9 All New! Fast Acting Time Skip! (Now with Infestation)(Updated)
It has been six earth months, since the finalization of our second galleon sale. The Orokin Ship reconstruction, as well as the laboratory construction, has been finished. I now have a fully functional Orokin Ship as my base of operations (The Tau-er) and I have to say it's pretty damned satisfying coming home to such a beautiful and secure ship. Once I completed The Tau-er, I immediately began research on Ducalidium, Cephalons, the Infested and many other things.
The Tau-er has everything the Orbiter had, only larger and more capable. All of the previous segments are now their own rooms, and don't forget the vaults. The Orbiter has been enlarged, enhanced, and reconstructed in the Orokin style, along with the Liset. A space, specifically for docking the Orbiter, was built into The Tau-er.
All of the Infested growth that had spread over and throughout the ships, were cut off and all placed together into a massive Infested amalgam. Once the work on The Tau-er and the Orbiter were completed, I tasked Helminth with constructing Infested pods, similar to the spawn pods typically seen on Infested ships, that only spawned an Infested room-like framework that could function as a ship's Navigation System and Primary Interface. Once this ship segment was completed, I embedded Helminth into it, placed it into the amalgam, and tasked Helminth with conquering the amalgam and transforming it into an entirely Infested spacefaring craft.
Ordis, after defeating the Corpus Cephalon, apparently was able to absorb all of the True Data from the other Cephalon and incorporate it into himself. He says that this has made him more powerful, although not on the level of Samaris or Suda. After this upgrade, he was able to construct both a comms array within the base and a Psuedo-Cephalon in the Orbiter, which in combination allow him to stay in the base while being able to control and communicate with the Orbiter through the Void.
During this six month period, I have of course bought and fully leveled many more frames. My main squad consists of myself, operating Nidus as team leader, Ivara, Nova, Saryn, and Mesa as Specters. While playing Warframe in my old world, I often would insist on all of my weapons being thematically consistent with my frame regardless of whether they were the best. Here in this new world, I don't need to worry about my fellow Tenno wasting massive amounts of time, money, and energy only to create trash weapons that have no practical value in a real battle. Thus when I acquired my Hema, Pox, and Lesion for my Nidus I wasn't surprised at all by their effectiveness. I was however overjoyed to have my suspicions confirmed about how they would behave in the hands of Nidus. The Hema would graft itself onto Nidus's arm, like the Gammacor, and actively restore ammo using his bioenergy. The bullets fired from the Hema not only fired in full auto mode they also possessed a more potent Viral affliction. The Pox's leg mounted holsters also fused with Nidus's flesh, while forming ammo in the same manner as the Hema. The Pox themselves also improved in potency as well as functionality. The Pox could now be placed and detonated at a time of my choosing. Lesion had its bladed jaws at both ends of its pole. When I channel Nidus's energy into it, it becomes covered with a Viral mist which lingers in the air for a few minutes in every place the weapon passes through.
My Nova, obviously, was equipped with the Synoid Set. My Saryn was equipped with Scoliac, Torid, and Dual Toxocysts. Mesa was equipped with Boltor and Akjagara. My Ivara was equipped with a special segmented quiver that carries Slash, Puncture, and Impact arrows. She was also equipped with an Opticor and Kunai.
Given the amount of ducalidium I've recovered from the derelicts, all of my frames and weapons are Primed at this point. The only exception being Nidus, even the Infested derived weapons are Primed. I suspect I'll have to work with Helminth to find a solution to this.
The only frames that weren't available, were frames that came about in game as a direct result of a story mission. Unlike Saryn who just had a superficial connection to the boss she dropped from, frames like Harrow, Octavia, and others have a direct connection to the powers you fight against in the missions. I suspected something like this might be the case and it's the reason I've made it a point to stay in the Lotus's good graces, until her plot continuation armor is no longer required. I'm certain that the Grineer have probably come close to finishing up their Fomorian, by now. The Lotus should be contacting me any day now.
I've had plenty of time, up until now, to get to know my frames abilities better. As it turns out, once a frame hits level thirty, it's possible to fashion entirely new abilities consistent with that frames capabilities. For instance, Ivara can now sacrifice the first person view of a Navigator controlled projectile in order to control multiple projectiles with lesser accuracy. She can also use dart versions of some of her quiver arrows. I call it Dart Parts and it has a Sleep Dart, Cloak Dart, Latchwire Dart, and Tracking Dart. All of her darts are about the size of a thumb, can attach themselves to inconspicuous spaces on enemy armor, remain inert until activated, and their effects only last half as long as her arrows. Latchwire Dart, when activated, shoots out towards Ivara attaching to either her wrist or waist. Tracking Dart, when activated, releases a signal that is in sync with Ivara's Sentry alerting her to the marked enemy's exact location within one kilometer. Tracking Dart is the exception to the halved duration as it can last a full minute. She can also apply quiver effects to her Artemis Arrows. I decided that, if she came across something she couldn't handle with her bow and stealth advantage, she would need something to deal a massive amount of damage in one shot, hence the Opticor.
Nova can now call down a shower of Null-Star particles. She can alter the effects of Molecular Prime to either slow down or increase an enemy's movement. She can sacrifice her Nul-Star protection and apply it to an Antimatter Drop, which looks hella sick and is both beautiful and devastating. Lastly, her Portal can now apply Molecular Prime to enemies who pass through it and it can be doubled in size. Nova also has a handy synergy with the Simulor wherein her Antimatter Drop merges with a gravity orb implodes thereby creating a wider and more damaging area of effect. Not to mention, that some pretty cool things can be done by firing the Gammacor through her Portals.
Saryn can now synergize her energy channeling with a melee weapon and Toxic Lash. Channeling energy into a melee weapon affected by Toxic Lash will evoke a less impressive version of Excalibur's Exalted Blade. This allows her to send out waves of Toxic energy, detonating her spores at range. Her molt can now act independently and function similar to a Tier 1 Specter. Miasma can now reapply spores to surviving enemies. She even has a wicked synergy, with Torid and Dual Toxocysts, wherein each one gains a secondary firing mode allowing her to fire her spores through either weapon. Torid fires spore pods that explode on impact, while the Twins fire individual bullet shaped spore clusters.
Mesa can now charge a full clip of bullets, with Ballistic Battery, which orbit around her like Nova's Null-Star. She can even gift fully charged bullets to allies. Shatter Shield can now be modified to apply a buff to outgoing bullets at the expense of its defensive abilities. A special shield can be deployed in conjunction with Peacemaker, which catches incoming bullets and sends them back on a parallel trajectory with fired Peacekeeper bullets.
Nidus can control the density of fungal growths in his Virulence, make it wider or thinner, and alter its solidity allowing it to puncture targets. Larva's sticky appendages can be sent out manually and the Larva itself can be transformed (cost one stack) and applied to one enemy and used to convert said enemy into a Nidus Strain Infested. Multiple Parasitic Links can be activated simultaneously both on enemies and allies. The maggot spawn pods, of Ravenous, can be manipulated into spawning more maggots at a faster pace.
Of course, most of these awesome new abilities tend to cost a lot more energy than their counterparts so they can't be used all willy nilly. Having discovered this capacity for custom abilities, however, it would seem that a frame's intrinsic abilities are just that a baseline measurement of what a frame is capable. If frames had a consciousness, they probably wouldn't need to level up at all in order to use their full repertoire of abilities. We need to, because they're not our bodies and we have to adapt to them over time and through experience. Not to mention, that the Pseudo-Cephalons used in the Specters cannot use these custom abilities. They can only utilize the four intrinsic abilities of a frame.
The Arch-Wing Blueprints, we pulled from the Archive were of course scanned, stored, and then copies were promptly sold anonymously to the Sol Tenno Federation. After studying the Arch-Wing's construction, I found it wanting. It didn't take long, with Ordis's help, to reconfigure the Arch-Wing concept into a more synergistic design. The new design employs the three Progenitor Cells required to construct a Warframe. The miniature Void Reactor from the Arch-Wing and the Orokin Reactor's psionic energy matrix from the Warframe are constructed first. The two are placed together into the Founder, along with a fully biological life support system. The Founder then receives the modified bio-cartridge and according to the new design creates a new Warframe body shaped like an Arch-Wing, around the three centerpieces. Once a corresponding frame enters the Arch-Frame, the Warframe is now in complete control of the Arch-Frame, which not only grants the frame the ability of flight and continued life support, but also dramatically increases the range, duration, and destructiveness of all Warframe abilities. Load out weapons can be crafted anew, to increase their size allowing them to keep up with the Arch-Frame's size and power. Naturally, I crafted Arch-Frames, for all of my Warframes.
The Infested ship is coming along nicely. Helminth has managed, with my occasional assistance, to create intermediate strains of the Technocyte that function as a medium through which he can exert his influence more thoroughly over the Original Strain and eventually the Mutalist Strain. Helminth has managed to convert many of the Infested growths, whether they be pods or spore producing nodes, into growths of the Nidus Strain which convert, structure, and maintain the amalgam.
The ship is nearly completed and only requires some fine tuning before it is finished. I'm here on the control deck, with Helminth, trying to determine what's needed to complete our newest base ship. "So, Helminth, once we acquire the Mutalist Strain we should be able to fashion this ship to look exactly like The Tau-er, correct?"
"If the Master's description, of this Mutalist Strain, is correct then this one should be able to modify the exterior in any manner the Master likes."
"Excellent! Now tell me, Helminth, how much of your difficulty in controlling the various strains is due to a lack of computational power or perhaps psionic energy reserves? If you were to receive an upgrade similar to Ordis would it make your work easier?"
"Master is correct. Such an upgrade would certainly increase this one's effectiveness."
"Nice! In that case, I think we'll be Voiding another Corpus Ship sooner than I thought. On second thought, with everything that we've accomplished with the amalgam, isn't it possible to just Infest the Corpus Ship?"
"If the Master is referring to crafting Infested pods, spreading them covertly throughout the ship, and activating them as this one and the Master attempt to overcome the ship's Cephalon, then yes. Infesting the ship would be quite an effective strategy."
"Then we'll be doing just that as soon as you've finished sorting out the details of this ship and constructing the Infested Cephalids, needed to further infect the Cephalon's systems as a distraction."
Needless to say, having already done this before, the infiltration, infestation, and subjugation of the Corpus Stanchion was over quickly. Having not only acquired the sought after upgrade for Helminth, but also a literal ship load of resources and machine parts for our vaults. I just hope I didn't blow my chances of being able to pull that off again in the future. Although, given that they never saw me and they were constantly preoccupied with the Infested it seems unlikely that they would be able to connect the two events.
Back at The Flesh Tau-er (Infested Ship Shaped Amalgam,) it seems to have deteriorated a bit without me or Helminth here to keep it stabilized. Oh well, with Helminth's new upgrade, he should not only have this ship restabilized in no time he should also be able to start preparing it for the integration of the Mutalist Strain and the construction of its internal compartments. I instruct Helminth to continue his work after embedding him back into the primary interface. I return to The Tau-er, to admire its beauty for awhile before the inevitable reunion with the Lotus. During my walk, I speak with Ordis. "Ordis, I need you to construct as many Psuedo-Cephalons as possible. Optimize them for taking control of ships. If I'm not mistaken, we should soon discover the location of a Fomorian Power Core factory. We'll be destroying those, but as things progress we should happen upon several Balor Fomorians. Once we know where the Balors are, I'll send Ivara in with all the Psuedo-Cephalons to embed as many as she can. Any of the Fomorians we're unable to control, we will destroy. The Lotus will probably become incredibly suspicious at the sight of a bunch of Balor Fomorians willingly directing themselves into the void. So it is imperative that absolutely nothing that happens during this acquisition be traced back to us. We have to appear to be fully focused on the task the Lotus has given us at all times. Do you understand?"
"Ordis understands, Operator. Ordis will ensure that none of our actions will be questioned by the Lotus."
"I'll be in the Prime Laboratory, if you need me."
The study of Ducalidium, may be essential to some of my future plans so I should focus on it as much as possible for now.
Several hours later, the room around me suddenly transforms into an exact replica of the old Orbiter. I had instructed Ordis to conjure up this little facade before patching the Lotus through from now on. The longer I can keep all of this a secret from her the better.
"Tenno, I have some truly disturbing news. Councilor Vey Hek, has begun construction on a new Fomorian Fleet. If he's allowed to succeed, the entire system could be in peril. We need to act fast. First we'll need to find the location of the factories producing Power Cores for the Fomorians. Go in, destroy the power cores, and we'll proceed from there."
" You heard the Lady, Ordis, what are you waiting for? Let's get a move on."
