A Series of Unlikely Gaming Stories 3 – The Shielded Volt
“What is wrong, sir? You look glum today! Was your mission not a success?” Ordis asked as the Operator returned to his ship, wearing his Rhino Warframe, laced in elegant Orokin gold. “I thought Lotus was pleased with your work!”
“It’s… nothing…” the Operator sighed. “Just… nothing…”
“Clearly it is something!” Ordis protested. “Please, Operator, let Ordis help you! Ordis is always happy to serve!”
The Operator tutted, then sat himself in front of his Codex, browsing the data he’d discovered about Grineer. “Since when did the Grineer have Nullifiers over their Formorian cores? Was that a new thing? I don’t remember that Hijack mission on Ceres being like that…”
With a squeak and a chirrup, Ordis scanned his archives. “Hm, no, sir. Looks like that’s a recent addition to the Grineer’s armoury. Luckily they seem to be unable to mass-produce them the way the Corpus can, and are reliant on a trade deal between them and some of the Sergeant’s men.”
The Operator couldn’t really see the positive side of that statement. Bored of the Codex, he wandered over to his arsenal to inspect his Rhino Prime. “Played total havoc with my Iron Skin.”
Ordis beeped, then returned to his original question. “What is wrong, Operator?”
“I don’t know!” the young Tenno snapped. “I just feel… embarrassed!”
“Why? You haven’t done anything wrong. Is there something Ordis does not know about?”
With a grunt, the Operator decided to just talk. Ordis was clearly not going to let this drop. “It was just something with today’s mission. I’ll tell you…”
“Oh goody!” Ordis chimed. “I LOVE to hear about your BLOODY BATTLES TO THE DEA- I mean, your honorable, yet dangerous missions.”
The Operator left his frame and started pacing up and down the ship.
“It was weird. I though the Hijack mission would be easy. I’ve done lots of them before, mostly on Europa. But I hadn’t done a sortie one for ages. I took Rhino because Rhino’s just so good all round. I can just stand on the thing with Iron Skin on and not worry about the enemy chipping away at my shields.”
“Sounds like a good plan!” Ordis tried to be cheery to perk up the Operator.
“Didn’t work though. Today… it just was messed up, I hadn’t seen the nullifier bubble before. And worse, there were two other Rhino Primes with my squad who had exactly the same idea I’d had. They all had extra corrosive damage modules on their weapons, which made it all worse. Any little graze and there was a high chance of it destroying our armor and ruining our Iron Skin!”
“So how did you cope?” Ordis asked.
“Well, we wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for the fourth member of our squad. He joined us at random, was supposed to have been just the three of us, but there he was. This weird Volt Prime, using an Ignis and a Sonicor. Not exactly conventional weapons.”
“Was he of any help?”
The Operator scowled. “He was more useful than the three of us combined! That’s why I feel bad!”
“What did he do?”
“He was constantly picking us all up. Plus he had huge shields, so he was basically pushing the Fomorian core on his own. It’s like he knew exactly what he was doing. Didn’t say anything either, he communicated via gestures and waves. I thought we’d have to carry the flimsy thing through the mission, but it was us who got carried!
“But what’s even weirder is that he used all his abilities all the time. There were stunned enemies everywhere. And he’d throw up electric shields so we could take cover. I don’t see many Volts doing that! It was just… we should have done better, Ordis.”
Ordis remained silent for a moment.
“It is… it is fine, Operator. I am sure that Operator and his Volt were just happy to help!”
“Yeah but…”
“But what, Operator? You had a bad mission, but you came out of it alive and COVERED IN BLOO- I mean, you are fine, Operator. There is nothing to worry about. Maybe one day, you will see that Volt again, and you will help him the same way he helped you!”
The Operator smiled, just a little.
“You’re right, Ordis. Plus, we got a nice Riven Mod out of it, so it can’t have been that bad!”