A First Night on the Plains

Volt seemed uncertain as the heavy Orokin doors slammed shut behind him. This was his second time out on the plains. The last time he had been here, it was day time, and he lacked the proper tools to not only fight the swarms of Grineer roaming around, but he lacked the ability to gather other resources, such as ores and gems. He wasn’t going to make that same mistake twice.

Volt also planned on not making another mistake twice. Today, he was here on the Plains on his own. No more waiting for Rhino to kill everything. No more waiting for Frost to mine every ore in sight. No more waiting for Octavia to get her backside away from that hydro-electric plant while she tries to work out how to scan that stupid glass fish. Nope, it was just Volt and his Carrier and no one else.

Only problem was, it was getting dark. Not quite pitch black. But definitely not day. The sun could just be seen, disappearing over the horizon. There were definitely a lot of stars in the sky, as well as a LOT of shooting stars. Most of the flashing lights were ships flying by, or debris falling back down to Earth and burning up in miniature explosions. The view would have been quite pretty if it wasn’t for the fact that some of them were almost certainly other Tenno going out on missions, and even more of them would have been Grineer, about to die horrible deaths.

With a tut, Volt dropped an energy disc on the ground and waited for it to recharge him. He no longer had access to the Zenurik school, so he couldn’t use cheap energy regeneration. As he waited, he pulled out a small piece of paper he’d brought with him. While everyone else had been out doing bounties and getting pitiful rewards, Volt had decided he was going to work a different way.

The paper consisted of a map, scribbled on a piece of fabric that Volt had borrowed from a previous mission. On it were various rough markers of where all the lakes were, as well as some of the fish that supposedly swim in said waters. Volt glanced at the map, then took several steps forward, pausing only to scare off some birds that were picking at a Grineer corpse.

Suddenly, Volt could hear something. It sounded like one of those old-fashioned disc drives, whirring loudly. Like someone had dumbed an ancient computer by Volt’s feet. It whirred then faded away. A faint Grineer voice could be heard. But the voice was so far away that Volt decided to ignore it.

Glancing at the map again, Volt decided to head west. There was apparently a small pond nearby with a pronged piece of dead Sentient sticking out of the ground next to it and an island in the middle. Volt climbed over the brow of the hill and immediately realised that the lake was a bit further away than the map suggested.

Activating his Speed, Volt raced towards the lake. There were a handful of Grineer wandering around, and as soon as they saw him, they opened fire. Volt didn’t want to kill them, but he also knew that the idiots wouldn’t believe him if he told them he was just going fishing.

Suddenly, one Grineer flew up into the air. They had walked over a geyser, which was spraying hot water everywhere. One of the lesser armoured Grineer, a Grineer Butcher, panicked and ran off, but the others all stayed put. Volt had no choice, they were not going to leave him alone. Unfortunately, before Volt could do anything, some blue, glowing thing killed all the Grineer then started firing at Volt. Not enjoying the energy blasts, Volt fired back with his Sonicor and the being exploded into a blue fog, before reforming. Then it disappeared into a cloud of blue stuff and found itself being sucked up by the last Grineer being alive.

Confused, Volt stared at the strange Grineer device. It was a balloon with a mechanical bottom. It just hovered there, minding its own business. It didn’t shoot at Volt or anything. That was fine. It left Volt alone so he left it alone and headed over to the lake proper.

In the middle of the lake, away from the boiling hot geyser, there were two large rocks sticking out of the water. They were the perfect place for Volt to go fishing.

Deploying his spear, Volt squinted at the water, doing his damned well best not to touch it. He’d heard stories about the bodies of water around here being heavily magnetized, and as Volt was a being who harnessed electricity, going for a swim was probably a bad idea.

Soon, Volt started spotting fish. They seemed to glow ever so slightly in the water, just enough for him to see them. With a little bit of help from his electrical powers, Volt quickly started amassing a large haul of fish.

Something though interrupted his work. An incredibly loud cry. Like a whale. Even though they were on land and too far away from anywhere large enough to contain a whale.

Again, the cry echoed around. It was coming from behind Volt. He cautiously turned around, only to be greeted by a massive, glowing thing rising out of the ground.

An Eidolon.

Appearing right next to Volt’s fishing spot.

Volt glanced at his weapons, then at the monster which towered over him. Luckily, the Eidolon wasn’t interested and didn’t seem to be looking for a fight. It glanced at Volt, then started stomping around the lake. Curious, Volt decided to follow.

The Eidolon though didn’t seem to be doing much. It was just walking around. Minding its own business. Maybe, just maybe, the Eidolon didn’t mind Volt and his fishing. Volt didn’t mind it being around either. It certainly wasn’t scaring the fish.

Once again, the Eidolon stared at Volt. Volt tried to show he meant no harm by placing his Sonicor on the ground. For a moment, Volt was sure he saw the Eidolon nod at him before it turned around and started plodding up a hill to their north.

But just as Volt thought the Eidolon was going, it turned around, glaring at Volt. Its eyes though moved downwards, towards its own feet. A single Grineer Butcher had decided to try and hit the Eidolon with its cleavers.

The Eidolon roared, a tremendous, angered shriek, and began to spray waves of blue energy everywhere.

Rather than stick around, Volt decided to grab his fish and leg it. There was no way he was going to fight THAT thing.