The Crewman could hear lockers opening. He had finished his shift and was going to head down to the canteen for lunch. He needed to drop off his weapon and change out of his suit. Someone else was in there though, clanging and banging around. Rather than just barge in, the Crewman decided to sneak in and see what was going on.
As he peered around the corner, the Crewman felt a tingle in the air. Like miniature electric shocks.
There was a Warframe in the locker room.
A brightly coloured one. A weird cape around its backside, rings around its shoulders, two ornate pistols on its hips and a very large, flaming weapon holstered on its back. It also had a Sentinel floating above it. Not a Corpus-built one though.
The Crewman nearly screamed. He wanted to scream. He’d heard the stories. He’d seen the damage. He had worked for security on a clean up crew, he’d seen bodies cut in half, strewn across the halls.
Yet this Warframe hadn’t moved. Or it hadn’t seen him yet. It was simply opening lockers and inspecting the contents. Occasionally it would take something out, look at it in confusion, then put it back. Then it opened his locker. Out of it fell the Crewman’s lucky Amber Socket. The one he found while on duty on a captured Grineer ship orbiting Mercury. The lucky charm he hoped to sell one day so he could retire.
“Uh…”
The mere stutter caught the Warframe’s attention. It turned around slowly. Whether it was surprised to see the Crewman or not, it couldn’t tell. The Warframe could have killed him instantly, so he decided to just drop his weapon. He was probably going to be killed anyway. Warframes were sheer evil, they were known to do that.
The Warframe though didn’t seem aggressive. This one had eyes, so the Crewman could tell it was looking right at him. It hadn’t drawn any weapons either.
“Is mine.”
The Crewman pointed at his Amber Socket. The Warframe looked at the Socket, picked it up then put it back in the locker, before closing the door and opening up the next locker. Out of that one a pile of loose credits fell out. The Warframe picked them up, gave half to its floating pet, then opened up the Crewman’s locked and put the credits in there.
“Great,” the Crewman thought. “I’m going to get busted for stealing.”
The Warframe continued to inspect lockers. It seemed as though it was waiting for something. The Crewman remained where he was. There was no point trying to run or sound alarms. The Warframe would kill him before he even got close. He did notice a metal grate on the floor though. Clearly that was how the Warframe got in.
Seemingly becoming bored of the lockers, the Warframe spotted a bunch of storage crates in the corner. It pulled out its massive weapon and smashed the crates with ease. The crates only contained polymer bundles, but clearly the Warframe wanted them. This time though, it didn’t put any of them into the Crewman’s locker.
The Warframe’s attention span was clearly quite short. With no more storage containers to smash, they wandered around almost aimlessly. The Crewman managed to get a good look at it as it walked about, just eyeing everything. The armour plates on its arms and knees were particularly shiny and golden. Was this a Primed Warframe? The monster’s head suggested otherwise, it looked like the helm of a standard Warframe. Its weird cape also had similar metallic parts on it.
Something creaked above the Crewman. The Warframe immediately noticed and turned its attention back to him. In a single, swift movement, the Warframe rushed towards the Crewman and picked him up by the scruff of his suit.
Above them, the creaking and banging were getting louder.
The Warframe looked around. The Crewman could sense… worry? Fear? Some negative emotion. He had no time to contemplate the Warframe’s thoughts though as the Warframe dragged him over to his locker, opened it up, threw him inside and closed the door. Through the small grill, he could see the Warframe gesturing something. It wanted him to be quiet.
Something crashed. The crash was followed by the sound of two things lightly hitting the ground and an earth-shaking stomp. Through the gaps in the locker door, the Crewman could see three other Warframes, two of which he didn’t even recognise. All of them could have killed him with ease. Heck, they could have killed him without even knowing. The Crewman’s life flashed before his eyes. He was going to end up as yet another statistic on a long list of Corpus workers killed by Warframes. He was going to… He didn’t know. All the Crewman could do was hope they didn’t harm him.
The friendly Warframe waved at the others. After what seemed to be a brief, silent conversation, static seemed to fill the air, and the four Warframes disappeared around the corner and out of sight.
The Crewman took a deep breath and thanked the Void that his suit came equipped with built in waste disposal systems.