Aaron straightened out of his meditative stance. And carefully looked through the viewing pane as the station quickly grew to encompass almost his entire view. Clean white hull plating blocking out the vast inky blackness of space.

"Docking clearance confirmed. Welcome to Vesper Relay."

Minerva said, as Aaron stepped into the Boarding pod. Feeling it as the Liset oriented itself into the docking clamp. The boarding pod rotated outward. And Aaron stepped out onto the landing bay.

Vesper relay was a busy hub of activity, Tenno and otherwise. Lisets shared docking space next to Solaris freighters. And even a few grineer crew-ships painted haphazardly in Steel Meridian colors. People Scurried to and fro across the available floor space, though regardless of how busy it was, when a Tenno walked past, those around them made an effort to make a hole.

It was rather uncomfortable for the thoroughly introverted Aaron to be so solidly at the center of so much attention, He wished more then anything to simply be another face in the crowd. But every pair of eyes seemed to pass over him. And he didn't quite know what was worse. The looks of wariness and fear on more then a few faces. Or the looks of frankly ridiculous hero worship on many others. He stepped through the security checkpoint without anyone even so much as speaking to him. Despite the rather obvious Skiajati hanging from his waist. Perhaps the guards simply chose to bear the risk rather then potentially draw the ire of a Tenno.

Aarons stepped into the relays interior chambers and stopped to look around, the game had for the most part, done justice to the design and size of the relays. But they had utterly failed to capture the sheer number of people. People Walking, people talking, people sitting, people running, people trading, people everywhere, doing everything. It was overwhelming to be in the center of such a press of human bodies. And even more so to have every single one of them take at least a few moments from what they were doing to look at him.

Aaron shook his head and did his best to ignore the myriad eyes he could feel boring a hole into his armored back. He looked around, where the hell had Brad said he'd be?

"AARON! HEY, AARON!"

Ah, there he was.

Aaron turned around to see the Rhino main striding toward him. A path being cleared for him by his sheer presence alone. Almost 7 feet of artificial technocyte muscle and thick armor plating. Which made for an almost terrifying Image as he walked toward Aaron with his characteristic friendly gait. Aaron imagined it might be similar to how one might feel being approached for a hug by a friendly giant teddy bear. Not threatening per se, but overwhelming nonetheless. Brad wrapped his comparatively smaller frame in a bone crushing (did warframes have bones?) hug. It was a few moments before Aaron was finally released. He huffed.

"Do you HAVE to do that every time we meet in person?"

Aaron got the distinct impression that if he could see Brad's face he would be grinning like an idiot.

"Well yeah! How else are you gonna know its me?"

Aaron laughed.

"Well I suppose you got that right. You wanna find somewhere to sit? You said you wanted to talk right?"

Brad nodded. And jerked his thumb toward a small set of comfortable looking cushions surrounding a quaint tea shop. Evidently Brad was already known, because when he was seen approaching. The little old woman manning the counter beamed.

"Ah, Tenno! Good to have you back! And is this your-?"

She turned to look at him and froze. A thoroughly unsettled expression passing over her face before she again composed herself.

"F-friend?"

A little nonplussed by the woman's reaction. Aaron simply chose to nod in affirmation. Brad, being the impeccable social butterfly he was. Simply sashayed (how did you sashay in a body that big?!) to the counter.

"Yeah, sorry about my pal."

He said genially.

"He tends to have that effect on people."

The woman seemed to take the situation in stride. Which Aaron was thankful for. And simply led them to an extremely plush looking pair of cushions. Both set on either side of a circular carven wooden table. They sat down and she handed them two small paper menus that had probably seen better days.

"Just yell when you're ready to order."

She said kindly before making her way back to the front counter.

"What effect?"

Aaron asked, looking down at the menu and not recognizing any of the types of tea being sold. Brad took a moment before responding, evidently coming to his own conclusions about what he wanted to order.

"Your frame man."

He replied.

"Harrow's…. Kinda creepy."

Aaron balked, that was certainly news to him.

"What?! No it isn't!"

Brad put up a defensive pair of hands, Chuckling.

"Hey, don't shoot the messenger. I'm just calling it as I see it, but if it makes you feel any better. They all seem a little afraid of us. You think it's the whole no faces thing?"

That served to remind Aaron of one of the reasons he was there to begin with.

"Speaking of…. Us."

He said. His voice hesitant.

"How many of Us are there?"

Brad stopped at this, collecting his thoughts before he responded.

"I only know a little more than you do honestly."

He said.

"I'm pretty sure I woke up a little before you did. From what others have told me. We all ended up here the same day that-."

"The New War dropped."

Brad nodded.

"All the stories start the same. They boot up whatever they were playing on, download the update. Try to start the game. And then everything goes dark. Next thing they know. They're waking up in a cryopod. Wearing a warframe. And surrounded by something that usually tries to kill them."

Aaron took a moment to absorb this information.

"And it's reasonable to assume the majority of the player base would be playing when the update dropped."

Brad nooded.

"Yep, it's a mess."

Aaron shifted.

"Speaking of messes."

He said.

"That's actually part of the reason I'm here."

Brad motioned for him to continue.

"You know that kid we recently recruited? TreesMinion? A little before you got in touch, He contacted me, sounded like he was In a world of trouble."

Brad looked up.

"When you say a world of trouble…."

"It sounded like Alad V was gunning for him."

Brad settled back into his cushions. Body language pensive.

"Well, Shit."

Aaron raised a placating hand.

"If you don't want to help I get it. I could definitely use the help but If you aren't up for it then-."

Brad upstarted suddenly, abruptly all energy as he rose to his impressive full height.

"Are you kidding?"

He roared.

"If one of our newbies needs a hand then what the hell are we just sitting here talking for?!"

He was Mr Rogers in a technocyte shell Honestly. Brad strode over to the counter where the old woman sat looking down at a small tablet.

"Check please!"

The woman looked up at him, confused.

"You… Haven't ordered anything yet."

Brad suddenly seemed to deflate as he remembered this.

"Oh, right…."

He murmured. Though his sudden turn of mood lasted exactly as long as one might expect. And he was all volume and confidence again within no time at all.

"Alright, One Jasmine Tea to go please!"

Aaron and Brad stood inside Aarons orbiter. A useful projection of the Jovian system suspended in front of them. Separate asteroids and moons hanging in loose bands around the Projection of the titanic gas giant. Names floating next to them. Brad huffed.

"So, why are we here?"

Aaron would've rolled his eyes if they were visible.

"Because we need a plan of attack."

Again Brad scoffed.

"What for? We're Tenno, just bust down the front door and get him out of there."

Aaron sighed wearily.

"Well, as you can see."

Aaron said, gesturing to the projection.

"The Jovian System is enormous. It plays host to more than 70 Natural satellites and measures Half an AU across. And the Corpus control almost all of it. We could spend from now until next year searching and would probably never find Tree. There's just too much ground to cover."

Reluctantly Brad nodded in acquiescence.

"Alright, so where do we start?"

Aaron waved a hand and a new graphical overlay settled over the projection.

"We raid a corpus ship, these are the most up to date patrol routes we have. We pick a target. Infiltrate the ship and raid its data vault. With any luck we can get our hands on the reports pertaining to prisoner transfers. The only problem is picking a target."

Brad gestured.

"How about this one? It goes pretty far out of the way of the others. If we end up tripping any alarms it'll be awhile before anyone responds to a distress call."

Aaron nodded.

"Good call. Min, mark it on navigation."

Minerva chimed her understanding.

"Of course Operator, would you like to apprise The Lotus of the situation?"

Aaron thought for a moment, and then nodded his assent.

"Yeah, Send a report. If things go pear shaped It might be smart to have some incoming backup."

"Understood."

Brad nodded, and pumped his fist in excitement.

"Alright! Let's go rescue our clanmate!"

The two Lisets lifted from their docking clamps. Antigrav thrusters humming as the the two ships blasted away from the relay.