Sentient Worm

Neewa

Neewa

"My Queen, we have relocated one of the more promising Orokin towers in the void."

The Worm Queen looks down at the general that so rudely made himself known, "Why did you interrupt the meeting with such prosaic news?"

The general hunches slightly, "My Queen, we were able to get some footage of the inside of the tower, even though it cost us a company of my brothers."

"Well, play it then."

"Yes My Queen."

The Worm Queen watches with interest as a bleak landscape appears in her view screen. It seems like the film has been taken in black and white, with a few splashes of colour here and there. That's until it pans to a Grineer soldier, who's face has started to bubble and boil, before they collapse. That's when she realises that it's not that the film is without colour, it's the landscape.

The video pans to the other members of the unit, only to show that the units without heavy armour are all succumbing to the environment.

Suddenly there is the loud retort of gunfire, as something attacks the squad. As soon as that happens, all of the surviving members of the squad turn on each other, and the last standing survivor limbs back towards the entry point.

"Bzzzzt, commander down, friendly fire. I repeat..."

Finally, the camera falls sideways and the film fast forwards to show an unknown animal nuzzling at the camera, and the picture going fuzzier as it does.

Another Grineer reaches down, and takes the still running camera from the body before moving back to the entrance. This process repeats itself as the film speeds up.

The Worm Queen looks over to the general, "What, was, that?"

The general shakes his head, "We don't know. The suit data from the camera shows that radiation levels were increasing steadily as the unit made their way to where they died. Nothing un-survivable until moments before their death, when it spiked to levels seen inside a ship's reactor. The lifeform that we saw was sending those levels even higher."

The Worm Queen nods, "Write it off, and let the Corpus find the coordinates. Their board of directors will salivate at the idea of discovering why it's like that. Let them spend the resources needed to pacify the ship."

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Anet looks surprised when Ordis patches Parvos Granum through to her, "Lotus, thank you for seeing me on such short notice."

"What can I do for you Mr Granum?"

"Ouch, that was harsh. Anyway, I am calling to ensure that you are aware that I and my faction have nothing to do with the Board of Directors, or their politicking."

Anet raises her eyebrows under the hastily donned helmet, "Why would I need to know that?"

"It has come to my attention that certain of my, our, strategic contracts with the Tenno are currently on hold because of something the board or one of their members has done."

"Indeed, all corpus contracts are on hold for another 8 days. If the Board of Directors has not honoured their own contracts with 3rd parties at the end of that time, then we will be forced to cancel those contracts, and refuse future service until such time as The Corpus prove that they can be trusted again."

"I feel that this is failing to take into account the subtleties of the situation that The Corpus finds itself in."

Anet smiles, "Not at all, if we extend an exemption to one faction of The Corpus, what's to say that another faction wouldn't just use that faction's credentials to hire us."