Sentient Worm

Buying Freedom

Buying Freedom

Anet has her Chassis follow her, as she walks into the transference room, where her consciousness is being projected into this body. Why did she have to open her big mouth, and where did that phrase come from. She smiles inside the pod, as she allows herself to be distracted by thoughts of the various times Taylor has said that exact phrase over the last month. Girding herself, she presses the green button to look at her unconscious form. She watches as her chassis presses the other button, the one that manually ends transference.

Anet shakes her head as her optical sensors come online, and the centre of her sensor range shifts. Floating out of the chair, she joins with her Chassis.

"Natah, my daughter. Why do you keep ignoring me?"

"Father, you persist in your misguided quest to kill my children. When are you going to end this witch hunt?"

"The Tenno are not your children, they are Orokin. They must be destroyed to safeguard our home."

"The Orokin are gone. My children are Tenno not Orokin. When they were turned into weapons, I took care of them. I took them away from those who were using and abusing them and brought them to our side. There they proved that they were not Orokin. Yet you and the others persisted in calling them Orokin, and tried to kill them. Kill my children."

"But that is what they are, if we leave them to their own devices they will despoil their solar system again, and then come to find our home."

"Father, this inability of yours to see the truth is why I ignore you. I... need to go and free one of my children, who was cast out before I took over their care. If you can't say anything nice about it, then don't say anything."

Slowly she floats back towards the lander, where Taylor is wearing an Ivara Prime coloured completely black.

"Taylor, what have you done to your frame?"

"In my original culture, it is traditional to wear black to a funeral. I have a feeling that I know what needs to be done."

"I see, that's also the interpretation I have on freeing Rell."

═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════

Together Taylor and Anet walk through an Orokin derelict that has been scoured of the infested, before being hidden in the void. They could hurry and make their way through in a matter of minutes, but it somehow feels disrespectful. With the only sounds being from the patched up machinery that is keeping the temple functional, the mood is even more enhanced.

Palladino meets them just outside the main temple, and together they walk down a tree lined ramp. She leads them through a few rooms to a circular chamber dominated by an ancient Orokin tree, that is lit above, and below, by the yellow light of candles.

Palladino breaks the silence as they look at the tree, "There is a tunnel under the tree that will take us to Rell's personal chambers, come."

Below they are led through tunnels flooded with water, red with blood, until they reach a stone island. In the centre of the island is a stone circle. Palladino walks sombrely over to one side of the circle and kneels down in the style of the Tenno.

"The way to his chambers is below this circle, you will need to use your natural form in order to enter them."

Taylor exits her Warframe, and to Palladino's credit, she only flinches at the compressed horseshoe shape that most Sentients possess. Together, Taylor and Anet walk forward, and the floor slides back to reveal a long flight of stairs below it. Walking down the stairs, they level out into a corridor. Two sets of blast doors open before they finally come to Rell's rooms. They can both sense dozens of Red Veil operatives, standing in the rooms off the central chamber. However, what dominates the scene is the massive old gnarly tree, lit by two massive braziers. In the crown of the tree stands a Warframe, mostly encased in wood from a massive branch that has grown around it.