Krainen had been on the run for days now in the mountains, weeks even? She couldn’t tell anymore, the biting cold was playing hell with the heads up display in her prosthetic eye and small armoured plates beneath her skin, the constant storms up in these mountains hadn’t done her any favours either. After several more days of climbing and trudging through the harsh conditions she would spot a rather strange looking, what she could only imagine to be a temple of some kind off in the distance. She decided if it was a house temple she would perhaps kill the priests there and rest a while before they sent agents to check it out.

Upon entering the temple through its main entrance, which she found to be unlocked, she would find the place rather empty save for a single somewhat surprised looking chupa who had just stepped out of a side room. She raised the silent ODST pistol towards the monk “are you one of them!? Are you part of the high circle!?” She roared. The chupa before her slowly and deliberately parted his arms from his stomach, the long sleeves falling back a bit to reveal his hands which he held out as if to welcome or embrace her. “No my child, I am not, nor is anyone else here a part of the House of Omega. We are but simple monks who remain neutral and stand away from the bloody wars fought below these mountains.” He explained.

Krainen stared at him, rage burning in her eyes as the monk took a careful step to the side “you must have had a long journey, please have a seat by the fire won’t you? Perhaps have something warm to drink?” He said. He watched her as she kept the weapon raised “I promise you my child, no one here will harm you, or turn you over to the house, or involve you with the troubles of below. Here you may stay as long as you like, and perhaps find rest or peace.” He said with a warm smile, carefully lowering his hood to reveal the face of an orange, elderly chupa with long grey hair that was tied back, and emerald green eyes that stared back at her.

“...How do I know you speak the truth?” She asked, the monk shrugged “you will find few weapons here, hung up long ago by some of the residents here who gave up the lives of war and violence, and very little technology. Respectfully, besides what the Predecessors left behind, and a few basic things, you are the most advanced person here. If you do not believe me, you’re more then welcome to look around.” He smiled again and Krainen glanced around to see that no other monks seemed alarmed by her, nor looking like they might fight or flee. They simply went about their day to day lives, whatever that may be.

Eventually Krainen lowered the gun with a cursory look around and carefully followed the monk to the large ornate fire pit akin to a brazier that sat in a small courtyard in the middle of this rather odd looking temple. The place was mode mostly from wood and what seemed like paper? The structure seemed so fragile to her, that she could break anything here as easily as she could break someone’s bones. She sat down before the small inferno that was neatly placed in the middle of the courtyard, it did feel nice to be at a warm fire, to shake off the cold as she had been running from the house, losing them for the most part a while in the woods of Quoppa, passing into the mountains of Sampi where she currently was.

The monk carefully approached her again with a small tray containing steaming drinks “tea? I’m sure you could use some after such a treacherous journey.” he said, setting the tea on a small stone pedestal beside her. She took and sipped it, the hot drink was amazing. She wasn’t entirely sure what herb he had used to make this but the hot drink was nice after being in the cold for so long, camping among rocky outcroppings and ridges to avoid the wind and house, or to simply not be buried alive by the howling snow at night.

“So, are you some kind of exile? Deserter?” Krainen asked after a long silence. The monk smiled and took a seat a little ways from her as to give her her space “no, we are simply... removed, from the troubles below” He answered and drank his tea. Krainen found herself unsure of this, surely these chupas had some sort of ties to the house, didn’t they? Though she didn’t see any house markings around, prayers she overheard didn’t seem to mention the house or it’s teachings at any point, Not once did anyone speak of the house or even flinch at her presence, she wasn’t sure how to feel about that either. Surely they knew who she was, there was only one of her kinda on all of as far as she knew.

The monk looked at her, still unfazed by her strange appearance “does something trouble you child?” He asked. She rested her hand on her pistol again “you’re very close to holy land of the house, and you claim to be neutral, how haven’t they flattened you yet?” She asked and he shrugged “we’ve never given them reason to, we are not fighters or combatants and the few that are or rather were, hung their weapons up a long time ago for a quiet life here in this monastery. It is not worth it for them to come up here, we are no danger to them” He explained. Krainen cocked her head to the side, watching him and still deciding if this was a ruse. Normally people fled at the sight of her or revealed to be an undercover police officer or house agent and would wind up dead a moment later, but this old chupa, the most aggressive thing he could have possible done to her so far was bring her tea and give her a place to warm up.

After shaking off the cold, she walked behind the old chupa as he showed her around the place, telling her what little he knew about the predecessors that dwelled here before them and gave an interesting explanation on how they took care of these strange wood and paper interiors. They passed by another sort of courtyard that was still attached to the monastery, a bed of jet black stones lay across the open ground and a series of large white rocks that almost resembled islands were laid out. “It’s said you can achieve enlightenment for yourself if you manage to count all fifteen stones” the old chupa smiled, Krainen raised an eyebrow and found this to be rather stupid until she actually tried.

She paced back and forth on the deck before the odd stone garden, watching and counting the stones, she never could count more then nine at a time and soon turned back to him “what is the point of this?” She demanded to which he shrugged and smiled “if you are patient, and meditate, and perhaps find the right spot to sit. You may see more then you think.” He said and kept walking, leaving her to catch up with him. She decided then she would hear what he had to say, and take up his offer of having a place to rest for what was supposed to be a short while.

He looked genuinely happy when she said she would stay for a day or two, and no more. The old chupa guided her to a room she she could put her gear, he said nothing when she accidentally put her hand through the paper and wood door while trying to close it, provoking a chuckle from the old chupa and an annoyed snarl from Krainen.

Left to rest in this strange place with its strange monk like chupas, Krainen slept lightly with her silent pistol in hand that night, her pointed ears twitching at every little noise and creak in the wood out in the halls.

By the next morning she awoke feeling only partially rested, and emerged to find the halls quite and empty. She found a monk after a minute of wandering and grabbed him “where is the old man from yesterday?” She asked.

He looked at her, met eyes with her “you can find shrine keeper Rorik at the central flame miss” he answered.

She was surprised at how unfazed this chupa was as well at her presence or appearance. As he walked away, back towards her, she pointed her pistol at the back of his head, thinking how easy she could kill someone here. “Not today,” she whispered softly before lowering the gun, no one here had given her reason to harm them yet she thought.

As he walked away, as she lowered the gun, she had no reason to harm him, everyone here clearly knew or had something she didn’t. She thought about this as she found her way back to the giant fire pit that was the heart of this monastery, there she found the old orange chupa, Rorik tending to the great flame.

“Good morning!” He smiled at her as she approached, and sat at the fire “morning...” she grunted.

Rorik brought her a tray again, containing freshly cooked eggs and bacon, and some kind of home made bread which she devoured in very short order. Rorik watched, concluding this was something she did likely from being constantly on the run. “Did you sleep well?” He smiled, to which she shrugged in response “I’ve had worse...” she answered.

After spending some more time and looking around, Krainen found the place was fairly self sufficient and learned that the monks here had a sort of back door deal with some farmers at the base of the mountains. The newest pieces of equipment of any kind was some older style of red or blue gear from deserters who had come to live at the temple and had put down their guns for good, she was able to sort of get a connection through an old helmet radio, plugging an orange and black cord into a port that was within the side of her neck that was connected to and part of her prosthetics, and the other end into a jack on the helmet where she found out that the house was still looking for her, though it seemed they had completely lost her and moved their search into a different region of the ring.

Krainen would later find Rorik meditating in a room lit by all sorts of candles. Deciding to wait for him to finish, she leaned against the wall and watched him, drawing her pistol on a passing by monk when he came by. She lowered it again, she wasn’t used to people being so calm around her. Sometime later Rorik stood up and saw her “may I help you?” He asked, she shrugged “I thought about your offer, and if I could lay low here for a while I would appreciate it” she explained. He smiled and nodded “of course my dear, as I said before, you like any other traveller may stay as long as you like.”

Krainen nodded, and with that, she only meant to stay for a couple months at most, but would come to spend almost three years with them. In that time she learned to meditate, learned a type of martial art or at least something she could translate into a fighting style. She rarely if ever descended the mountain with the monks who dealt with the farmers helping them, the people below the mountains still feared her. Not that she had the capacity to see it this way at the time but Rorik had become something like a father figure to her, always kind and welcomed the few other travellers they received over the years with open arms.

In that time Krainen even started to leave her weapon in her room, resting it on the nightstand beside the bed. She considered staying here, it was serine. She helped monks with a great deal of manual labour, having enhanced strength made lifting or moving heavy objects easy, helping monks with their tasks and chores to upkeep the monastery. She would also learn to deal with some of her anger issues in that time as well.

She would join Rorik and others at the great fire in the centre of the monastery, simply meditating or visiting as they did. Assigning new to chores and duties depending on what needed to be done.

Also during this time, just when Krainen had about decided to perhaps hang up the guns and the violence and the killing for good, a new model of security drone built by the house controlled company, Hexagon Industries, would happen across the monastery and spotted Krainen among some of the monks there as they stood outside, bringing supplies into the monastery from a previous visit to the farmers below and identify her as the Restless. This information would be passed along to house officials who would then pass it along to an agent by the name of Houston Scyrus. Learning of this, Houston originally asked to be assigned to something else, he didn’t want to be anywhere near the Restless and even argued that since her escape it had been a quiet couple of years, nearing three even and that perhaps it was best to leave her be up there.

When he was told he’d be sent anyway he felt somewhat disillusioned by his superiors but figured that bringing this ancient monster back into containment in the end, was probably for the best. He and a group of fourteen other chupas would set out in five warthogs and take what little of a road there was up the mountains after arriving in Sampi all the way from their stationed facility in Stigma.

They made their way up the mountain, each soldier armed for an extended conflict if past records had been anything to go by.

Houston sat beside another officer who had volunteered for this mission, an arrogant and from Houston’s opinion under qualified person for the job at hand by the name of Richard Steiner. As they approached the temple a monk outside saw them pull up and fan out after disembarking from the warthogs they’d arrived in “good afternoon gentlemen can I help you?” He asked and Steiner grabbed his shotgun “you and everyone else here are under arrest for harbouring a wanted criminal” he said, racking the shotgun to emphasize his point. The monk put his hands up “that won’t be necessary here sir, no one is a fighter, you won’t need to use force here” he said as Steiner ignored him and walked into the temple, followed by some other agents. Houston would stay behind and held back a couple others as well, they wouldn’t join the carnage to come.

Rorik heard Steiner coming before he saw him, shouting and ordering monks they found to get down. A gunshot followed as one monk, an old soldier who refused to comply and was put down by Steiner who stormed into the room and saw him. “You!” He bellowed and raised his weapon again “where is the Restless!?” He demanded as Rorik watched him in his usual calm manner, which seemed to enrage Steiner even more that he wasn’t afraid of him. “I suggest you lower your tone agent.... this isn’t a place of conflict and waving that silly thing around only makes you out look like a fool” he said, Steiner, now properly pissed off adjusted his aim and fired, the shotgun blast grazing Rorik’s side but still causing a significant amount of damage to his mid region. The old chupa fell backwards from the shot, his body old and frail, not able to take punishment like it used to.

Krainen heard the commotion and had gone down to the old gun locker, not having keys for the small lock on it she simply ripped the locker door off and grabbed an old red army webbing that she then filled with as many magazines as there was and took one of the dust covered battle rifles that lay within as well, slinging the old weapon across her back. By the time Krainen had come back up from the gun locker house chupas were storming and raiding the place, trying to round up or arrest the monks who tried to resist. She considered only really roughing them up enough to leave until she saw what had happened near the great fire pit, and saw Steiner standing over another monk yelling at chupas to find her and take the rest, or kill any who didn’t cooperate.

Upon seeing him and the harm he’d caused to some of the monks already, Krainen charged Steiner, knocking the shotgun in his hands aside. She tore it from his grasp, and with her augmented strength, ripped off his lower jaw off with a right hook. He stumbled and made a strained gurgling noise grabbing at his jawless face before she grabbed him and threw him into the fire where he flailed and made a high toned gurgling noise before falling silent within the blaze. She turned to the next closest house chupa who was coming to Steiner’s aid. She picked up and rammed Steiner’s shotgun barrel through his chest piece and pulled the trigger, blowing out his back where a red mist painted the wall behind him. She left the weapon embedded in the chupas torso as it was now damaged and took his knife, dashing across the courtyard to meet the next group of agents storming the place head on. They wanted the Restless, and she would show them.

Reaching them before they could react, she plunged the knife into the first chupas head, piercing through the centre panel of his helmet and pulled the blade through his brain and skull and helmet alike to the side. Pulling it free with a red spray and ducked under another soldiers rifle who’s shot grazed her arm, the bullet skipping off one of the small armour plates beneath her skin, leaving a long cut on her arm instead of taking part of it off. As she avoided his weapon she drove the knife into his throat and twisted it for good measure. She abandoned that knife and grabbed the next chupas weapon, pushing it away from her head punched him in the chest, denting his armour and staggering him. She followed through by bringing her leg up and delivering a solid kick to his stomch, sending him and the chupa behind him to the ground. The last thing the agent saw was her fist before she caved in his skull and the second chupa could only attempt to beg before she unloaded his partners SMG into him, red spraying in all directions.

Now covered and soaked in blood, she stood up, wiped her face off. She then grabbed a new knife from the mangled corpses of the house chupas before her, unslung her old rifle from the gun locker and proceeded to the temple entrance, chasing down house chupas as they began to run like the cowards they were.

House chupas we’re pulling back and fleeing from the temple, trying to cover each others escape only to be periodically picked off by Krainen who was very clearly hunting them now. Houston was doing his best to get them to disengage and fall back. With every shot that was heard, another soldier fell. Every time there was movement in the corner of someone’s vision, their squad would be another man short, finding them torn in two or hanging lifeless from support beams above. They made it back outside and dashed for one of the warthogs they had arrived in. The first chupa to try and use the LAAT gun in the back of the warthog caught several shots to the back. The others turned and tried to suppress Krainen as they piled into the warthog and sped off, followed by a second fleeing warthog who also gave covering fire for their retreat. The rest were either to damaged to drive or their crews dead inside the temple.

With the house driven off, Krainen ran back inside, looking for survivors. She found monks dead all over, a few seemed like they might make it with some medical attention. She did her best to help them and soon found Rorik outside laying in a red pool, whimpering from the large hole in his stomach. Krainen dropped to her knees beside him “no.... no no no no no no, you can’t....” she said, clearly starting to panic as the adrenaline wore off.

Rorik looked up at her and attempted a smile “I’m, glad to see you’re alright my dear.....” he said weakly. Krainen shook her head “we need to get you help, someone who can look after you and the others.”

Rorik tried to move but Krainen kept him still and attempted to bandage his injuries, he grabbed her hand “I, appreciate the help. But my time has come child... I’m far to old to do this much longer anyway. I want you to take any survivors down the mountain to the farms, maybe- nnnnnhg!” He coughed blood and held onto her arm. “They can perhaps start again there” he said. Krainen watched him, she knew he was right, he only had an hour or so left at this rate, this was why they had told her in the beginning, not to make connections. She held the old chupa in her arms, listening to his breathing which was starting to slow.

“I, want to say thank you.... for having let me stay here. And apologize that the only gift I could offer in return was destruction, and death” she said after a long moment. Rorik looked up at her, still trying to smile at her through the pain “I knew who you were when you first came to this temple, we’ve all heard of you. But despite that, it didn’t matter, you were another traveller to our temple and we welcomed you like any other. Of course you haven’t been the first to come here thinking it was a house settlement, that you may hide or use this place as a hideout. Most never stayed long because of the location and it’s proximity to holy land” he explained, gritting his teeth. Rorik knew it was over for him, the end in sight, he took Krainen’s hand and looked into her eyes “thank you....” he said before simply closing his eye. In her arms his breathing become slower and slower, until it eventually stopped and he became still.

Krainen stared at him, normally she’d simply leave the devastation that tended to follow her behind. But not this time, she would at least give Rorik a proper send off, he deserved that much at least. She lifted him him and carried him up a path outside the monastery.

Krainen’s bloodied hands shook as she placed the wood around Rorik, who lay upon a pyre built upon a great stone table high in the mountains. Her hands shook and tears flowed from her flesh right eye as she set the wood around him. She had laid him on his back and crossed his arms over his chest, tried to bandage the gaping hole in his stomach, she envied how peaceful he looked. In the time she’d spent with these monks she knelt and put her hands together “if Valhalla is real.... or at least some place of rest for the departed, I hope this ferries you there.” she spoke through shaking breaths.

It took everything she had to pour the gasoline and strike the match, there she lit the pyre she’d created to hopefully deliver her deceased friend to a better place. Watching the pyre go up she collapsed in on herself, sobbing and wailing in agony to the skies above. In her ire and sadness she threw her head back, and gave a long howl that rang through the mountains. A deep and mournful sound that rang out through the mountains. She leaned against the pyre, secretly hoping the flames that consumed her friend would take her too.

The fleeing house chupas paused as they heard it, the distant howl, they all knew what it meant. “We really hurt her today boys...” Houston said “and when next she comes down from these mountains, she’s going to return the favour.” All the other surviving house agents nodded, the carnage within the now burned monastery above was simply an omen of the destruction to come.

Krainen would eventually descend from the mountains, taking the survivors to the farms as Rorik had asked of her, there the remaining monks took up quiet lives as farm hands. The first time Krainen had met some of the farmers, an old green chupa got onto his knees and begged her to spare him and his family. That day had taken a lot to convince him that Krainen hadn’t meant him or anyone else there harm, even going as far as to welcome or greet her on the rare occasion when she came down the mountain.

Now Krainen would leave the farmers and the monks to their lives, wishing them well and politely explaining that they would likely not meet again, at least not under pleasant terms.

Over the course of the next three years, she would then begin and wage a personal war against the house of Omega. She would incite rebellion among disillusioned soldiers and civilians to the point of mass riots breaking out and razing two cities to the ground. She caused a coastal fortification to collapse into the sea of Vossler, crippled and or destroyed certain projects and facilities by Hexagon Industries. Scrapped with a few Freelancers and other groups like the SSF, Killed a police officer and her Husband in cold blood, left their son to his fate with live explosives inside a shopping mall.

Each place that contained her grizzliest handy work would also have spray painted nearby “REMEMBER RORIK, KEEPER OF THE SHRINE” as an open mockery and reminder to the house of what they had done, what they had taken.

She would target and systematically pick off high rank members of the house, even managing to assassinate the previous right hand of Omega, crushing his head and body with the large ceremonial hammer that contained within it a gravity pulse generator. It all came to a head when it was believed that Omega himself would emerge from his palace, engage Krainen in single combat and ultimately win. To show he could both beat the demon and still show mercy, Krainen would once again be placed back into containment. There she would lay in a rage filled sleep, such until the day she can once again break free.

The house at this time would eventually crush this rebellion spurred on by The Restless, forcing surviving groups back into hiding and accidentally painting Krainen as a sort of martyr for all rebels and rising groups like the movement. In the years to pass she would be remembered for both the destruction wrought upon the ring and as a person who dared stand before and openly defy Omega. Despite her loss, it would still inspire many to resist, to fight to bitter ends rather then submit to a church of lies and deceptions.