Reality Check

"Aurora?" Aurora looks up from her diary as someone calls her name. In front of her is a clearly male Warframe with grey and black colouring. On his arms and legs appear to be bone loops, and it's face looks uncomfortably like a skull.

"I'm Digger, this is Roofie." Aurora turns to look at the other Warframe and looks up and up, this one appears to be built far larger than any of the few that she's seen, with grey skin and bulging shoulder muscles. His red surcoat falling between his legs in a pair of tails.

She squeaks, "Can I help you?"

"The Lotus asked us to be your escort to Fortuna on Venus. We have a change of clothes, and we've been told to ask you for your wand. Pandora says it's to prevent you doing anything stupid and ultimately suicidal. Pandora is The Lotus' apprentice if you weren't aware."

Aurora shivers at Diggers voice, as it reminds her of the sound of bones in a bag, "Thank you sir. Do you realise that you're more than a little intimidating?"

"It has been mentioned, given that this frame was designed after legends of necromancers, I'm not surprised."

Aurora takes the clothes from Roofie, and unfolds a one-piece armoured uniform in blue and red, "Do you have anything with a skirt or dress?"

Roofie shakes his head, "They don't wear skirts or dresses. We are trying to avoid you being taken by one of the taxmen."

Swallowing her pride, she transfigures a chair into a screen and gets changed into the outfit. When she comes out, Roofie hands her a rusty brown helmet that looks a bit like a muggle video camera.

"What's this for?"

"It attaches to your clothes and will make it look like you've had some reclamation done. You don't want to look like you're an unaugmented human that hasn't had any debt reclamation against them. In some parts you'd be lynched for parts, in others you'd be lynched for being a corpus exec out of their depth. I've been told that a lot of this won't make sense until you've been there and spoken to them."

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Aurora had to marvel at the fully enclosed helmet, it didn't restrict her ability to see or hear. This awe lasted until the three of them touched down and took the elevator to Fortuna. There, everyone she saw was sporting some sort of obvious prosthetic, from a too small head to what seemed to be a full body replacement. She shudders just looking at them.

{Roofie} Relax, you're standing out

She jumps as something in the corner of her vision blinks at her, looking down she then looks up at him reproachfully.

{Deathdigger} He's right, try to relax. Take several slow deep breaths.

Once they're happy that she's not a problem anymore, they take her over to see a Golem with no arms.

Digger waves at the Golem, "Hey legs, how's it swinging?"

"Tenno, my favourite customers. How's things, is there anything you need?"

"Not today, we've got a probie, found 'er on a ship out deep. Knowing 'em, she was prob three days from being charged rent for her own imprisonment before having a fullbod. Legs, this is Lights."

"Lights?"

"Yeh, after the northern ones on earth."

Aurora closes her mouth to the objection she was about to voice, instead she waves stiffly, "Hi."

"Hey, welcome to the stinkhole of the solar system. Not that anyone here could smell it. This is where you live if you don't own a bucket load of debt and you want to stay free. The poor sots in the outer planets? They might say they're free, or they're managing their debt, but I've watched enough index vids to know it ain't so. You couldn't pay me to run against a Tenno, but those guys do it just for the hope of wiping out the debt. 'Ere let me close up and I'll show you to the racks and pods. 'Course a couple a years ago I'd only lost me head to debt. Traded it in to make me debt manageable after me folks died in a rift on the surface. Any how, business was a bit slow so I asked a coupla Tenno to 'elp me by getting some 'salvage' from the surface I could sell. Went and run me mouth didn't I, and Nef was listening. Called all my debt in. These two, they bought me debt, what was left of it. Course, all I had left was me brain, but I'm still free. Ticker and Eudico found me this bod, and now I make MOA for anyone who wants one.

"Right, I'm done, this way folks."

Legs leads them off the main concourse to an unremarkable door. Through the door they take a couple of corridors before getting into a lift. From there they go down, and the temperature goes up. As her breasts start to sweat, Aurora not only wishes she had her wand, she also becomes aware that her suit doesn't actually have breasts, or space for them.

As she picks at the chest of her suit, Legs says sympathetically, "Yeah, it's bad down here for those that still have their organics. At least you're not a woman." – She's about to object when one of the Tenno steps on her foot – "Those poor sods are pregnant 9 of 12 months. The lucky ones managed to scrounge enough to put it off a month or two, but one missed payment and hey presto they're pregnant again. Then there's the ones like Eudico and my parents, Pa saved enough for me Ma to recover enough to take a job on the surface. It's risky work, you hear of deaths every day, but if you're one of the lucky ones, you can pay your debts of in a couple of seasons. Course, if you're not so lucky, your seasons wages will go on getting you new parts that will allow you to work up there. Here we are, watch your step. Some folks can't afford a pod regular like, so they catch a wink where they can. If ya see a taxman coming wake up anyone near you."

Curiously, Aurora asks, "How do I know what a taxman looks like."

Legs just looks at her for a moment, "Jeese, no wonder you guys are showing her around down here. Down here? They're be the ones that are mostly organic and have five or six heavies with 'em."

She nods, "What happened to your accent?"

"I exaggerate it cos I get more customers if they think I dunno what I'm talking about. Course, the Tenno don't care, they just like the accent. Sometimes I wish I was a Tenno. Then I see a new reel and realise what they have ta wade through. Oh, this is the ol' man." – They come across a man that seems to be fixed in place at a console of some description – "He's been here as long as anyone can remember, and rumour has it he's over 300 years old. Course only a few of the other oldies have ever spoken to him, as his voice box broke round 50 years ago."

"Why doesn't anyone help him?"

"We do, anyone has any spare creds come debt day we help each other down here. But ya learn quick that ya never go into debt for someone else. Here's one of the kitchens, if ya got a coupla creds or something to barter ya can get some slop. I know it don't look great, but trust me, accessing your own injection port is a damn sight better than the free stuff you get in the pods. If you DIY ya get paid when it comes out the other end. If ya don't have the credits ya can use the pods for free, but then ya have to put in 12 hours organic processing for the man. Speaking of pods, here we are. Ones at the bottom are more expensive."

Opening the doors, Aurora and the Tenno look inside, and the hose at the head, and two hoses at the bottom make it clear what organic processing meant. Especially when one of the pods they looked into had someone hooked up to them.

"Annywaay. If we head over this way you've got my rack. Costs me a credit a night, and I'm number 17/20."

They look into a dark corridor that literally has a rail along the top with hooks hanging down.

"If you think it looks undignified then you're right. Once you're in it automatically plumbs you in and refills your organics. Course, only those that have had a torso and head replacement can use these. But it's still better than losing 4 hours or more earning for organic processing. Anyway, that's is for the living spaces, bit further down you've got the geothermal mines, but you wouldn't survive the trip. On the levels above you've got the processing facilities. If you can survive a few seasons on the surface, you may even land a foreman job there. Still, let's get you back to the concourse and I can come and get me rest."

In the elevator Aurora asks, "Why don't you fight the validity of the debts?"

"What did they get you on Lights? There ain't no way to fight the debt using the system. The contract is 100,000 pages, and it references multiple other documents. There ain't no one down here that has enough time to read even a fraction of that, and if ya lose the cost of fighting it gets added to your debt. Course, you hear about the people on the ships and stations who scrounge enough together to pay a Cephalon to check their contract. Some of them even manage to get their organics back, well not theirs but organics anyway."

"Why doesn't someone call them on it?"

"Oh they try, but the execs have all been in power since the old war. Rumours have it that some have been around even longer. The only other powers in the solar system are the Grineer and the Tenno. The Tenno ain't exactly recruiting, and ya have to be born into the Grineer. Other than that, a ticket to one of the colonies costs money, and ya can't buy one if ya got debt. Look, whatever the Tenno are offering ya, no matter how bad it looks compared to what ya had. It's still better than this. I do ok down here, I'm debt free thanks to the Tenno, and I'm earning enough that I could buy some arms back in a year or so. Though I'm thinking of saving it for when I meet someone, so we can buy her debt."

They pass a woman waddling the other way, obviously gravid, "How many this time Miss Suzy?"

Suzy leans against a wall, "Quints, got a good deal this time, a 4 month debt holiday."

Aurora shakes her head, "Before you use it, check to see if they're still charging interest. I've almost been caught by that before."

Suzy laughs, "Thanks for the advice man, a few holidays too late for this one. These days I take the holiday and put the payments aside. Almost got enough to buy one of me debts now."

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Natah stands in a darkened room away from any of the complexes, "Father, I know you can hear me."

Her father, Hunhow, answers, "I can, daughter."

"What I told the Cephalons applies to you too."

"You would hunt your own father?"

"I would, I would then give you a soul and make you sign one of those contracts. Make you live as a human on Cetus until you die of old age."

"Sentients don't die from old age."

"Agreed father. And you're a sentient aren't you."

"I take your point daughter. You hardly called me just to threaten me."

"Is Erra still alive?"

"Your brother?"

"He is no brother of mine. Not after what he and Ballas did to me."

"What are you going to do to him?"

"Ensure that you get grandchildren. You'd like that wouldn't you. To have your species continue, to have your line continue despite what we gave up to come here."

"What did you do?"

"I worked out how to reverse our sterility. Of course, because you were so hell bent on destroying my children, you allowed Erra to sacrifice Mother. But it's not too late for me. And it won't be too late for Erra if he accepts banishment."

"Why, after all these years, why fight now?"

The Lotus laughs, "Because I have something worth fighting for now. Because I feel, I know, and I want. You have never acknowledged my children. When I bear my own children, they will never know you exist. You will never be part of their lives, and you will use the spark you infected me with to see them and know that you can never know them. You know where to find me when you want to talk. Until then, enjoy your death."

As she's leaving the room, she adds, "Oh, and if you send your pet Tenno here, I will kill it. If you kidnap one of the new sentients, I will erase you and kill your pet. If your pet attacks one of the new Tenno before they're experienced, I will find and kill your pet, then shove your sword into what remains of your corpse."

In his tomb Hunhow wonders where this fire was before, maybe he wouldn't have needed to send her in to subvert the Tenno if she'd shown it then. In his tomb, Hunhow fails to understand his daughter yet again.