10 Orokin Pokeball Death Star

The Lotus quickly discovered the location of the power core factory and sent us on our way. After wrecking shit in the power core factory, we're contacted once again by the Lotus. "Tenno, you've performed admirably but we're not finished. The Grineer have already finished several Balor Fomorians and are planning to deploy them against the Corpus. We need to head to a Corpus ship on Montes, Venus. Information, regarding the Balor Fomorian's location, should be aboard that ship. You should, however, visit a Relay first. A recently discovered Orokin technology, called an Arch-Wing, may be the key to putting an end to this threat."

     "Next stop, Montes, Venus." Ordis says.

     We arrive in Venus's orbit, dispatch the Liset, and head to the Corpus ship. Once onboard, I move adeptly from room to room, assessing the situation, planning my assault, and executing everyone in sight before they can trigger any alarms. 

     My Ivara Specter has already been prepared and is waiting close by the Liset, for the Balor's to arrive. Once they are here, she will fly in while remaining invisible using her Arch-Frame. If there is more than one, then I'll need to stall for time so that she'll have time to infiltrate the others. Just before I arrive at the Primary Interface to extract the Intel, "Tenno, you need to abort this mission immediately. The situation outside has gotten out of hand. A Balor Fomorian has just arrived and will begin bombarding the ship at any moment."

     "If there is only one, then perhaps we can take it out?"

     "No, Tenno, this is beyond you. It may be alone, but it is still the mightiest warship in the Origin System. We'll need to retreat for now and try again when we are better prepared."

     'Damn, only one after all. Well, it should be fine, with the one under my command I should be able to locate the others.'_"Alright, I suppose I should leave then. Ordis, is the ship ready for extraction?"

     "Extraction is ready when you are, Operator."

     I begin making my way swiftly to the extraction point when…

     "Tenno, wait...the Fomorian is turning around. It's leaving of its own accord...I...Tenno, disregard. I have no idea what is going on and that's not a good thing. Extract as fast as possible."

     Back onboard the Liset, "Should we follow the Fomorian?"

     "No, Tenno, as I said earlier, I don't know what's going on right now. There could be some kind of onboard emergency that required them to retreat but this could just as easily be some kind of trap. You've already done most of the work. The Corpus are reeling right now but I don't know if the Grineer will send something else at us. I'll keep an eye on this Corpus ship and send in another Tenno to recover the Intel when the time is right. I want you to lay low until I've discovered the location of the other Balors. Prepare yourself and your Arch-Wing and stand by for the upcoming battle."

     "Of course, I'll be ready when you need me." The Lotus disconnected.

     "Ordis, what's the status on our Balor Fomorian?"

     "It has almost reached the Void space boundary, Operator. Shall Ordis have Ivara begin the Voiding before we arrive?"

     "Yes, I'd like to be as quick as possible about this. We still need to locate the other Balors and get to them before the Lotus."

     We arrive, back in Void Town, and I board the Balor. I help Ivara clean up the remnants of the crew, while Ordis tracks the other Fomorians. "Operator, Ordis has found the location of the other Fomorians. Shall we leave immediately?"

     "Yes, prepare Ivara, Ash, and Loki along with their Arch-Frames. We'll take them three at a time assuming they're that many."

     Upon the Orbiter's arrival outside of the Fomorian's range, I board the Liset along with my three infiltrator specters. Seven Balor Fomorians are waiting for us here. I order my three infiltrators to prep the first three. Once the first three are prepped, they move on to the next three. I wait until all three are aboard their respective ships before I head towards the last one. I begin my own infiltration of the final ship methodically dispatching each room's occupants. "Operator, all of the ships except this one have been prepped and their Voiding has been initiated. The infiltrators are heading your way as we speak."

     "Excellent, have them focus on distracting the enemy while I embed the Pseudo-Cephalon. Once this one is prepped, the infiltrators can stay aboard and continue clearing the ship. I'll depart immediately and you and I Ordis will head as fast as we can back to The Tau-er."

     Well, now that the Fomorians have been removed, from where they should be, that should slow down the Lotus's investigation. I don't know what kind of perception abilities the Lotus has but it's best if I stay far away from the Fomorians until she gives up the chase. So here I am, back in The Tau-er, utilizing my Prime Lab.

     "Tenno, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that I can't seem to find any trace of the Fomorians. The good news is that not knowing where they are could mean that they've been destroyed or somehow dealt with and are no longer a threat. I'm not really holding my breath on that last option. I sincerely doubt that those Balor Fomorians are just gone just like that. I don't know what's happening in regards to these Fomorians but I'll keep my ear to the ground and I'll let you know when and if I find something. Take care, Tenno."

    As soon as the Lotus disconnects, I question Ordis. "Ordis, tell me what use if any do we have for power cores. Aren't the Void Reactors that the Tenno use superior to all other available engines?"

     "The Operator is correct that Void Reactors are superior but they have to return to the Void after extensive use. The rate at which Void Reactors replenish ambient dark energy from the environment is very slow and also varies depending on the dark energy saturation. Returning to the Void, allows the oversaturated dark energy to refill the Void Reactors almost instantly. So long as we are stationed inside the Void, the cores have very little use but if we wanted to build anything outside the void those cores would then be incredibly useful." 

     "Ahh, I see. So with these Balor Fomorians, would it be possible to reconstruct them into an invisible fortress that would provide us with a quickly accessible hideaway in case of emergencies? We would also be able to transfer larger spoils up to and including ships, with such a fortress."

     "It is possible, Operator. Although, quite a bit of Tenno technology would have to be worked into the design in order to accomplish the invisibility part."

     "Not a problem, Ordis. We'll integrate as much Tenno technology as possible but for now I simply want the Fomorians analyzed and then positioned in a circular formation with their engines facing each other and room enough for two more Fomorians in between each of them. I then want you to calculate the dimensions of a sphere whose circumference is equal to that of the circle formed by the front of the Fomorians. Once you've accomplished this, I want you to construct various designs for a spherical fortress that implements the available cores in the most efficient manner. I want designs that focus solely on firepower, designs that focus solely on stealth, and designs that focus solely on any other singular aspect of a fortress. I also want designs that are balanced in all areas and some that contain all functions but are imbalanced in one area or another. Also, make sure your designs are in the Orokin style and utilize their technology whenever it's the better option. I expect at least a hundred variations when you're done but no more than two hundred."

     "Certainly, Operator, Ordis will begin right away."

     "While you're sorting that out, patch me through to Darvo?"

     "Tenno, always so good to hear from you. It's been a while since our last transaction. How have you been?"

     "I'm doing well, Darvo, quite well in fact. Unfortunately, however, I don't have any juicy merch for you this time. I may, no guarantees, in the near future acquire a number of Balor Fomorian Power Cores should such things interest you. At the moment though, I need to contact someone, a thief named Maroo. With that on the table, how has your newly acquired galleon been treating you?"

     "The galleon has been an absolute boon. My business is flourishing, like never before, thanks to you, Tenno. As for those power cores, well you can consider me thoroughly interested in such things, should you acquire them. This thief, Maroo was it, I'm not sure I've heard of him but if you need to contact him I'll make sure that you do. My connections should be more than sufficient to ferret out a common thief."

     "Excellent, Darvo! Although, you should be warned that he's not quite as common as you might believe. He apparently has an ability similar to us Tenno, called Smokescreen, that can turn him invisible."

     "Hmmm, a thief with a Tenno like ability? That is a bit strange but if anything knowing he is unique in this way should make finding him all the easier. Was there any other business you'd like to discuss today, Tenno?"

     "None at all, Darvo. I thank you for your assistance and hopefully I'll be able to get you those power cores."

     "Indeed, Tenno, fingers crossed. Until next time."

     "Ordis, if we were to take the knowledge from the Orokin Archive, along with perhaps some supplementary scans of Corpus and Grineer factory facilities, could we build our own all purpose factory inside of our hideaway fortress?" 

     "We could, Operator, would you like Ordis to send coordinates indicating the appropriate facilities for analysis to the Orbiter?" 

     "Absolutely, I'll head there right now. Will those hideaway fortress variations be completed by the time I return?"

     "Of course, Operator, the variations should be completed well before then."

     "Excellent, then immediately halt any laboratory research aside from the Prime laboratory. Have all the other labs focus solely on energies and methods, within their respective fields, that are used for detection. I want them to ascertain ways of evading these attempts at detection and construct technologies that can accomplish this evasion. With that in place, I'm off to get these scans."

     "I await your return, Operator."

     Having acquired the appropriate scans and returned to The Tau-er, I begin sorting through the various fortress designs Ordis has constructed. After several hours, I finally landed on a design that I felt would best serve our purposes. Inside the outer walls will be a space separating the exterior from the interior. Inside this space a variety of elastic, firm, sticky, fluid, and solid Infested growths will form a suspension matrix that connects the exterior walls to the interior walls. This Infested matrix will operate and maintain the various entrances, exits, and weaponry built into the exterior. At the center of the fortress will be a Reactor Room containing a Void Reactor and built around the Void Reactor will be an array of Primary Power Cores. The Void Reactor can be used as a one time use Emergency Escape Protocol, at least until the fortress could be safely returned to the Void. The bottom half of the fortress will contain our factory in the upper bottom half. The lower bottom half will provide storage for resources, factory products, and even detention of living subjects should the need arise. The bottom upper half will provide ship storage, analysis, deconstruction, and reconstruction services. The top upper half will house the navigation, personal quarters, comms array, and battle station segments. All of this will be connected via six corridors leading away from the Reactor Room. The four corridors that run in between the top and bottom halves of the ship are connected with the inner walls of the exterior. The exterior will have a black ring, running around the center and will connect with these four corridors. The ring will be lined top and bottom, with Ducalidium, and have a hemispherical indentation, wider than the ring itself, in between two of the corridors. The indentation will also be lined, with Ducalidium, and will be connected directly to the Reactor Room, to function as a massively overpowered anti-everything-it's-pointed-at weapon. In the center of the Void Reactor, will be a secret room from which an Ivara Specter and a Nidus Specter will control the fortress' stealth functions and Infested functions respectively, with a Lotus type headgear setup. The black ring around the outside will provide a variety of docking bays and weapon ports. From the outside, it will look a lot like a white, black, and gold pokeball. Before all this can be completed though, I'll need to visit the Orokin Towers and the Plains of Eidolon to fill in some of the gaps in our knowledge. I want to make sure we get this right the first time, so anything that might need to be added in the future can be integrated seamlessly into the preexisting infrastructure. "Ordis, now that we know what our fortress, which I'm calling The Traveler, (shut up) will look like and how it will function you can go ahead and begin deconstructing the Fomorians and building a framework for us to start from. I need to make a research trip to the Orokin Towers and I'll be heading to the Plains of Eidolon soon after my return." 

     "Tenno, I hope this isn't a bad time. I've found that thief you were looking for."

     'Or not. I guess I'll have to deal with Maroo first.' 

     "Not at all, Darvo. Tell me, where is this scoundrel so that I might speak with him?"