“Wow, Larunda’s busy today!” Volt exclaimed as he and Frost watched fellow Tenno go by. “I thought the Void Trader was at the Kronia relay?”
“He is!” Frost tutted. “Everyone is coming here because they want to speak to Simaris and it’s slightly less busy here compared to Kronia.”
“I know…” Volt shrugged. “I just assumed everyone would go to Kronia, kill two MOAs with one stone, right? Saves on fuel as well.”
Frost glanced at Volt. “You have twenty million credits to your name and you’re worried about fuel costs?”
“Hey, being careful is how I managed to get twenty million in my account!” Volt hissed. “It all adds up!” The yellow Warframe’s attention was drawn away by ships coming and going. One in particular.
A pink and orange Liset with a highly metallic tint landed in the hangar. Volt got excited for a moment, then sighed as a pink and purple Octavia stepped out of it. Because of the high amounts of traffic, the Liset left as soon as the Octavia was clear, making way for a rather off-putting brown and lime green ship.
“You know those two are going to be late!” Frost laughed. “They’re always late! Have you ever known Ember to ever be on time?”
“Well, she’s been on time once…”
“Once. Hah.” Frost tutted. “Doesn’t matter. We can wait. The Sanctuary will be around for a long time.”
“Oh so THAT’S why you invited us all!” Volt stood up somewhat angrily. “You could have said! I wouldn’t have brought my unmodded Viper then!”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure it won’t be that hard anyway… Oh hey. There they both are!”
A pink and blue Liset and a green and black Mantis both landed in the hangar. Ember and Saryn exited them and rushed over to Frost and Volt.
“Sorry! We just heard about the thing! The Sanctuary thing!”
Ember grabbed Volt and dragged him inside the relay proper. Saryn patiently waited for Frost to get off his ass, then grabbed him and dragged him inside too.
Upstairs, there was already a reasonably sized crowd gathered around Simaris. Most of the Tenno would talk to him and then disappear, being zipped away into Simaris’s Datascape to do whatever it was he wanted them to do. Frost held his friends by the door, suggesting that they wait a bit.
“Why?”
“Because I have heard… not fun things…” Frost explained. “Crashes in the datascape. Tenno not getting rewarded. Things being too busy and slowing down, you know…”
Finally, the room cleared. Frost gave a nod of approval. He was the oldest Tenno out of the four of them, so his judgement was often the best.
“Ah, Hunters!” Simaris exclaimed, happy to see them. “I assume you are here to assist me in my experiments too?”
“We are!” Frost announced proudly. “What do you need us to do?”
“I need you to kill as many enemies within the Sanctuary as efficiently as possible. I wish to use this data to expand my knowledge.”
Frost paused. “You want us to kill things?”
“Yes. As fast and efficiently as possible.”
Frost turned to the others.
“I thought the Sanctuary was supposed to be a place to protect knowledge?” Volt asked. “Why would you want us to kill the things you asked us to send there without, uh, killing them?”
“Because I want to do countless battles testing the efficiency of killing them. But there is one thing missing from the equation, Hunters. You.”
Saryn tapped on Frost’s shoulder. “This is weird…”
“I know…”
Frost turned back to Simaris. “You just want us to be ruthless killing machines. Just like everyone else.”
Simaris’s Cephalon form flickered. “Why deny what you are?”
Suddenly, a very angry Rhino appeared out of thin air, shouting and stomping around. After a brief tantrum, he pointed furiously at Simaris.
“WHAT THE HELL, DUDE? WHERE ARE MY REWARDS?”
A multitude of other Tenno started reappearing, all complaining of similar things, either losing their rewards or not being able to complete their missions. Many of them were rather angry.
Rather than stick around, the four Tenno decided to back away slowly.
“Tell you what, Simaris…” Frost sighed as the doors slammed shut behind them. “We’ll come back later.”