text: A young woman stood alone in an illusion; a hologram of vast blue space with clouds swirling in the distance. She was standing before the projector of this calming scape, having come to the floating cube to be interviewed. “What is your name?” the bluish-grey box asked, an array of smaller holographic cubes around it. It was a Cephalon, a digitized life form. Creatures of light and memory. The small blue boxes floated in a pattern that the woman could not clearly identify. They projected a sense of thoughtfulness as if pondering the small human’s existence. “Manmi,” the young woman answered, looking straight ahead. Her stance changed from akimbo to a more regal bearing as she introduced herself; her arms crossing behind her back and her legs coming together. She had been led here by a friend and intended to answer the Cephalon’s questions as precisely and honestly as was humanly possible. “Manmi...what?” the Cephalon asked, her voice mechanical and curious. Manmi could hear a warm tone through the artificial voice, echoes of the person Cephalon Suda once was. The young woman in red and orange wanted to answer the question, but there were gaps in her memory. Information that had yet to recover. Whatever had happened to her while she was in captivity still prevented her from recalling all of her past. Her history. Her identity. “Unknown, ma’am,” Manmi answered. Normally, Manmi would have felt extreme discomfort when failing to fulfill an objective. Be it a military order or answering a simple question, Manmi had always suffered a negative physiological reaction when she felt as though she were not living up to someone’s expectations. Fortunately for her, it was easy to keep her nerve when speaking with most Cephalons. There was something about their lack of humanity and highly analytical voices, absent of judgment, that kept her at ease. There were no eyes peering at her. No pressure. No presence. “This is fascinating information,” Cephalon Suda’s holograms pulsed excitedly, “Please tell me what you remember. Start from the beginning.” “The beginning...my childhood?” Manmi asked, wanting clearer instructions before engaging further. “No,” the Cephalon said, her tone more crisp and matter of fact, “I have ample data on the Zariman Ten Zero already categorized and indexed. We will revisit your information on that subject at a later time. What do you remember from waking up after the Old War? This will be new information for me.” “Waking up...” Manmi repeated, organizing her thoughts before nodding, “I remember...smoke. Bright flashes of light. The sound of energy weapons discharging. I was restrained...” she winced and shook her head, “No, *encased*. I was encased in a container of some sort.” “A cryopod, perhaps?” Suda offered, “Cryopods have been detected in greater numbers lately.” “Yes!” Manmi said, her eyes widening. Memories began to resurface as thoughts connected around that word, “I was put in-” “I know why you were placed in cryostasis, Tenno,” Suda said, silencing Manmi, “What happened when you were awoken?” “Apologies,” Manmi bowed her head slowly, “I was awoken by an alarm. The cryopod’s power was failing. Through the glass I could see a battle; energy projectiles and beams cutting through the air less than a meter above the glass. The power was reconnected and stasis resumed. When I woke up next, I was on a table...” Dark green eyes slowly opened under a bright white light. Pupils contracted as the mind behind them struggled against the fatigue. Her mind and body wanted her eyes to close, but curiosity and a sense of danger kept Manmi alert. She tested her muscles by slowly turning her head towards one side and then another. The sluggish response did not bode well if she found herself under attack, but the brain fog was starting to clear up. The room was slightly obscured by the holographic visor of her Zariman suit. It was a small comfort, but a comfort nonetheless. She focused her eyes on the heads-up display to activate its functions but they were in the midst of rebooting. With a blink, she deactivated the visor so that she could better observe her position. Still having the suit on at all gave her a sense of security. That was a much-needed feeling since her surroundings, now that she was seeing clearly, were *far* from comforting. It appeared to be a medical facility of some sort; bright lights, reflective metal panels on the walls, and a faint scent of chemical cleaners and ozone. She tried to sit up but did not move. Her arms were similarly paralyzed, though with some slow flexing of her hands she determined that she was not *actually* paralyzed but instead restrained. Unable to move her head to see the extent of her restraints, she focused on her breathing and tried to move each extremity one by one as much as she could. There was motion just outside her field of view, and as she tried to move the source of that motion came closer. Several automatons had ceased whatever functions they were previously performing and came closer. Manmi guessed that they were ready to restrain her if she escaped based on observing them *not* moving to remove her restraints. One of the machines floated overhead, moving to block out the light that was shining directly into her face. It was a disc of some sort that projected a hologram down toward her. A man’s face with more eyeliner than should have been legal and what appeared to be a painted-on mustache. Manmi was not entirely sure what she was looking at or who this man was, but the way he smiled made her very uncomfortable. “Praise the Void!” the hologram said, its enthusiasm overwhelming, “The Tenno lives! I was worried the doctors would have to force their way through that *remarkable* suit of yours to make sure you were all in one piece! Dreadful about the forced decryostasis you had to go through but don’t worry! I had my best and brightest work on you.” “Decryo...what?” Manmi asked, her words slurred slightly as the muscles in her jaw that had not been used for an unknown amount of years struggled to keep pace with her overstimulated mind. The lights, the sounds, the man...it was all so much. Too much. “By the Void, it was a *nasty* business. Your cryopod was found by one of my crewmen during a routine patrol of one of my favorite shipping lanes. He logged your cryopod but in doing so caught the attention of a Grineer freighter, who started to snoop around for you. I’ll spare you the details, but one thing led to another and, before ya know it there was a firefight at Tesera Outpost! It was rather splendid, really, but you *did* cost us quite a lot of assets. But don’t worry, I’m certain you’ll be able to more than makeup for the investment we made by saving your life! OH! On that note, don’t-” Manmi had stopped listening to the rambling face as she planned for her escape. If she could not break free of the table restraints herself, she would break the entire table with Vauban. Closing her eyes, Manmi focused on her connection to her Warframe, on the Transference Procedure, and the Somatic Link. But as soon as she did she felt a sharp, *excruciating* pain shoot into her neck. It burned its way down her spine as fast as lightning and every nerve ending in her body exploded in agony the likes of which the warrior had never experienced. “AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Manmi shrieked as her body convulsed and her vision blanked out. The pain lasted for barely a second, but that second lingered well beyond what it should have. She lay still for a long moment before she realized that she stopped breathing and gasped for air. The first thing Manmi saw when her sight returned was the overly painted face shaking from side to side, making a *tsk tsk tsk* sound. “So impatient! I tried to warn you, Tenno. Please refrain from attempting to contact your Warframe again. It probably doesn’t even exist anymore,” the man shrugged, “Besides, you are now an official Investment of the Corpus. We can’t have you vanishing out of here, so we affixed a little accessory to you. Any attempt to harness the Void in any unwholesome manner will have certain repercussions. You just experienced one of them and I will waive my consultation fee to advise you that it would be in everyone’s best interests, yours especially, to not try to find any of the others. But let’s not dwell on that! Instead, we should rejoice in your awakening! Now we can take you someplace more comfortable for your recovery.” The hologram moved away and Manmi felt the tension on her limbs release. She lifted her right arm and saw a metal cuff still around it and before she could even think about moving any other part of her body, her arm was pulled to the side and the thin metal band clanged against a metal gloved hand. Someone in a technical jumpsuit ‘helped’ Manmi off of the table by magnetically attracting the cuffs on her wrists into each of its hands. An identically clad person - *were* they people?- did the same with her ankles and Manmi was carried between them. “Crewmen! Take our Investment to cell seven-two-two-six,” the hologram man said before the projection blinked off. The two bulky jumpsuits carried Manmi out of the room and out into a shiny metallic hallway. They moved with slow, precise steps, making Manmi think that if they *were* people at any point, they were more machine now. She looked around as best she could while they carried her, trying to mentally note directions, branching corridors, and any features of the facility that she could use to figure out her position. There was little to see in the narrow halls but she did pick up on a general grid-like pattern with the layout. The two crewmen carried her into a small room, the magnetic fields releasing her arms and legs. They dropped her onto a bed and marched out, the door sealing shut with a *clunk* and *hiss*. The room was small, stark, and rather barren. The bed was just barely long and wide enough for her to lay on, and the only other feature in the room was a holoprojector in the center of the ceiling. The rest of the room was otherwise featureless. Manmi curled up and pushed herself into a sitting position on the bed, crossing her legs as she took several slow breaths. In through the nose, out through the mouth. In through the nose, out through the mouth. A lot of events had transpired in a short amount of time and her head, while no longer fogged or sluggish, was still confused. Alarms were going off within her but she could not immediately identify the danger. She was a captive, that much was certain. But what was ‘Corpus’? Why was she in ‘cryosleep’? She needed to think. It appeared she would have plenty of time to do that. “Hello there!” a chipper voice sounded from the walls around her. Manmi jumped to her feet in alarmed reflex but immediately regretted it as she fell to the floor almost at once. “Oooo...you should probably not do that for a little bit. Your body is still waking up! We can do some light exercises from the floor if you’re more comfortable down there though.” the female voice said brightly. “Who are you?” Manmi asked as she worked to crawl back into the bed. “Amita!” The voice answered. The holoprojector activated and a red glow appeared around the four corners of the ceiling. A pinkish collection of geometric lines formed under the projector, forming into a small red pyramid that twisted and folded in upon itself with tesseracts at each of its vertices. “Your personal security Cephalon! Well, I say ‘personal’ but I’m actually in charge of all of the prisoners in the 7,000 block! But right now you’re the only prisoner in the 7,000 block, so let’s just say that I’m your personal Cephalon for now!” “Prisoner?” Manmi said, trying to connect the dots. She knew she was a prisoner, but she did not know why, for what, or to whom, “That guy said I was an ‘Investment’.” “Hahaha! Yes, that’s Nef for you. He’s a little eccentric. But I assure you that you are most definitely a prisoner. And it's my job to make sure you stay sane and fit while in confinement. So! If I say ‘pretty please’ will you extend your legs out in front of you and try to touch your toes? Pretty please?” At the moment, Manmi did not want to do any stretches or exercises. She had experience with Cephalons before and knew that there was something off about Amita. She was far too personable, far too attached to the conversation. But if she was like other Cephalons, Manmi knew that she was not going to benefit from trying to refuse. With a million questions in her head, Manmi proceeded to follow Amita’s instructions and stretched out her legs to begin toe touches.