Darkness

I am the darkness.

She slid through the depths of the Corpus starship. There were security mechs in plenty all around the area. None took notice of the odd shadow as they passed it. It didn't conform to any of their threat recognition parameters, so they ignored it. There were guards everywhere, distinctive in their boxy helmets. None saw her. Fortunately for them. The female shadow wore oddly shaped black armor, but moved fluidly and soundlessly in it. The wide fluted helmet and the distinctive shoulder pauldron proclaimed what she was. She was a Tenno. One of the ghosts of the solar system, one of the warrior spies and assassins who fought the Grinneer and Corpus anywhere and everywhere they found them. Like the ancient shinobi of Earth, they disdained open warfare for the most part, striking from ambush to vanish as quickly as they appeared. She moved through the ship, her senses stretched out, as taut as the string of her bow. She could hear the enemy long before she could see them and she barely needed the image that her warframe's on board computer projected on her heads up display.

Finally she paused. The guards had moved off, but there was an open area ahead. Across the way, she saw her destination. A set of archways that led to a staircase. She had never been on this particular space craft, but Corpus ships were generally similar. Some of her kin joked that the Corpus and Grinner had the same interior designer. She wondered for half a moment if the enemy even noticed the similarities. And if so, what they made of them. Then she focused again and started across the open area.

For most of the way, there was nothing. She had a bad moment as a security mech came around a corner and paused, but her sentinel had detected it first and the Shade cloaked her before the mech could register her as a threat. She moved out of its line of sight and drew an arrow with the speed and silence of long, unrelenting practice. She nocked it and drew back her bowstring, ready. But then the sound of metal footsteps sounded and the mech moved off. She let out the breath she had been holding and moved.

I am the night.

Stealth wasn't about being invisible, although it helped on occasion. Even a Loki warframe's Invisibility power had it's drawbacks. For one thing, it used a lot of juice from the warframe's systems. For another, it had very limited duration unless one used precious space in the warfame to upgrade it. It also did nothing to hide the sound of the user running. Tenno were trained to run quietly, but there were limits. Invisibility was useful, she had to admit that. But for her, stealth was more about timing than actually being invisible. The sensors that most enemies had were incredibly sensitive. One whiff of her presence and generally everyone would know where she was and what she was doing. At least these were not Infested she was facing, They had a group mind of some kind. When one died, all knew what had happened and generally where. Trying to stealth past them was a nightmare. She had done it on occasion, but most Tenno didn't bother. She came to the foot of the stair she had seen and paused. There was a guard patrolling in front of her. He wasn't very alert, that was obvious from his posture. But if he saw her...

She made a snap decision as the guard turned away. She checked her HUD display of enemy positions and bit back a curse. There were more enemies up top. She had to take guard out fast and silently. She slung her bow and readied her melee weapon as the guard made his circuit and turned back towards her. He stepped closer and closer, then turned to continue his patrol. Before he could, she struck. She danced forward, her feet soundless on the metal deck as her preferred weapon sang through the air. The guard heard something. He started to turn but she was on him.

I am Death

"Wha-?" He had time to say but nothing else as the curved blade on the end of her staff stabbed deep into his back. It was harder to hide with a long weapon that if she carried a dagger or two, but it was worth it on occasion. His armor might have turned a lesser weapon but not hers. He convulsed, his spine and heart severed by the fantastically sharp blade. Then he collapsed. She caught him as he fell and eased his cooling corpse into the shadows. The body vanished as the energy it contained was absorbed by her warframe to help power it's systems. She was still, listening carefully for any sound of alarm. There was nothing.

She nodded as she started up the stairs. The holographic icons of the guards at the top hadn't moved. They were still unaware of her presence. Too late for them now. She slung her naginata and readied her bow. An arrow was quickly nocked and another was in hand. She took a deep breath and peered out of the stairway to see the guards. Both were looking away from her. She had maybe seconds. She didn't hesitate. She didn't need more. She drew and released in one fast motion, the second arrow nocked and drawing before the first had hit it's target. Luck was with her. The first target folded in on himself without a sound, dead before he hit the floor. The second guard didn't even realize his ally had died before a long metal rod tipped with glowing energy ended whatever thoughts he had been perusing when he should have been on watch. She nodded as both started to disintegrate. Her arrows were performing as designed, removing the evidence of her stealthy kills. The bodies would have been a huge sign advertising her presence as much as the arrows would have been. So her arrows disintegrated after a few seconds taking the bodies of her victims with them. But she didn't have a lot of time now. Sooner or later -probably sooner- someone would wonder why three guards were not reporting in. They would either investigate or sound an alarm. Either would be bad for her. Her target was close.

She ghosted to the next door, naginata ready in hand as it hissed open at her approach. Her scanner was unclear, so she wasn't sure how many were in the room with her target. At least one other. She took a deep breath, steeling herself, and then cast Silence. The power would keep any enemies in the surrounding areas from hearing the clash or weapons and screams. Before the power had finished settling around her, she was running for the door, hyperaware of everything in the odd soundlessness that accompanied the power.

The door sensed her approach and she was inside the small control room. The bank of computers in the middle of it obscured who was behind it. But the two Corpus crewmen who stood at the computer terminals had their backs to her. One was starting to turn as she closed, obviously wondering why the door had opened.

Before he could finish his turn, she spun her naginata and the blade licked out, quick as thought. The strike wasn't clean, but it sufficed. The blade cut deep into the man's side, arching up through the abdomen to cleave vital organs. He was dead, but it would take a while to happen. He was out of the fight though as his guts fell out of the rent in his armor. The crewman went down, obviously screaming soundlessly in the field that still surrounded her. The other one hadn't noticed anything. The Corpus troop was absorbed in his or her work and she dispatched that one with a quick slash to the neck that severed the spine. Then she moved to the side of the control panel. A tingle told her that the silence field was down and she could hear whimpers as the first crewman she had struck bled out. A startled voice sounded.

"What is going on?" The voice was female. The banshee straightened herself and strode around the control panel to see a young looking female human in Corpus attire standing there. Her helmet was open, showing close cropped blonde hair and piercing green eyes. She was pretty. Not beautiful, but pretty, if you discounted the coldness in her eyes. She was also obviously confused. She saw the banshee and went stiff. "No..." She begged, recoiling from the black armored form.

"Doctor. You will come with me." The banshee said quietly, speaking for the first time since she had arrived. She made sure her jammer was on first though. She didn't want any Corpus eavesdroppers.

"Tenno... I..." The woman shook her head violently. "Help!" She screamed, reaching for the laser pistol at her hip. The banshee reached out and slapped the woman's hand away, confiscating the pistol before the woman could get it all the way out. The banshee tossed the pistol far away, her cold gaze never leaving the human's face."Don't hurt me..." The woman begged.

"How many of your victims have begged you not to hurt them?" The banshee asked coldly as she released one hand from the haft of her weapon and raised it.

"No..." The woman cringed away, then spun and tried to run. Silly that. She had nowhere to run to. "No!" She screamed again as the Banshee neatly tripped her with the butt end of the naginata. She went down in a heap and rolled onto her back, staring at the now glowing palm of the banshee's gauntlet. "No! Please!" She begged. "Don't..." Her pleas tapered off into a long drawn out scream of agony as she was slowly turned into electronic particles to be stored in the warframe's secondary buffer until she could be released to interrogation. Of course, seeing as how the doctor was a Corpus specialist in interrogation... Oh well. Not her problem. The banshee nodded to herself. Mission accomplished. Now the hard part. Getting in was usually easier than getting out. Case in point...

"Doctor?" A loud Corpus voice called from nearby. The banshee looked around, but saw no one. A hidden speak. Time to leave. "Doctor Priosa?" The voice queried again. "We lost your vital signs downlink. Doctor, are you there?" The banshee made for the door and paused as an alarm started to wail.

Crap... The banshee sighed. The circle is never going to let me hear the end of this...But.. ok... Loud it is...

The sound of metal feet on decks came from the stairs she had used. Loud voices sounded as well as organic guards started to converge. She saw an avalanche of red dots appear on her HUD and waited. The first set of guards actually ran right by her, crouched as she was. But the mech that followed them was not fooled by her warframe's on board ECM and stopped sort, it's boxy weapon head turning to look at her. Before it could do more than look, she laid both hands on the floor and pushed.

It always amazed and humbled her how powerful sound could actually be. People took sound for granted but... Audible sounds were one thing. The power that she pulsed into the deckplates was sound but it acted like something totally different. It moved like water. The waves of coherent sound traveled along the metal floor until they encountered something of less resistance to the wavelengths. In this case, the legs of Corpus troops and mechs. In less than a second, the sound had reached critical mass and each and every enemy in the area was convulsing as their insides were pummeled by sound that would have cut through steel. It was her most powerful ability. She had less than perfect control over it though and was careful not to carve holes in the floor. It was wasteful and she had done that more than once.

"Tenno!" One of the guards had time to scream before he fell dead. Then there was silence as enemies fell where they had been frozen. Robotic or organic, all had vital pieces that were very vulnerable to sound weapons. Every red dot on her HUD had winked out and she smiled under her helmet as she drew her bow and started off. The alarms changed in number as the entire ship was alerted. The banshee sighed again.

They are never going to let me hear the end of this...

Her clan was small and very tightly knit. They relied on stealth and secrecy more than brute force like some other clans she had dealt with. They were also inveterate pranksters and jokers, since war was a very dirty business, they had to find ways to keep themselves sane. She gave as good as she got. But, in the end, Tenno were what they were. Weapons. Stealthy or no, they were still weapons. As the Corpus reinforcements who were now appearing on her HUD were going to find out.

I am death and I am coming for you...

She walked out of cover and drew her Paris to full extension, releasing even before the Corpus crewman was completely visible. She drew and fired as she walked, unhurried, towards the hatch and her ship. The crewman barely had time to scream as a half meter of razor tipped metal impaled him to the wall where he hung feebly twitching. The next suffered the same fate. Then the next, and the next...

This is going to be a long walk... The Banshee who called herself Serene said to herself as she walked and killed another Corpus. But it's not like I have anything better to do.