[Ashwinder] Chapter 8 - The Skykiller

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“Your sweet and beloved Valkyr - I can save her. I can give you the strength to save her and the 2 million people who are still alive in this colony. You can save them all."

His voice abruptly lost its light-hearted tone, becoming deep and terrifying as he continued:

“But you have to want it.”

Returning to his previous, light-hearted tone, his doppelganger said:

“So, how about we make a deal?”

As they shook each other’s hands, a blinding light came out, sealing their deal and flooding Harry with the power of the Void.

⁂

His eyes glowed with a bright cyan light, and his body levitated as the power of the Indifference washed over him. Paradoxically, the side effects of overusing the Void disappeared after the Man in the Wall shared his power with him willingly. 

His paralysis disappeared, his mental exhaustion vanished, and a power unlike anything he had ever felt coursed through his veins.

Of the twelve Grineer who had assaulted them, two had already been killed by Valkyr. However, the valiant Warframe could not deal with the remaining ones because sharing her lifeblood to bring Harry to full health from the verge of death had exhausted her. 

Faster than the Grineer could react, he flew at Valkyr with a Dash. The main reason he had accepted the Indifference’s deal was so that he could save her life.

The power of the Void flared. In that moment, Harry instinctively reached into a deeper layer of the Void, something all Tenno knew how to do but something he had never been taught.

Conceptual Embodiment.

Thoughts, memories, emotions, and even abstract concepts could be manifested and given a physical form through the power of the Void. 

Responding to his will, a blinding flash of light erupted from his body, and the ten Grineer surrounding them all let out cries of pain as the powerful rays of light burnt their retinas, blinding them.

He was not aware of it, but the ability he had just used was called Void Radiance. It was one of the skills taught by the Madurai Focus School.

With the Grineer crying out in shock and bumbling about, he stopped worrying about them and knelt in front of Valkyr, who was on her hands and knees, breathing out heavily. 

Her skin was strange to the touch, a mixture of metal and soft tissue, but he did not pay it any mind. He raised her head softly and pressed his forehead against hers.

‘Thank you, Valkyr.’

It was not just his words. His feelings and emotions were transmitted to the Warframe through their Transference, and with it, so did the power of the Void. 

Valkyr let out a soft growl. Her vocal cords made it impossible for her to talk, but Harry could feel her emotions through their link. It was joy, relief, and something that he had never felt from her clearly until then: affection. As much as he would have liked to explore the new level of their Transference, that was not the time; they were in the middle of a warzone. Two seconds later, the two of them parted and stood up.

As if they could read each other’s thoughts, the re-energised Valkyr threw herself at the blinded Grineer, and Harry left with a Void Dash. 

⁂

Twenty minutes after taking the Man in the Wall’s deal, a sudden transmission stopped Harry in his tracks.

It was the Lotus, and, going by the way she was talking, the transmission was not directed specifically at him but at all the Tenno who happened to be in the colony’s vicinity.

“Tenno, this is an emergency. Our spies have unravelled an extremely distressing piece of information. The Governor of Martialis had secretly acquired a Warframe cryopod from the Old War. But, unfortunately for them, a traitor among the Corpus had sold that intel to the Grineer for an exorbitant price. That is why this Grineer Galleon ship had left Gradivus, the main battlefield of this war.”

“We suspect that the Warframe in the cryopod is a Prime. We cannot allow the Grineer to get their hands on it, but we cannot leave it in the Corpus’ possession either. Your task is to infiltrate the territory protected by the Orokin Tower at the centre of the colony and destroy it. No matter the cost.”

“The Corpus have abandoned the civilians, and they focused all their forces on the defence of the Orokin Tower. Should the Corpus discover your intentions, you will be met with heavy resistance. Both the Corpus and the Grineer will turn their weapons against you. Be careful, Tenno.”

Harry let out a curse of frustration.

‘So that’s why I couldn’t see any Corpus anywhere around!’

Everything that Lotus said checked out: the absence of troops in the military base from where he rescued Clem, civilians being left to die, and even the fact that one of Corpus’ people sold them out for profit checked out too – Cephalon Suda had told him beforehand that no deed was too sinful or off-limits for the followers of the Cult of Profit.

His Void Power flared, and a telekinetic wave burst from his hand, moving away an enormous pile of debris and broken pieces of concrete, revealing a group of nearly 20 people who had been trapped underneath.

“Thank you!”

“Thank you so much!”

“We’re saved!” they cried out in gratitude and relief. 

“Those of you who can stand, take the injured with you and run towards the big tower. I have to go search for others!” he told them in a rush before Dashing away.

Despite the fact that he looked like a boy no older than 15, none of them dared disobey his words. No, maybe it was precisely because of his young appearance and his supernatural powers that everyone listened to him. There were no people in the entire Origin System who had not heard about the Tenno before.

Four Grineer dropships appeared at the edge of his vision, each one of them carrying half a dozen troops or more, and Harry showed no hesitation as he flew straight at them.

The Lancers opened fire, emptying the clips of their Grakata rifles on him, and the Bombards shot their grenade and rocket launchers, but all bullets, grenades, and rockets bounced off his Void cloak harmlessly, not deviating his flying trajectory by even a millimetre.

Cloaked with the Void, Harry Dashed through the dropship like a hot knife through butter. A human-sized hole was left behind, and a violent explosion followed, killing all the Grineer on board.

Still in mid-air, Harry instantly switched his target to the closest drop ship and proceeded to do the same thing he did before: he Dashed through it, blowing it up and killing all the troops it was carrying.

After taking the Indifference’s deal, his control over the Void was incomparable. Nothing could hurt him. Nothing could stop him. Nothing could survive even one hit of his Void Beams. With the seemingly limitless power of the Void, he felt almost like a demigod.

Another half an hour passed like that, with Harry rescuing over 100 civilians and killing dozens of hostile Grineer, but things were starting to slow down. 

Now, he was Void Dashing all over the place, searching for people who might be trapped underneath the demolished buildings or needed rescue from the Grineer, but several minutes passed without finding anyone. Even the Grineer were becoming sparse. 

A new transmission arrived at that moment, and the Lotus’ voice rang in his head:

“Harry Potter. According to Darvo, the two of you had split up, and you went to fight against the Grineer on Martialis.”

“Yes, I did,” Harry replied in a defensive tone while flying through the air with a Void Dash, searching for survivors.

“It is not in my intention to reprimand you for your recklessness. Your courage has saved many lives today. And your presence in Martialis may yet prove even more useful for our cause. My Tenno operative could use your help.”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t help him. I can’t abandon the civilians,” Harry said, and, just at that moment, he happened to stumble upon a squad of Grineer Butchers and a Heavy Gunner who were fighting against a group of people armed with rifles, handguns, and plasma blasters.

They were not Corpus. They looked like civilians who had picked up discarded weapons from the battlefield and banded together to survive. Unfortunately, unlike the Grineer, who were wearing thick, reinforced armour and had superhuman strength, agility, and durability, the civilians were regular people. They were barely holding their own by hiding behind broken apartment buildings and firing their weapons with wild abandon.

“You are not abandoning them. By destroying the cryo pod in their possession, the Grineer will no longer have a reason to continue their attack on the colony, and the Corpus will stop protecting the cryo pod and switch their focus to defending the civilians,” the Lotus reasoned with him.

On a rational level, he understood that the Lotus was probably right.

“I’m sorry, I can’t,” Harry said in a rush as he Void Dashed towards another district of the city. “I can’t leave these people to die in front of my eyes.”

His Void Beam tore through two Grineer who were flying in the air with jetpacks, and then he flew in the midst of a squad of Butchers and Scorch units. Two Void Blasts erupted from his palms, and the power of the Void bypassed the Grineer’s thick armour, destroying their internal organs. Blood started pouring out of their eyes, nose, ears, and mouth, and they collapsed on the ground, spasming, dying a horrible death.

“You are losing sight of the big picture. Many more people will be saved if you-”

“I told you I won’t abandon them!” he cut her off with a shout. “I watched one of these monsters set a father and his son on fire, killing parents in front of their children, and ripping children’s limbs apart in front of their parents. You want me to abandon them now? I don’t give a damn about your missions or you cause!”

On the other end of the transmission, the Lotus became silent at his outburst. But she did not take it to heart.

‘He’s probably in shock. As someone who had been a civilian himself until a few weeks ago, he couldn’t have been used to seeing death on such a scale,’ she reasoned. 

Therefore, the next time she spoke, her voice was calm, with a hint of concern in her tone, even:

“Okay. Let’s do it this way: I will help you locate the rest of the survivors of this colony. Then, you and your Valkry will help my Tenno operative destroy the Warframe cryopod.”

Her suggestion made him pause. If he was directed straight to the survivors and stopped wasting time searching for them, he would be able to save more people.

“But why do you want to destroy the Warframe cryopod?” Harry asked while Void Dashing to the 25th floor of an apartment complex to save a dozen people who had been trapped inside. “Warframes are people, too. My Valkyr has thoughts, memories, feelings, and even a will of her own. She's not just a meatsuit like your Tenno told me.”

Just a few minutes ago, Valkyr had given him her lifeblood, exhausting herself in order to save his life. Harry had not asked her to do that. Furthermore, he had ordered her desperately to escape because he had not wanted her to sacrifice her life for him. But Valkyr refused to obey his command and fought against the Grineer until the end.

“We cannot dispatch an extraction team at this moment. Currently, most of the Tenno are either on Gradivus, locked in the war between Grineer and Corpus. Or they’re fighting to contain the Infestation at the edge of the Origin System, which has started showing increased levels of activity, as though it knew that this would be the perfect moment to strike when the three main powers of the system are embroiled in a war on Mars.”

“Our only option is to destroy the cryopod. No matter the cost, we cannot allow either the Grineer or the Corpus to own a living, fully functional Warframe.”

Harry clenched his teeth at her answer, but he couldn’t really argue against it.

“I understand. Help me rescue these people, and I’ll help you after that too,” he said, his voice not betraying what he felt inside.

For the next hour, the Lotus switched between managing the Tenno participating in the war on Gradivus, instructing the operatives fighting against the Infestation, and sending Harry to various locations of living signatures she could detect on Martialis.

She could not watch him constantly, but every time she opened a transmission to send him a new location, she would catch glimpses of his battle against the Grineer.

‘Angie, Galen, and Karim never told me that he could display such power.’

If not for the lotus-shaped helmet covering the upper part of her face, one would have been able to see how surprised she was. As far as they all knew, the time-travelling boy was not supposed to be as powerful as a real Tenno. As far as they knew, Harry Potter was just touched by the Void. He was not a full-fledged Tenno. 

Little did the Lotus know that what she feared had already happened: he had already met the Indifference. And the two of them had made a deal.

⁂

A Grineer Butcher swung his plasma machete at a Corpus Crewman, but his brutal melee weapon was actually stopped by the Crewman’s energy shield, and, a second later, his body was riddled with holes from the Corpus’ Crewman’s Dera rifle. . . only for a long whip to suddenly wrap around the Crewman’s ankle and yank him out through the air. It was a Scorpion. The female Grineer pulled the Crewman out of the formation, and his energy shield couldn’t save him when the other clones started tearing into him.

A Bombard fired his Ogris, and three Crewmen were blown to bits, only for a Drover Bursa to deploy its riot shields and fire a hail of 10 mini rockets back at the Grineer.

Scenes like these were happening everywhere. The Grineer had superhuman strength, durability, and agility, but the Corpus were more than holding their own with their energy shields and sophisticated technology.

Nevertheless, while the Corpus cared for their lives and ultimately had no true loyalty to their superiors, the Grineer were different. They were clones, an endless army of superhuman soldiers who knew no retreat, creatures that had been bioengineered to kill, destroy, and obey their two Queens' orders unconditionally. Even if they were ordered to march to their own deaths, they had no choice but to obey.

Faced with the Grineer’s undaunted advance, the Governor of the colony was forced to reveal all his cards.

“Deploy all the MOAs!” came his command.

A chorus of robotic shrieks rang throughout the city, and the ground quaked as over 2000 MOA robots were deployed at once. Then, the sky was filled with beams of light as the army of MOA started firing their plasma weaponry in an orderly fashion, raining hell on the army of Grineer.

‘How many people would have been saved if they had deployed those MOAs from the very beginning?’ Harry asked himself.

The entire Corpus military in Martialias was positioned around the Orokin Tower. There were hundreds of Corpus Crewmen and thousands of robotic units, all of them doing their utmost to stop the Grineer from advancing.

‘If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that they’re doing all this to protect the Orokin Tower.’

Those gigantic, thousand-metre-tall golden towers were sentient structures of Orokin origin that were capable of terraforming even the most hostile environment. The Orokin had terraformed even planet Uranus, making life possible on what was, essentially, an ice giant.

Alas, after Lotus told him the truth, Harry knew that the Governor wasn’t doing it for the colony and his people. With the 4-kilometre-long Galleon ship looming above the colony and its numerous cannons the size of apartment buildings, Martialis was already as good as gone. The only thing that the Governor cared about at that moment was safeguarding the cryopod. That living Warframe sleeping inside was far more valuable to him than leading ten colonies, let alone one.

Recognising the fact that the Tenno were on their side in this particular conflict, the Corpus didn’t shoot at Harry and Valkyr when they came into their line of sight.

Harry let out a sigh as he and Valkyr walked past the Corpus army’s frontline and went to check the underground bunker.

As was the case for most colony cities on the terraformed planets, such as Mars or moons like Europa, there was an underground city located below Martialis as well. Most of the civilians who had escaped from the Grineer had taken refuge there.

“Are you here to help us, Tenno?” the Governor asked.

He was a tall and skinny man wearing the typical attire preferred by the Corpus magnates. His shaved head, tattooed black circles around his eyes and chin (reminiscent of a Panda), the large, golden headgear that looked like a chandelier and the long, luminous blue robes decorated with glowing, neon ornaments made for an absolutely ridiculous appearance in Harry’s eyes. Electric human futuristic panda boogaloo. But he was from 20,000 years in the past; who was he to judge?

“I’m here for the people,” Harry said curtly.

He had never been one to worship authority figures, and this Governor was certainly not worthy of his respect. Not after how many people lost their lives because he had abandoned them.

“Well, of course, as am I. It is so reassuring to have the Tenno on our side!” the Governor said in a servile tone.

Seeing as Harry didn’t bite on his flattering words, the Governor cleared his throat.

“Now then, I shall not tarry. My troops need my guidance!”

The Corpus official looked almost like an NFL mascot as he swaggered away, clearly having difficulty moving around in his gaudy, heavy attire. Fred and George Weasley had once told Harry, “if you die, that’s your ghost outfit forever”. It appeared that this Corpus Governor shared similar beliefs.

As the saying goes, comfort is temporary, but drip is forever.

Harry was about to leave in order to meet with the other Tenno operative when the Governor suddenly turned and spoke in the same honey-laced, servile voice from before:

“If I may ask, Tenno, can we expect you and your Warframe to join us on the surface? Of course, my Corpus are more than capable of putting those Grineer dogs in their place, but your presence will be a boon to everyone’s morale.”

“Yes, I’ll fight against the Grineer again.”

And with that, Harry and Valkyr left, not waiting for the Governor’s answer.

But the Corpus leader didn’t seem to mind his behaviour. Harry wasn’t aware of it himself, but most of the Tenno acted just like that too. Hardly any of them cared about manners and decorum.

The underground city was rather dark and gloomy, with red and green neon lights being the dominant colour at a glance. Most buildings were low and square-shaped, built from thick panels meant to survive cave-ins and other disasters. Thick metallic pipes ran along the ceilings and walls, leading to the sewer located a level below the underground city.

The city felt cramped, the air was cold and damp, and the smell coming from the unsealed sewer below was terrible. It looked just like one of those slum city districts from the sci-fi movies that Harry had seen as a child.

On top of the already dreadful appearance of the city, thousands of people were crying over the loss of their loved ones, and many others were wailing in agony from having their arms or legs torn apart or blown to bits by the Grineer.

Doing his best to ignore the whispers and the stares of the crowds, he rushed towards the place where he was supposed to meet Lotus’ Tenno operative. Soon, Harry and Valkyr arrived at their destination: it was Mesa, the female Warfarme that Valkyr had rescued a few hours ago.

At the sight of Harry walking with Valkyr, outside his Warframe, the Tenno also sent his astral projection outside his Mesa, materialising his body.

“Whoa! How is your Valkyr walking by herself?” was the first thing he said instead of a hello.

He was a boy, seemingly younger than Harry if his physical appearance was anything to go by. He had short, spiky blue hair, and his eyes were orange. In addition, the side of his neck and his left ear were blackened, a mark left by his exposure to the Void. That said, Harry wasn’t fooled by appearances. All Tenno were several centuries old or more.

“Hi. Let’s leave the small talk for another time,” Harry said. 

He wasn’t trying to be rude now, but that was hardly the moment to make light-hearted conversation. Millions of people had lost their lives in the Grineer massacre, and the war had yet to end.

“Ah, right, sure,” the Tenno said. “I’m Axel, from the Gladiators Clan. Who are you? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before. Which class were you part of on the Zariman?”

Luckily, Lotus’ transmission popped up for both of them at that moment, cutting off Axel’s chatter.

“Tenno, breaking through the Corpus’ armed forces guarding the building would be challenging but not impossible. However, it appears that the force field surrounding the cryopod can only be broken through the power of the Void. One of you will have to go outside their Warframe and deactivate it, while the second will protect the other.”

“I have already accessed the plan of the building and located the cryo pod. I will guide you step by step, the entire way.”

“You must not let the Governor and the rest of the Corpus forces find out about our plans. There are 87 Corpus Crewmen guarding that facility. Exterminate them all before they can sound the alarm. Leave nothing alive.”

“Understood,” Axel said before dematerialising and sending his consciousness back inside his Warframe. 

But Lotus’ order brought Harry short.

“Wait a minute, you never told me anything about starting a massacre.”

“In this instance, both the Corpus and the Grineer are our enemy-”

“But these people haven’t done anything wrong!” Harry cut her off. 

It was one thing to kill the Grineer for the atrocities they had committed, but these Corpus Crewmen were just people who had been hired to protect an objective.

“Killing all the guards will ensure that the Governor does not find out about it. It is the safest and most efficient way to accomplish our goals,” the Lotus explained.

“Bollocks! I won’t do that shit,” he cursed and turned around to leave.

He was already extremely hesitant about helping the Lotus kill the sleeping Warframe from the cryo pod. In fact, his plan had been to use his Transference on the sleeping Warframe and wake it up, preventing the Tenno from following through with Lotus’ orders. 

“Come on, man, what’s it with you? What are you getting cold feet now for?” Axel sent a transmission from inside Mesa. 

Lotus spoke to him at that moment, too:

“I helped you locate and rescue all the civilians. I have held up my end of the bargain. Now it is time for you to do the same.”

“Are you kidding me? You people want me to kill nearly 100 people - innocent people - in cold blood? Are you out of your mind?” he shouted at her. 

All of a sudden, the distant sound of an explosion was heard, and the entire underground city was shaken by a powerful tremor.

Large pieces of concrete started falling from the ceiling, the large pipes carrying the sewage ruptured, deafening alarms started blaring, and the civilians began screaming and running in terror.

One minute later, another explosion rang, and the underground city shuddered from its foundations once more.

“Tenno, you have to get out of there as quickly as you can!” the Lotus’ hurried voice came through a transmission.

“But what about the Warframe’s cryopod?” asked Axel.

“There is no time for that. This colony will be destroyed. Sargas Ruk had just ordered the Galleon to open fire on the Orokin Tower once again.”

“What?! Didn’t they attack the colony just to capture this Warframe? Why would they want to destroy it now??”

Previously, the Grineer had used their Galleon ship only to destroy the force field surrounding Martialias, leaving the Orokin Tower and its separate force field untouched. At the end of the day, the Grineer were planning on using it themselves after they conquered the place; Orokin Towers were a precious commodity.

Even as he asked that, Axel controlled his Mesa and started bullet jumping and gliding towards the exit.

“The two of you have tipped the scales in the Corpus’ favour. The Grineer command must have reasoned that, with two Tenno fighting against them, their ground forces would find it impossible to acquire the cryo pod. Therefore, they decided that if they can’t have it, they won’t let the Corpus have it either. They are going to destroy everything.”

Fortunately, Harry, Valkyr, and the Tenno managed to escape from the underground city before the Galleon ship fired its third shot.

Coming out of the elevator, they arrived on the surface just in time to see one of the ship’s apartment building-sized cannons light up, and the force field around the Orokin Tower was destroyed with a loud sound of glass shattering.

The Grineer troops had long since been given the order to retreat so that they would not be eliminated needlessly in the crossfire. After all, this colony had no way of retaliating against the Galleon ship.

As the shield around the Orokin Tower was destroyed, many Corpus Crewmen lost strength in their legs. Some fell to their knees, others dropped their weapons, while others stood and watched petrified as the 4th cannon of the immense ship prepared to fight – the Galleon had 9 immense cannons on each side. The reason for that large number was that it took a long time for the barrels to cool down after firing a charge. Therefore, if they wanted to shoot right away, they needed to switch to another cannon.

Understanding the situation, Axel immediately took control of his Mesa and broke into a sprint.

“Hey! Where are you going?” Harry shouted after him.

“What does it look like? I'm escaping," came Axel’s transmission. He never stopped his sprint, trying to put as much distance between himself and Martialis. “I’ve done all I could for this colony. But I have no way of stopping that Galleon all by myself. Maybe if I had a different Warframe equipped, I could’ve tried something. But my Mesa can’t deal with that thing.”

No sooner than his words ended, Harry saw a Liset, a small landing craft, coming down from the sky and landing in front of Mesa before taking her in and flying away.

Harry looked around himself, filled with helpless anger and panic.

‘What can I do? What should I do? There are nearly 2 million survivors left in this colony.’

The Galleon was over 4 kilometres long. It was humongous. He couldn’t even begin to imagine how one would go about destroying that behemoth of steel.

In desperation, he called out to the being that had given him their power before.

“Hey! You said you’ll save them!” he shouted. 

Faced with imminent death, nobody around him paid him any attention. He wasn’t the only one who was shouting or acting as though they had gone mad, either; many others were doing the same.

“We had a deal! You promised that you would save everyone! You said you’ll give me the strength to rescue all these people!”

His doppelganger appeared behind him like a phantom and put his arm over his shoulder as though they were old pals.

“Do I really have to spell it out for you? Use your head, kiddo.”

Harry pushed his arm off his shoulder furiously.

“I have no time for your riddles! The next time it fires, everyone is going to die!”

The Man in the Wall never lost his creepy grin, even after his shout, but he did give him the answer he was seeking.

“Use the Orokin Tower. The force field broke because it ran out of energy. Pour your Void Power into it. Act as the tower’s battery, and you may yet live.”

The moment that his words ended, Harry Void Dashed away, leaving his giggling doppelganger behind.

He landed at the base of the enormous tower and placed his hands on its golden outer wall.

He let out a shout as he poured his Void power into the tower with all his strength. The immense, thousand-metre-tall structure gained a cyan hue as the power of the Void flooded it, and a cyan translucent shield of light came into being in the Orokin Tower’s proximity once more.

It was only a few seconds later that the Galleon fired its 4th cannon, and an immense projectile of fire smashed into the force field.

The Corpus Crewmen and the civilians screamed in panic, but their shouts became ones of wonder when the seemingly all-powerful cannon was stopped.

A feeling of weakness came over Harry, but he forced it back through sheer will and poured even more of his power into the Orokin Tower to reinforce its shield.

⁂

Valkyr’s anxiety and worry bled into Harry’s mind as she watched him kneel and gasp for air. A small puddle of sweat formed beneath his head from the drops falling off his forehead. His lower lip was bleeding from how hard he had bitten it in his struggle to pour as much of his Void power into the Orokin Tower as he could.

He had managed to protect the colony from 2 devastating cannon attacks, but it looked like he was on his last legs now.

“This isn’t enough to protect them all, goddamn it,” he said in frustration.

Valkyr let out a low growl, and Harry understood what she was suggesting. She was telling him to escape. With his Void Dash ability and her help, they could definitely escape Martialis before the Galleon fired its 7th cannon.

“I’m sorry. I can’t. I can’t leave these people to their fates,” he told Valkyr, and a new wave of frustration and anger came from her.

“But you can leave. There’s no need for you to stay.”

Valkyr growled, and, in a human-like display of anger, she kicked a nearby rock, pulverising it with her strength.

“Tenno, how are you holding on?” the Lotus, who had gone radio silent after telling him and Axel to escape, unexpectedly sent him a transmission. 

“I’m still alive. Somehow.”

“One of my Tenno heard about Martialis and wants to leave Gradivus, the main battlefield, to come to your rescue. But she will need approximately five minutes to disengage and travel to your location. Can you hold on until then?”

Harry let out a shuddering breath.

“I don’t know. They’re firing one cannon every minute. . . I think I can stop about 2 more shots.”

A deafening boom made the ground and the buildings quake as the Galleon ship fired its 7th cannon.

The impact made the cyan barrier of light tremble, looking dangerously close to breaking apart, and a scream ripped from Harry’s throat. It was as though he had felt that hit himself.

“Tenno, you have to hold on! She is heading your way as we speak! Don’t give up. Three more minutes and she’ll be there!”

He was too exhausted to reply. 

Unbeknownst to him, the tremors had made many of the people hiding underground come out to the surface. Some of them escaped the city while they still could, but others saw no hope in surviving the hostile environment of Mars on their own. They could do nothing but pray to whatever deity they believed in and cheer on the Tenno who was trying to save them.

His exhausted visage was not lost on them, and they started shouting words of encouragement and pleas to save their lives. They were praying and shouting his name as though he were their god.

Alas, none of their voices registered in his mind. His hearing was muffled as though he were underwater, and a severe feeling of vertigo made it difficult for him to keep his eyes open. Even maintaining his balance became difficult despite the fact that he was kneeling on the ground, on all fours.

A minute passed like in the blink of an eye, and another explosion boomed, an 8th massive missile exploding against the force field.

It was the last straw. Harry's eyes rolled in the back of his head, and he lost consciousness. 

However, the force field didn’t go out. The cyan membrane of light that had protected them until then was still shining in the skies above Martialis. In spite of falling unconscious, he was unknowingly still pouring his Void energy into the tower until the end.

Some people tried to come closer to Harry and check up on him, but a threatening growl from Valkyr was all it took for them to give up on that idea. Even so, they could tell that he was no longer awake.

Anxiety rose within their chests anew. The force field was still holding on for now, but with the ‘Tenno’ losing his consciousness, was there any guarantee that it would hold out after the next cannon strike?

Fear started gnawing at their hearts, and low cries and loud murmurs started filling the air again.

It was while they were starting to sink into despair again that, all of a sudden, the horizon in the west turned a dark shade of brown.

At first, only a couple of people noticed it. But then, the darkness grew, and more and more started taking note of it.

A whisper came from a little girl’s mouth:

“It’s the God King.”

But her mother, who was holding her hand, did not hear her.

“Mom,” the girl called out and pulled on her hand. “It’s the God King! It’s the Fear-eater! Look, over there!” she said, louder this time, as she pointed with her finger at the sky. 

At her cry, the people around the girl looked up to the sky too and, unexpectedly, quite a few others gasped and called out that name too:

“The God King!”

“The Fear-eater!”

Their shouts grew louder and increased in number as the darkness grew closer. It was no mere dark cloud. It was a massive sandstorm, a sandstorm like nothing anyone there had ever seen. 

The sky was covered by a curtain of black, swallowing the sun, and a powerful wind blew. The sandstorm crashed into the force field with a howl reminiscent of a ravenous beast as it engulfed the colony. Martialis, an enormous city-state home to millions of people, sank into a darkness blacker than the night.

Entire buildings were flung into the air, and immense skyscrapers crumbled like sand as the cataclysmic sandstorm raged across the land. Steel beams snapped and shattered like glass, the roads cracked open, and the beautiful lake was buried by sand, becoming unrecognisable.

A powerful tremor shook the entire city as the four-kilometre-long Galleon ship of the Grineer crashed into the ground. Even its massive body could not withstand the force of the cataclysmic sandstorm. The behemoth of steel, the pride of the Grineer Armada and one of their main weapons of mass destruction, was brought down as an explosion tore through it from within, its reactor unable to survive the shock of such a brutal impact.

The shockwave of the explosion made the Orokin Tower’s force field tremble precariously, and a massive wave of fire and sand washed over the city.

Chunks and pieces of Grineer soldiers slammed into the force field brutally, all over the place, but, to everyone’s horror, they realised that there was no blood left in their remains. Their mutilated corpses looked as though they had been mummified, sucked of all vitality and life before being torn apart.

It looked like the end of the world had come.

One by one, the people surrounding the Orokin Tower fell to their knees. Men, women, children, and the elderly prostrated themselves on the ground, beginning to shout at the same time, as one:

“Our God King!”

“The Fear-eater!”

“The Skykiller!”

“Our God, Inaros!”

⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂

AN: Example of extravagant fashion for Corpus
As ridiculous as it looks, believe it or not, there's a human inside those clothes lol.