#smokefinger

And that is how you keep people beaten. By starving them not only of models of something better, but draining them of wholesome inspiration, denying them examples of a higher way of being and sapping them of any belief that they can achieve it.

To be blunt: to Hell with the Corpus.

Although… although. There was one Corpus, a singular man, for whom I make a singular exception. His name was Sigor Savah.

I was a younger man then, an assistant to the efforts of Morphology Specialist Sigor Savah, though I don't think he ever knew my name. Morphology Specialist Savah's job was to catalogue and assess whatever lifeforms – dead or alive – were uncovered as Venus sprang back to life. That man sacrificed everything – career, future, perhaps even his life – to save a kavat, if you can believe that. I know, because I helped him. Though he never knew that, either.

The kavat, Specimen VK-7, had been tracked to her lair and was to be destroyed. Sigor prevented that at the cost of his liberty, and was soon to lose his life. Coward that I was, I told myself there was nothing I could do.

Then she was there. VK-7. In front of my hab, waiting, looking at me with more intelligence than any kavat should have. And she dropped keys at my feet. The keys to the security centre.

It was I who opened the door to Sigor's cell. Who watched as VK-7 dispatched Sigor's would-be executioner, a Corpus I had often worked with in Reclamation 3. It was I who ensured one cargo pod in particular was replotted, to intercept an outbound Solaris Rail tractor. It was I who sealed multiple bulkheads, to stem the flow of troopers meaning to end them both.

Why did I do it? Hmm.

I remember Sigor best this way: he puts down an instrument, respects me enough to look me in the eye, and he tells me: "Every living being longs to be whole. Every living thing yearns to defy death. If from death you returned, yet the part you loved best did not… what then?" That was the last thing he ever said to me.

That is why I helped him. In saving that animal, Sigor Savah had saved himself. How many of us can say that? I was not about to stand by and let the Corpus steal from him the one thing that was truly his.

To a flaming Hell with the bloody Corpus.

Cetus, is where Sigor went. The Plains. His story is out there, if you want to hear it. To this day, I hope he is, too.

Idle quotes

These are un-subtitled lines that Smokefinger shouts in the marketplace when he is not interacting with the Tenno.

"I possess tools of pedology and mineralogy. Pursuits to make a person very wealthy indeed. Wealth of intellect and pocket! Treasures of curiosity, treasures of coin!"

"Treasures await release from stone and soil! A most fulfilling career for one so minded! Might that be you? Mining resources and more!"

"Prospecting! Quarrying! Excavating! A marvelous, fantastic vocation into which a young person might channel their energies, creating a life that is, in every way, superior."

Greeting the Tenno

(if the Tenno is new to Fortuna) "Hello. I am Smokefinger. Antiquarian, historian, and now, through a bewildering series of circumstances, an avid geophile. That is to say: I am interested in soil and all the things that may be found in it. Let me show you what I mean."

"The Taxmen have imposed strict limits on the mining ventures we Solaris can undertake, which I don't approve of but I can't do anything about! [sigh] So… go out, and do it for me."

"Ah yes, my itinerant friend. How are we today?"

"Hello again."

(if the Tenno has just reached the rank Old Mate) "I feel our relationship has progressed sufficiently that I have unfastened my casing. Let us now continue openly in our efforts geological, refreshingly devoid of formality, hmm?"

(if the Tenno is rank Old Mate) "My life was transformed the day a pre-eminent geologist saw potential in my younger self. I should like to do the same for another young person, and I see such potential, drive, and commitment in the young man who sells mechanical contrivances just over yonder. I do wish he would allow me to help him, to show him the universe in a grain of sand. Oh, forgive me. How might I assist?"

(if the Tenno is rank Old Mate) "The music of the vent-children – 'skeg,' they call it – is a self-evolved musical form, unrestrained by conventional rules of composition. Utilising improvised instruments, the vents themselves become part drum, part valve, part echo chamber, playing a vital role in the creation of this entirely original acousmatic experience and making sure I never get any mucking sleep!"

(if the Tenno is rank Old Mate) "While our composite physical natures afford a longer-than-typical life expectancy, I fear I am simply too advanced in my years to be of any quantitative aid to the resistance. But I will, of course, do my little bit if that is deemed to be of value. That Eudico. What a spark she has. Were I younger, much… younger. That younger, different me, would have signed up faster than you could say 'zip'."

(if the Tenno is rank Old Mate) "I am very pleased to see you, very pleased indeed. Let's get to work."

(if the Tenno is rank Old Mate) "Ah, yes, yes. Wonderful, wonderful!"

(if the Tenno is rank Old Mate) "Welcome welcome welcome."

Exiting offerings with purchase

"There we are. Now, there is no evidence for this theory, but I believe the Orokin used tellurium in Void gate creation. Finding traces here could be significant!"

"That should do you quite nicely, I should think. Now: argon crystals. They've not been found on Venus, but if they were… well, that would support my tellurium theory, wouldn't it?"

"All done. Now: gallium is interesting. I theorise it had a role to play not just in Dax weapon manufacture… but in creating warframes themselves. Just a theory, just a theory."

"Good good. Rug up, and I'll see you when you get back."

Exiting shop without purchase

"This decision is ill-advised. The pursuit of mineralogy can make a person very happy indeed."

"Oh. Well. I do hope you will reconsider."

"The first time you uncover something rare and special and pull it from the soil, something magical happens. It bewitches you. I do hope you have that experience someday."

Bidding farewell

"As you were, as you were."

"I bid you the warmest of farewells."

"See you later, then. Hm. So to speak."

Smokefinger's story is also told in the memory fragments scattered around the Orb Vallis. He is mentioned in the dialogue of Rude Zuud, Legs, and Ticker, and by Eudico at the end of the Vox Solaris quest and during Operation: Buried Debts.