Halo Origins: Dragon Age
CH1
XXXXX
We are the kings and queens…
XXXXX
2550
Advent Ascendant
Ikage-0119, just a name and a number, he couldn't remember how long it had been since he had seen his family, considering since they were dead, he had been left here adrift amongst the reeds of death and destruction, the remains of the damned forerunner super weapon, 'Ascendant Justice'.
It had been 25 years since this war had begun, and over 25 years of service to the UCAF, and here he was, left to die. But Ikage regretted none of this, he regretted nothing, he lived to save mankind from the covenant, he lived to stop their war machine, and he'd die knowing that his sister was safe.
Like his brother had said in his roaring war cries.
"Only when fate finally calls, shall you rest your eyes; death may come, but take heart that you have served. Man will live thanks to all those who fight, even in death, we shall be glorified, do not despair, do not regret, for your life had been spent."
He always wondered why his brother had once told him that, and now he knew why, their lives may be gone, but they had done it well, to the end, the covenant had lost, and mankind had won. He watched in the distance of the forerunner installation breaking apart, the slip-space drives overloading.
He bumped into something hard, he looked up to see the hull of the Advent Dawn, the ship he served with his brother for the past 20 years, the hull was empty now, the engines dead, most likely the crew abandoned as the ship was disabled.
He clung to the bow, and sat down, he watched as the new sun rose…
It was a glorious feeling.
XXXXX
(This is a complimentary series to my WOW story crossover; they were supposed to join together later on, as of this point this is canon for the two, and I will incorporate them in about 2 more expansion packs later, I'll just time skip though for this.)
Darkness, it was so dark, he couldn't feel but cold, was he in heaven or hell? He opened his eyes; they cracked open to the morning light, the sun blazed so closely, if this was hell or hell, it was too bright. He took note of his position; he was drifting only 200m from the hull of the ship, carefully observing his oxygen supply he checked as he was halfway down.
It took him 5 minutes to reactivate his suit's internal systems, the BIOS cracked to life, the screen lighting showing green on all fronts, and he was ready to move. Carefully navigating his suit by his integrated jetpack, he flew forwards in the zero-gravity environment and arrived at the ship's hull, magnetising he landed.
The Advent Dawn wasn't going anywhere, not without a full reboot of the systems and a core start up; it was also possible that half the ship's outer layer might have been damaged by pulse fire and plasma scarring. But that was an issue he'd tackle once he managed to get the ship up and running, carefully beginning his walk, he arrived at the portside hatch.
Tapping in with his Nova tool he accessed the doors to the ship, opening and closing he entered the now derelict Advent, flying his way through the hallways he arrived at the bridge. He opened the doors and found that it was unsurprisingly quiet, and empty.
No dead bodies and no damaged internal computers, this made his job so much easier, jumping to the console on the other side of the bridge he located the systems initiator, and power just glimmered within the console. He began to restart the ship's internal clock and energy.
The fusion generators came online and soon the ship was lit up, and also that was when the holographic interface activated. A blast of light and she came online.
"All hands evacuate… wait what happened?"
"Celia, it's me." He said.
"Ikage, I thought you were aboard the Advent Ascendant?"
"It's finished, along with the Halo and the Flood, the covenant is in shambles, and I think you're crying." He commented.
Celia looked at herself, her eyes were sending our particle emissions, she had never even realised it, but she was indeed crying, it had been the first experience of true happiness and sadness, she couldn't even explain it.
"I think that I am, but why?"
"Maybe it's because were finally here, after all that's happened, or maybe because you can feel something else."
She thought about it, 27 years ago, this was something she'd never think of doing, but it's happened, she could finally cry, like her sister Alice could finally laugh… was this what she considered true relief? She then recovered long enough to say.
"The ship's beginning start u[, I'll get the inventory all prepared in 5 minutes, I think there's a few holes in the hull, but either than that, I'm fine…"
"That's good to hear, how do you feel?" Ikage asked as he walked over to her.
"Happy, sad, relieved, this was the first time that I can finally look out there and know that it's over."
"Yeah maybe it's just that… so where to?"
"Is there any planet's within range of the Advent?" He asked.
"I've got short ranged sensors on the closest thing being 3 planets, 1 being habitable, the other 2 being gas giants." She replied.
"I guess that's straight forwards, I'll enact repairs, contact me once we're ready, or if there's something important I should know about." He said as he walked off.
Once checking all equipment available was up to scratch, he made his way through deck by deck to make a sweep of structural integrity of the ship. He found that most of the ship's functions were running well, there were no issues with the ship, and some plating had needed replacement and repair drones were up and about making sure that everything was working.
He was now on the general levels for the storage, he needed an inventory of equipment as soon as possible, and once he was done he could make the ship prepared for a planetary drop. This wouldn't be easy though, the damage on the ship was superficial but a drop wasn't going to help the fact that the light wave shields were active.
He wasn't an engineer and thus had no actual technical skills in repairing shields reflectors or emitters that required more in depth training of adepts. He could only bring the power couplings back to the main drivers and most of the corridors, he spent the next 4 hours doing a run around of the length of the 1.25km Advent Class destroyer, it was the largest destroyer made, and thus effective upon most covenant classes.
He didn't really think how much he missed all the rain drivers, but then again, the ship was as good as it was, sure it was big, but that was what made it so damned hard to sink. He finished replacing 400+ plates across the damaged hull and returning to the storage level to get a full weapons cache update.
He was greeted by Celia who was just completing her inventory.
"Ikage, I've done the entire review of the weapons lockers and munitions chamber, we've got about everything to start with, would you like an overview?"
"Yes." He replied.
It took moments as a computer generated image of the hundreds of items appeared.
Supply Overview:
A number of prototype weapons left behind:
Mass Accelerator Carbines: 1A series [MAC1A
Laser Pulse Emitters Variant 3 series: LPE-V3
Storm Fury- Incendiary Projectors: Type 4
5 MVF-MKV Mobile Versatile Frames: MKV
10 Grizzly MBT-909 Main Battle Tanks
10 Razorback AT-APCs
Vehicles in storage:
200 mongooses
20 Rhino Plasma Batteries
20 Fox Cannon Long Ranged Artillery
80 warthog LRVs (all types)
50 Cougar APCs
40 MAAT- Wolverines
40 AT- Cobra Rail Tanks
20 MBT-808 Scorpions
10 Elephant transports
Aircraft/space capable vessels:
80 Glaive Strikers
40 Falcon Fighters
40 Hawk atmospheric assault gunships
20 DHT-185 Pelican Gunships
10 DHT-190 Aires Gunboats
He flicked to the next page…
Crew compliment within cold storage: 3600
He paused at the crew compliment and then asked.
"Celia why is there a crew compliment on the ship?"
Celia appeared with a smug look.
"We might have overlooked the fact that the ship was hit by an impulse blast from the covenant cruiser we engaged, the ship hit backup generators and soon I was left to keep the others alive, I left the main secondary generator to keep the troops alive until a timed reboot was completed. But its seems as though you woke me up sooner than expected, Captain Longan asked me to keep the others alive as long as possible, he and the active 900 personnel managed to get out in time."
"So he left the others aboard, he knew didn't he?"
"Possibly, if the knight of light survived he would at least have company, the captain said good luck."
"Ha, that old man, guess I should have expected nothing less. How long would it have taken to thaw them all out?" He asked.
"About 5 days, the main crew would be straight forwards, but time it would take to bring them up to speed and effectively would take days." Celia explained.
"Well at least it couldn't get any worse, anyone I should know about?"
"Spartan V teams of Sigma and Eta are aboard the ship."
"Eta and Sigma, well that's a pleasant surprise, anyone else?"
"About 3 other units aboard, 1 advent of light, a number of adepts, and a team of MS units on the ship ready for deployment when you call them sir."
The term struck him, he was technically the only person aboard the ship with the highest rank, Ikage was a Spartan commander, and as a commander for the Spartan forces, that shot him up three ranks on the actual UCAF military foundation, in essence he was a Major General by default.
He knew that UCAF military forces considered that all Spartans were military commanders and field officers of highest rank in times of CO shortages or incapacitation. He was left in charge of the 3600+ troops of the ship, and that meant that he was responsible for all their lives.
This was not an unfamiliar situation, he had commanded major forces of his own over the years, and this was no different, UCAF marines were direct and naval was logistics and tactics, he had experience with many commanders in the field and that's given him a unique touch.
The thoughts of taking command now had not been as demanding though, if he was to be a commander of this remaining force, he'd need to learn more about whom he has under his command, but in the meantime the ship needed to land.
"Celia, how much longer until we reach the planet's ionosphere?" He asked.
"About 30 minutes and counting, we have a clear path, I'm trying to get the thrusters to work, but I've only got the light manoeuvring emitters, without main engine support we'll be flying in like a juggernaut from heaven itself, plus a trail of fire right behind us."
"Let's just hope no one down there's religious then, I doubt that a flaming spearhead of significant proportions would make anyone feel too comfortable." He said as he walked to the CIC.
Once he arrived at the CIC, he made sure to check on all available shields and active plating, the ship was about 86% combat ready and about 91% on shields, the barriers will hold once they hit the atmosphere, but it was going to be a rough ride.
On entering the CIC just next to the main bridge he wasn't surprised to see that half the room was a mess, the CIC was struck by a stray pulse blast, the result in the room was a bit messy. There weren't any corpses, more that it was scattered debris and materials and glass.
"Celia, how long will it take to get the CIC back up and running?" He asked.
"5 days is the best I can do." She replied.
"Okay, we'll just have to strip down the room, get a team on it once we land."
"Okay, I'll just add that to the list of things to fix up as well." She replied sarcastically.
He smiled to himself under his helmet, it had been a while since he had seen the funnier side of Celia, and she had always been the one to watch over him. He walked back to the bridge and prepared to drop the ship down on the planet.
"Celia, how long left?" He asked.
"About another 10 minutes, we should hit the surface with quite an impact; needless to say anyone watching is going to have a rather nasty wake up call."
"What are our landing zones?"
"A forest to the south east of a continent I have chosen, and 2 others, 1 being near a lake, and the other on the cost off the mainland." She presented.
"Well I'd like the ocean, but that lake does sound better, anything about the geography?"
"Not much sir, there's really nothing down there except a few towns and villages, I can't really say if this place is 6 or 5, but no one should really notice our arrival."
"Okay, take us down, but make sure not to grab too much attention."
"Roger that, we're making our approach now."
The 1.25km destroyer made it fly through the atmosphere at incredible speeds, anyone who was looking could see a large streak of light going through the atmosphere, it was a spear of light, to which many believed was a good sign.
However there was one little difference of the approaching light… it was moving.
XXXXX
In Denerim King Cailan Theirin watched the heavens ignite, the many others in the castle watched as well, and the entire city watched as the streak of light grew closer, it was suspected that the approaching light was a sign of Andraste to the rest of the world.
Meanwhile scholars predicted that it was the end of the world, panic of the light coming so close to the city was a bit surprising, but none the less impressive. All watched on, priests feeling that everything was going to be fine.
As it continued, light seemed to scatter around it, and sometimes it glowed even brighter or darker, it sent bits of light scattering into the night, and to those unaware, they were going to have a long night.
Down in the docks, Isabela watched from the deck of her ship, wondering if that should be noted down as an actual star or not. It was an impressive sight, but one that seemed to go on and on. The light was glowing over the entire world; many could see its approach from almost every corner of the planet, in Orlais students flocked to look out ingenious tools known as telescopes to watch the approach of the light.
The people of the Anderfels watched in rather calm wonder as well, not knowing what was on approach, and in the Tevinter Imperium the mages could not imagine what was to come from that light.
But the only race that did notice the approaching light happened to be the ones right in its path, in the Brecilian the light grew closer and closer, and that was when Zathrian noticed that the light was not normal, it was a solid object of immense size. In his lifetime he had never seen such a thing, but the only odd part was that it was heading into the hills above the forest, and that was when it crashed.
XXXXX
The Advent wasn't made for planetary drops it was made for smooth landings with full thruster controls, and thus it was a rough ride for Ikage and Celia. There was a little hitch that they just didn't know about though. A piece of the damaged hull seemed to fly off in other directions, and that made Ikage ask.
"Celia, was that just the…" "Yes, that was the side storage locker, and I think 2 cases fell out."
Under yonder
A couple of travellers walked around near the edge of Lake Calenhad a strange light appeared, the travellers stopped to look at it as it approached. It took moments just to realise that the object was coming straight at them, to which they began to run, but their actions were slow and the object neared and struck.
They were all knocked off their feet as the object crashed into the lake next to them, steam and water sprayed them, they took to their feet again and carefully adjusted their eyes to the object, it was a large square object the size of a man, and it was labelled 'Heavy'.
"What is this?"
"I don't know, maybe the maker's trying to tell us something…"
"Why heavy?"
Back on the ship
"I'm probably sure that no one's going to open the thing, it has 2 inches of titanium for a good reason, and I don't think that they could lift it, the thing weighs well over 5 tonnes." Celia commented.
"Are you sure, that was one crate's worth of Aethrium, and we don't have another planet's worth in range of a few thousand light years, and I don't think Tony will like to hear that his replacement parts are all gone, you know he hates that." Ikage said.
"Ha, Tony only goes off about it when he's grumpy, I doubt he'd lose his cool over a crate."
The ship continued on its path, making thunderous roars through the night skies, its headed drop was the massive lake, but instead a forest with a lake seemed better, especially if it has a mountain right next to it. The Advent made final descent and began to head directly to ground, its thrusters finally making a slowdown, the ship skidded into the lake and travelled its length, and then crashed over the end, the Advent stopped at the end of the ground, half of the ship remaining in the water while the other half staying upright.
Ikage stepped out from the command chair and looked around, everything seemed fine, except that the consoles were warning of light damage to the lower hull. He was going to have to call in more personnel for repairs once he defrosted them from cryo, he walked over to Celia.
"How's the ship holding together?" He asked.
"Fine sir, the hull needs a polish, but either than that, most of the ship is functional, the cryo bays are still active and the fusion drives are still running at high, we're good for about the next 1500 years. Well at least I am." She said.
He nodded, he brought out his pad and scrolled through the lists of troops under his command, 3600 combat professionals stranded on a planet, and with their rank and class they were required to go through a lot. And this was no difference, he just hoped that the young bloods were more used to living without the constant threats of death, they were the most active members of the UCAF troops.
He did also remember the fact that he hadn't done a full sweep of the regions, but Celia would probably be at it, she always did think ahead. He decided not to ask and just leave the room, he was going to have to wake up the crew, and that meant a manual work over of most of the marines, he just hoped that Colonel Douglas wasn't going to get agitated over landing on a new world, he wasn't the one for change.
He walked to the lift and went straight to the cryo bays, numbers 1-3 were his first port of call and he knew that the first companies were going to need a proper shake down. Entering the room he found that Celia had planned in advance, the cryo chambers being set and prepped for heating as soon as they were ready.
"So, how long should we keep the colonel cooking for?"
"Just enough so that he doesn't go blowing a hole through the wall." He replied.
XXXXX
Not far from the Advent, the trees of the Brecilian Forest claim the lands surrounding the ship, and from the tops some could see the sails of land ships moving across the tops to the site. Those were works of the Dalish Elves, a people deposed by the humans of the Tevinter and the Chantry; their crimes were merely being different. They travel the ground through the forests content with believing that they will always defy the humans who so wrongly oppressed them.
They made their way under the guidance of their keeper Marethari who witnessed the coming thunder of the light that had passed so close to the caravan, they were already on the move to the eastern mountains of the forests, there was a lake in the heights above the land, and it was clear of any dangers. Now with the object she had ordered a few scouts ahead, Tamlen, Lyna, Fenarel, and Merill headed off to see the mysterious object not too far from the oncoming caravan.
It was important that they did not endanger the caravan by doing something foolish, their work was to simply see what lay ahead and report back to the camp. The trip through the forest was quiet and strange, the massive object was incredibly tall, even for one of the mountains it seemed to stand out anywhere anyone looked, and it was a dull grey and black and seemed to glow as they approached.
The object came into full view as they arrived at the lake, half the object was buried into the waters while the rest was on the ground with its front over the edge of a cliff, they could see it in detail. A bird of sorts was printed to the front, and letters stood out with odd symbols and markings, there was nothing that indicated anything that they had seen before.
Tamlen finally asked.
"Merill is there anything that you can sense there?"
The mage replied.
"Nothing, I can't feel anything from that object, no source from the fade, it is as if it's a hole in the very veil, I cannot sense anything."
"So what do we do?" Fenaral asked.
Lyna decided.
"We must move ahead, the keeper needs us to ensure that it is safe, I cannot see anyone or anything around it, I say we go closer."
"You are bold Lyna, but still be cautious." Fenaral replied.
They took from cover and approached the object, they were sure that there was no one there, and there wasn't, no one seemed to be in the presence of the object. But the structural work on the object was not normal formation; they could see that it looked as though someone constructed it, but who they weren't sure of.
The arrived at what looked to be a door of sorts and nothing else, it had 5 others in similar shapes, the alcoves were huge in shape, and they all seemed to have symbols. The symbols of the one they were standing at said, roughly due to Tamlen's fascination with humans, 'E3-11'.
He had no honest clue what it meant, but it was hard to tell, all that he knew was that it was a letter and numbers, he never bothered much with learning human languages or alphabets, but it was good to be cautious.
And that was when they were blinded, lights appeared from all angles and blinded them, the object came to life, the group tried to run, but they were terrified, the alcove opened and something stood there, a figure in white armour and figures around it.
"Stay where you are."
XXXXX
Ikage was no stranger to surprises, he had faced many strange occurrences in his lifetime and even greater challenges, he was a soldier and that was the point of being one, ready for all and everything. He went to work on defrosting Colonel Douglas and the marines he was greeted by his old friend.
"Dammit Ikage, couldn't have given me a proper wakeup call?" He asked.
"Where would the fun in that be?" Celia joked.
"Really funny Cel, I think I'm going to need a lot of coffee after that last run in with you know what." He commented on the flood.
"There's coffee, but you're going to have to unpack it from the fridge, the staff hadn't managed to get it down since the battle of Advent about 3 days ago, so good luck."
"Where are the command crew and auxiliary?" He asked.
"The command crew and all active primary members had to abandon ship, when the engines were disabled, I was left in command and decided to play dead. The auxiliary crew is still frozen in cryo and I'm just defrosting them with the rest of the other companies." Celia replied.
"So, how many does that make?" Ikage asked.
"A total of 3650, if including the command crew now, I'm not sure if the other adepts are really necessary, but they're there." She said.
"Okay, so let me get this straightened out one last time, due to our unique situation, Ikage is now the Major General of all of us, and I'm stuck with commanding the rest of the ground troops with nuclear squad formations? And to top that off, we have landed on an alien world where there is no hope of us actually leaving because our slip-space drives are fried?" He recapped.
"Yes, that's it; we're all here for the long run, so get used to it." Celia said.
"Man, I am getting to old for this shit." Douglas said.
"Well considering that you're only 45 then yes, you are too old for this." She joked.
"I'll catch up with you once you've cleared the rest of the marines from the cryo chamber Colonel, I need to deal with reallocating materials we need for the long run."
"For the long run, or just forever?" He asked.
"Probably one or the other." Ikage replied.
The two departed, Douglas having to call in all his troops from their 3 day sleep in, and him getting ready for a long haul to home. The ship had enough titanium and iridium to last decades, and whatever material needed they could mine or locate, to that extent, it wasn't really bad.
But it only got worse when Douglas went through the manifest and asked.
"Celia, where did my Valentinean Wine and Whisky cases go?"
Celia replied.
"We might have had an accident."
Ikage spent the next 6 hours going over the inventory for the marines, which wasn't really much, UCAF troops usually stuck to moderate caffeine drinks and more into adrenaline for the more active participants of their forces. He had gone over most of the necessary equipment, and overview of his troops, 600 from the cryo chambers had been awakened, the rest were to be completed within the next 3 days.
He was just heading back to the bridge when the alarms came alive, there was a perimeter sweep which had detected movement for the ship, and it wasn't normal wildlife, Celia was monitoring the region.
"Sir, I've detected 4 humanoids with primitive tier 6 weapons outside of the ship, I suggest that you intervene before they try to enter, I have also done a field scan and have detected a caravan of at least 50 others on their way here." Celia reported.
"Have the colonel meet with me in the entry point closest to their position; we're going to have to face them." He replied.
"Yes sir, alerting the colonel." She responded.
Ikage walked to the lift and made his way to the garage, and then to the motor pool, he was greeted by the colonel who was waiting with one squad. They were still getting to their feet, but they were smarter enough to know not to lounge about too much, their cryo sleep had a number of profound effects on them.
They straightened up and stood at attention, there was no exchange of formalities, the colonel simply said. "I'm presuming that the alarms mean we have company?"
"Yes, not covenant though, just some locals, they're just outside the doorway, don't know about them, but we can't just let them try to get in, and also because they have a caravan on approach to lake we landed in, we'd have to face them, if we wanted to explore around." He said.
"Well then, time to meet the locals…" He hit the switch and opened the doors, light and noise seemed make the beings stumble back as they were not adjusted to looking into the lights of the ship from the darkness. Ikage and Douglas walked forwards with their squad and saw the four figures backing away with their eyes blinded.
"Stay where you are." He said.
The tallest of them replied with a strange language that Ikage couldn't understand. He assumed they were not on the same kind of basis to the covenant's own; he adjusted it as they began muttering words. He could then make out some of their speech to which he heard.
"What are you?"
XXXXX
"I am Ikage 0119 of the United Colonial Alliance, stay where you are, you shall not be hurt." The figure said.
Tamlen and Lyna and the others seemed to pause at the sheer size of this armoured figure, it was a definite voice of a commander of sorts, it was the language of the humans, but this voice was undeniably stronger. The figure stood in the doorway of lights and only looked down on them, their eyes adjusted after moments and they could see others, they stood behind the figure, the light was still quite bright and made it hard to discern what they were looking at, Lyna simply stared at the commanding figure though.
Its eyes were bright blue, there was nothing more than silver and grey shapes over its body, each piece had a marking of shapes and different symbols, some looked like it was crafted by their ancient ancestors. But the figure did not look elven, it was like human, but greater in size, its spiked helmet and crafted mouthguard seemed to make it look like a celestial being.
It moved forwards, and the light seemed to dim, it moved its hand and a glow came from it, and symbols interacted with its touch, soon the lights were at a low and they could see. Tamlen was praying to the gods, while Merill simply stood there with Fenaral with utter amazement and shock, such a being was unheard off, this wasn't a being of the fade, it was a being of sheer physical power.
Others appeared in strange armour, they were shorter than the armoured giant but they were just as frightening, many had green or orange eyes, strange shapes of armour and helmets. They quickly checked on them with odd objects that glowed, they helped Lyna and Tamlen back up, and then the large figure came to face them.
"Who are you?" The armoured figure asked.
"We are Dalish Elves; our clan was heading to the lake to rest." Lyna said.
"I see, it seems that you're near hyper ventilating, are you frightened by my presence?" He asked.
"No, it is shocking to meet you…" Lyna mumbled off.
"That's understandable; do you wish to know of my people?" He asked.
"Yes." Lyna replied somewhat reluctantly.
The being began to remove his helmet, with strange hisses and clasps the helmet came off in a smooth motion, and what remained was a shock to the elves. Lyna could have sworn she could was incredibly stunned, no longer shocked, but utterly confused. The figure she had been frightened off moments before she was absolutely puzzled by, the figure was a human, just very pale, and very powerful.
His irises glowed blue, they seemed to emit light rather than take it, and his face was marked as what she and her kind would consider handsome, lines of strange markings on his face made it seem as though he face was an art, unlike the Dalish Blood Markings. He had jet black hair with streaks of grey and white, they seemed to glow in the night as well.
"I am Ikage and I am human." He introduced.
Lyna's sentiments were shared by the others, but they had rather objective thoughts than her own, this was a situation that they were not sure how to respond. This human and its allies were rather strange, nothing looked like human design, but far more advanced, powerful, was this some sort of secret or trick?
"Human? You're telling me that you're kind are here as well?" Lyna said.
"You know of the human race?" He asked slightly curious.
"Yes, the humans enslaved our race and oppressed and destroyed us, what are your kind doing here?" She asked with some resentment.
"I assure you, that we have no idea what you speak of, we just arrived from a very far place, and we have no idea of this world, could you enlighten us?" He asked calmly.
Lyna had heard of the ancient texts and stories to which their people carried with them throughout the ages, but it was clear that these humans had no idea of what was going on. She couldn't take her anger out on anyone just for being there, that's what the humans did to the elves for their religion, and thus constantly marched against them.
"I cannot enlighten you to our people's history with your kind, but Keeper Marethari might, if she decides to bring the clan here, she will not come unless we report to her though." Lyna said.
"Very well, you may leave; I'm not holding you here." He replied.
The other humans moved away, they were still in their armour as they moved away; Merill and Tamlen were hurrying behind the group. To Ikage this was nothing to important, they were just here for scouting, they wouldn't pose an actual threat to the ship or the crew, he said to Douglas.
"Keep a sensor sweep over the area, and get the rest of the crew up and about, we need to make sure that we're ready to properly greet our guests. I doubt that this little nugget of history should be noted by all." He suggested.
"On it sir." Douglas replied.
The squad dispersed and headed back in, 2 remaining outside to keep an eye on things, Ikage felt that this was going to be an interesting stay on this world.
XXXXX
Lyna and the group returned to the clan in minutes, running as fast as they could, their news was to bring confusing facts, these humans seemed to be of great power, not of magic, but sheer power, they looked terrifying. When they arrived Keeper Marethari was waiting for them.
"Keeper, we have some concerning news…" Lyna puffed.
"What is it hunter Lyna?" She asked.
Merill replied. "Humans, they have a strange object at the lake, they are not like others that we have encountered."
"What do you mean?" One of the elder hunters asked.
"They are not normal, one stands taller enough to match that of a bear, they are not fierce but unique, they have powers we have seen, and their leader is a great armoured man, who claims that he is of a race of humans who have come from places far from Thedas."
"Humans who come from beyond Thedas, how is that possible?" Ashalle, surrogate mother of Lyna asked.
"We do not know, but that is what they claim." Merill said.
"What shall we do?" Paivel asked.
"They have not shown hostility, they say that their intention is simply to talk." Tamlen said.
Marethari thought this through, it had been very long since any human had wished to speak to the Dalish, and if this was an honest meeting then she was contempt with it. She decided.
"I shall go meet with these humans, Lyna and her group shall only accompany me, should anything truly go awry, keep the clan here until we return."
"Are you sure of this Keeper?" Lyna asked.
"Yes, we have little to lose, should they speak, and as long as the caravan stays here until we return." She replied.
Lyna and the others nodded and grouped with their Keeper, Marethari walked in their presence and made their way back.
XXXXX
Ikage didn't wait long; the group returned quickly, he would have actually not been surprised if they hadn't returned at all. There was an elderly looking woman in their group, he wasn't exactly a person that was good at people skills considering that he was a Spartan, he inspired troops to fight and battle to the death, but not talk to people as nicely.
He took a shot at it as effectively as he could.
"Greetings, I believe that you are Keeper Marethari that your scouts told me of." He said.
"Yes, I see that they were correct in stating that you are human, at first I could not have believe that this thing that you came by was made your kind's hands." She replied.
"Well that's not entirely true considering that we don't use our bare hands, but the analogy still works in the sense of what we make. So why is it that my kind have done to your people that you have such resentment against us?"
"There is a long history of conflict, since the ancients…"
"We are the Dalish: keepers of the lost lore, walkers of the lonely path. We are the last of the Elvhenan, and never again shall we submit."
This is the oath the Dalish elves hold close to their hearts. In ancient times the elves ruled over Thedas alone, ageless and beautiful, until the humans came. Enslaved for a thousand years, the elves lost not only their immortality but their very identity. The Dalish are those elves who proudly refuse to live in human cities, proudly wandering the most remote corners of the wild lands in small clans that rarely meet. Their wagons are welcome nowhere, and more than one tale is told of the Dalish clashing with remote villagers who attempt to drive them away by force.
Much has been lost, but the Dalish will find what has been lost and keep it safe. They will re-learn the elven tongue, rediscover the ancient crafts and practice the old magics. They will spurn the human god and instead cleave to the ancient pantheon of the elves, praying that one day their own gods will return and lead their people to a new homeland. There the Dalish will await the return of those elves who have forgotten what they were, they will teach them to remember.
And until that day comes most importantly they will stand fast. As long as the landships are seen on the horizon there will be hope, hope that what was long ago shattered by the touch of mortal man may one day yet be restored." – Dragon Age Wiki- (please note that this is from the actual game)
She finished her long story of the Dalish from their ancient history, she was not too sure of some parts of the history that was written considering that there were gaps that even some of their other kin had been unable to answer. But what was said seemed to leave some thoughts in the mind of the human, Ikage as he called himself.
The dialect was vastly unique, there was no one who spoke like him, and he explained that he came from a place that required it while in talks. He was left to ponder the history of these elves and compared it to the history that had been told of the humans of this world and their effects. This new point of view into this world seemed to solidify that all was not well in this world, the beasts known as the darkspawn and the old gods, dragons, had left him in wonder of what magic had been forged here. It was apparent that there was no need for hostilities.
"You have explained quite a bit, shall I explain the history of my people with you?" He asked.
"Your people are the people of these lands are they not?"
"No not exactly, we come from a place far from the reaches of this place, and I should probably show you what I mean." He brought his palm to face upwards and a light illuminated the darkness.
The elves watched as the light projected the images of what he wished to show them, this was no illusion though, they could see what he knew, and the objects around them showed what he had seen.
"You shall see what I am and what my people are…"
The world that they saw of was not anywhere on Thedas, it was a world so different.
"My kind came from our world tens of thousands of years ago, on another world, known as Earth, we lived there as our birth place, mankind's birth place, this cradle was shaped to ensure that we lived and we prepared.
In the years since the earliest civilizations we fought, conflict was our demeanor, it was our fate it was our driving force, and for thousands of years it was our prerogative, we fought each other for generations, and for 100,000 years our kind has fought. It was not until we reached the point where our technology had advanced and that we learnt that war was not going to be our answer for everything. We inevitably came to understand that we were one race, no others were here on this world we called home, and so we united, conflict and war ended, we prepared to leave.
Two brilliant innovators came up with a means to let us leave our crowded home, man began the greatest migrations seen, leaving to the heavens to search for our peace in the universe, the cosmos was ours. My people were of the alliance, we left in a massive fleet, heading to our new world, but an accident sent us flying through the stars and from our home we landed in a mysterious new place.
This place became known as Nova Stratus, the light of storms, it was a beautiful stretch of light, where we found peace, but for 150 years we became isolated, and soon we segregated and then we met each other, not as once brothers but enemies.
The 50 year war brought to reality that conflict still lived within us, and that was when we stopped and ended our foolish wars. We began to prosper for another 250 years and began to expand our territory across the heavens.
It was not to last though, there was those who did not agree with us and brought conflict upon our race, we had little choice as war once more engrossed our people, war took its toll and we did not yield, we could never, or mankind would die.
The covenant was our common enemy, believing that we were an affront to their gods they deemed mankind their enemy and began to scourge our race unjustly. We fought, not as an empire of a leader, or the power of a religion, or anything that would deem us as a group or faction, we fought for survival, our bare rights as living entities. War was our way once more, consuming us to fight them, and that was what we did, all of our kin fought without regret or fear, we soon came to believe that there was little hope but to fight.
But our war soon climaxed, the covenant battled us for the ascension of their race at an epic crusade launched upon our people, but we held fast and retaliated, but not only with our people, but others, their religion was flawed and soon leaked of the truth, there was inner conflict which brought an end to their covenant, it ended at the final battle to which I participated in." He finished.
They simply watched with awe, this was so different, it was looking at his people's point of view, which it was, they had seen their empires come and go, rise and fall. It was amazing, yet hardening, this was a warrior of this race, he was a soldier, willing to fight to the bitter end, and it made them wonder.
"I have not seen anything that states who you are. Surely your kind must have been noted as did the many sub races, such as the Fenris (race) or the aspects, or the advents, adepts, there must have been mention of your kind." She asked.
"There is, I am Spartan, I am of a warrior like race, my faction of the Spartans are called the Vindicators. The Spartans have been in conflicts since the earliest of ages. We are now guardians of mankind, symbols of a single race prepared to die fighting for what it is, salvation, we fight to save our kind from oblivion, or any dangerous threats." He explained.
"So you fight for your race?" She asked.
"Yes, we are vastly different as you can see, those who live in Thedas are arrogant and judgmental of their own faith, were as we have no such thing, except brotherhood, family, religion is only within faith, but not the heart, family is where our hearts lie." He replied.
Their meeting ended, the fire was reaching its last flames, the morning was too come in the next few hours, and they had spent the last 5 hours exchanging their notes of the history of the lands and languages. Ikage had learnt much, as had the Elven Keeper, she could see there were no lies within his words, no lie could be that complex, he was true to his core, and even the deeper history that he explained had proven quite realistic.
"Lyna, get back to the caravan and bring the others along, there is no danger here, the humans of this place are of sincere peace, and they have no need to be considered aggressors." She ordered.
"Yes keeper." She said as she left.
Marethari asked Ikage.
"I must ask you of one last thing, what is the meaning of 'Spartan'?"
He replied to her.
"It means honor, and discipline, in the words of the Vindicators."
He left and headed back into the object that he called a ship, if she could see how her people would react when they see this, they'd be surprised to think of what a real landship would be.
XXXXX
Ikage was inside once more, and the next 300 troops had been flash heated, they were being brought out of their freezers to the hangar bay. The colonel had brought out the advents and the main crew into active service, a new captain and 49 other vital operators were going over the ship, not to Ikage's surprise it was his old friend.
Sonja Kaye had been aboard as a secondary commander for the Advent when her cruiser the Eudemon's Grace. She was just brought out of cryo and waited for her old friend to come by.
"Sonja, I didn't know you were here." He said as he hugged her.
The woman hugged him back, she was still in her white freezer gown, but she really didn't care, the warmth from his suit was welcoming, she enjoyed it. She smiled and said.
"What took you?"
"Nothing, just a talk with the locals, it seems that our neighbors are rather interesting." He said.
"I bet, Celia said that you also got a promotion, Major." She added.
"Ah, the emergency command procedure, yes, well the UCAF Advent had no commanding officer to command over both Colonel and first, so I received it from Celia as her tactical decision for me to become the leader of the UCAF on this world." He said.
"Well at least you're the best we can trust, the marines would probably feel safer with an actual soldier in command, but then again, everyone's a good soldier, but you'd be the best." She said.
"Our neighbors are coming over to the lake we landed in, I'd suggest you get your command team formed and prepared to deal with anything that comes along, and get the Colonel to work…" He joked.
"Hey I'm 5 feet over here." He sounded displeased.
XXXXX
The next 3 days passed quickly, the 3600 members of the crew were ready at arms, the balance between the UCAF and their elven neighbors went well, it also went fast. The clan had some plans to stay within the vicinity of the ship, but they couldn't stay for long, even if this was a good place to hide. Marethari, believed that the others agreed with her choice, they were only to stay another 3 months before heading on, the fall was soon to come and a better region for shelter needed to be found.
But undeniably the Dalish Elves found that these humans were disciplined and far more caring to others around them, the people were a family, a family like their own, even if it had very different beliefs. The UCAF was a real eye opener for the elves, the alliance of colonies were a people who had done much to keep who they were, even in danger or adversity.
If only all humans could have been like them, the camp site had expanded a little with the help of the UCAF, hunting went well, and farming. The UCAF had built a plantation of hardy vegetables for the long run, and brought out a number of fishing equipment, there was no end to the things that the UCAF had that the elves grew curious of.
Ikage had soon defrosted the last of the technical company in charge of the maintenance of the Advent; he was now to meet with the newest members of his team. In all command ships of UCAF fleets, there were at least 1-10 squads of Spartans teams ready to be deployed.
The Advent was a command ship, but of lower class, the ship was once part of the UCAF recon fleets, its position granted it a single squad to accompany it to the front lines. He could see that there were about 5 Spartans, Luc-2199, Icarus-3012, Jon-3108, Ai-2771, and the last being a novice class Spartan which had been recently recruited, Tai-3391.
He knew that these Spartans were from the Spartan V project, the additions to the Spartan numbers in the field, but their intense training had been lesser to their extent, and the augmentations. All these new Spartans would not be as effective as the Spartan Alphas, but they were capable as a squad, there was no way he'd drop that fact.
He brought them to their final stages and prepared them for deployment, he knew that they'd take to the news with some interest, but without their main objective in fighting the covenant, they'd be rather bored of dealing with the local rabble.
He brought the pods active, the chambers all began to heat up, it took about 30 seconds before they exited the pods in their armour, all seemed to have minor disorientation but aside from the unpleasant feelings they were active and physically well.
They took moments before they all saluted.
"At ease Spartans, you've been in stasis for a while, now to bring you up to speed, your orders are specifically to get a quick rundown, you are going to get a briefing from Celia here to acquaint you with the situation, from here on now the rules of engagement is passive. The locals of this world do not know much about us, so keep that in mind. I have to attend to my duties, your suits are in the lockers, all dismissed except Tai."
The rest forwarded out as they were on their usual routine of a long sleep, the youngest Spartan waited as Ikage made his approach, the newest recruit was pale and unmarred from his first two years, and he didn't have as many injuries yet.
"Tai, I see that you have been in the first 2 years as Theta Division's scout, I have specific orders for you, the others will take a day's break, you on the other hand need to complete a full diagnostic from Celia, and a rundown for field work on this planet, seeing as you're still malleable, you should take that on as a directive, report to the main landing once you've received your orders."
"Yes sir." He replied.
"Good, dismissed." He said.
The young Spartan left without a rush, he was prepared for whatever was to come. Ikage simply smiled, and he knew that the rookie was going to have a while to adjust to the new environment, he needed that skill to survive in this world, he wasn't an icon, but he was a soldier.
Ikage left as something happened.
"Sir I've just picked up about 3 dozen signatures on approach, they aren't elven. They're human."
A loud yelling and shouting outside and he ran straight for the garage, he knew that this wasn't good. If those were humans and they were the very ones that the Keeper had warned him about, then this wasn't going to end at all.
He made his exit from the ship and came out in time to see what was unfolding, 30 armoured figures were in the camp site, making their way through, it seemed as though the elves could do little to stop them, 6 others were there as well, a man in robes, he looked quite like a scholar, the other 2 were heavily adorned with robust figures and power, the 2 others in robes had staffs and books and a lot of energy, he could tell that they were mages, and the last was a man with a book and some religious looking items.
Ikage walked over without stopping and faced them, his MJOLNIR MKV [I] shining in the morning light; he didn't like it when people came unannounced. He also didn't like how they treated the elves in the vicinity. The group stopped and they looked at the armoured figure that now stood between them and the object, in the eyes of the knight commander the being was as terrifying.
He composed himself and said.
"Who are you being?"
"I am Ikage of the UCAF, this object is my property, and it is my ship." He replied.
"That thing is a ship? What sorts of madness has dwelled in your mind, how could that be a seafaring vessel, it barely looks like it'd stay astern before falling to crush someone." He jested.
"Well by your definition that would be correct, but not mine, you do not know of my people's technology or advances, you should leave this area, it is under my protection, and only those are welcome are under it." He stated.
"The Brecilian Forest is not owned by anyone, these elves still cling to their beliefs and make it quite difficult to subdue, and thus we do not care what they do. If it weren't for their damned hiding we'd have long since wiped them, and if you ally with them, you are no better." The knight commander said.
"That maybe so, but at least I keep the truth to all, and not to thine self, if you truly think that your beliefs are really welcomed here." He replied.
"How dare you, the Chant of Light is a faith that all should embrace, it is as the Maker gave to us to preach to those who are in need." The priest said.
"No offence, but I have no need for such things of myth and spirituality, my belief is within the forerunners who granted me life, not to some zealous psychos running about with no care of what collateral damage they cause." He deadpanned.
The Knight looked as though he could just knock the lights out of the Spartan, but Ikage simply said. "You have no quarrel with my people, now leave, this place is under the protection of the alliance, and you have no need to be here."
"But this thing had thought to be a message from the heavens of sorts, the maker or not, our duty is to investigate due to the upsurge it has caused."
"Well then you better send someone who has more sense to not send a bunch or religious fanatics, I do not appreciate your cadre, if they wish to send a proper person then I'd suggest your scholar friend here, who I do realise seemed to be quite quiet."
The man looked about and dared not to say anything.
"He looks like he'd find this place quite fascinating, I do wonder why he does not dare to speak, and perhaps you might have something to say?"
It was then that the knight commander had enough; he charged forwards at the Spartan, believing that he could impale the tall warrior…
XXXXX
(So quick quiz, how do you guys like this?)
I'm setting this down for now, it has been here for almost 4 months as I had played DAO that last time, I need to get to doing DA2 which I've got on Xbox so CYA, is it better or worse?
Please read and review…