeared as though the power cell on the opticor was out of charge. The Tenno had closed the gap considerably. So instead of reloading a fresh power cell, the unit pulled out his lecta taser whip.

"Come on faceless betrayer!" The Scrambus shouted while swinging his Lecta in front of the Tenno in an intimidating manner, the whip crackling with electricity.

The Tenno simply stared at him blankly, before putting away his bow and drawing his Gram. Like warriors of old, the two began to circle each other with their focus fixed on their opponent.

The Corpus unit made the first move, charging at him and swinging his Lecta. The Tenno simply leapt back to avoid the electrified whip. But the Scrambus was relentless. He moved forward quickly and swung his whip once more. The white warframe dodged but the whip grazed his shoulders, his shield absorbing the electric damage. The Tenno charged forth as Ren swung his whip once more. This time, the whip wrapped itself around the heavy blade the Tenno was using.

The Taser whip delivered a strong electric shock that began to steadily deplete the shields of the Excalibur. The Tenno began to channel his void energy into his Gram. The edges of the blade began to glow brightly as the Tenno cut the Taser whip with a mighty swing. Wasting no time, the Tenno summoned his Exalted blade on his left hand and instantly charged at the surprised Corpus scrambus with a great burst of speed. Ren couldn't do anything as he was cut in half by the Tenno almost immediately.

The Tenno sheathed his blade as his HUD returned to normal. He then headed for the air defense cannon and reached a console below it that was used to control the system. Aided by his warframe's tactical assistance software, he hacked into the system to disable it. The Lotus's face popped up in a smaller screen on his HUD.

"Nice work taking down the air defense systems. Now follow the marker to reach your old ship." The Lotus stated. The Tenno followed the mark on his minimap and soon reached a clearing where a liset like the one earlier was parked.

"There it is, your ship. Hurry, Corpus reinforcements must be on their way." The lotus informed as the Tenno made his way to the small kite shaped landing craft. It had wires connected to it which connected it to a console.

"Disengage the suppression system so we can restart the ship. You'll need to bypass the security on that panel." The Lotus said. The Tenno accessed the panel and hacked it. The wires detached and a male voice was heard on the comms.

"Stop touching me you-What? Are my sensors deceiving me? Operator is that you?" The voice asked.

"Enemy reinforcements are here. Ship Cephalon, we require immediate extraction." The Lotus informed the voice that was now identified as the ship's cephalon.

"The operator is in danger? I will need a few moments to cycle the engines!" The cephalon stated as multiple Corpus units began to converge on the location. The Tenno fought hard to defend the ship as the Cephalon did his work. He Tenno struck down numerous advancing crewmen and combat proxies with his ranged weapons before they can even get close. While some who had actually succeeded in getting close to the target were cut down by the Tenno. He was almost running out of arrows and kunai when the sound of the ships engines being activated was heard.

"Tenno, the ship is ready. Time to leave." The Lotus informed as the Tenno dashed to his ship. It hovered up a bit and opened a panel with a slot for the warframe to attached itself to it. The panel closed, putting the Tenno inside the ship.

The remaining Corpus kept firing but with little effect against the liset's shields as the ship rose above the ground more and slowly pointed its nose upward. Then it fired up its engines with a loud boom and disappeared into the sky.

Thus, began a new chapter in the war for the Origin system. But can a single warrior make any difference all alone?

To be continued…

Author's note: Well there you have it for the first chapter of my story. While I originally intended to include more scenes after our protagonist escapes, I felt that it would be too big for a starting chapter and decided to cut it short. I will include that content in the next chapter though. Also, I am not exactly going to follow the Warframe canon accurately as I have lots of ideas for the plot of this story.

Anyway, be sure to send me some constructive feedback and suggestions and feel free to ask any questions regarding the story. Some feedback is really appreciated. Flamers would be ignored though.