-AN: This story is under VEEEERY temporary hiatus. Please read the announcement in chapter eleven for more details. So why don't you just review what there is so far while you're here?

Disclaimer: All things related to Tales of Symphonia are property of Namco. All things related to Warhammer 40,000 are property of Games Workshop.

-

In a time, long ages before the elves first set foot upon Symphonia, long before Derris-Kharlan had even been constructed, others had found the world, pristine and beautiful, unmarred by civilization.

These were humans, from a time ancient beyond reckoning, from Mother Earth itself, the heart of mankind. They came, and with their technology, forged for themselves a paradise that befit their visions of a perfect utopia.

For thousands of years, they lived in peace and harmony, untouched by war or sorrow, as was the rest of mankind.

But, one day, a race older than the oldest ancestors of humanity fell to its desires. With the blood of their people running so deep in the streets of their cities, and spilling so thickly into the oceans of their worlds, they, by their own hand, met their end.

A few of them abandoned their fellows, whom were consumed by their sex and savagery, to pursue a peaceful path. They built mighty ships, craftworlds, as large as planets, and left. But not soon enough.

All of the psychic energy built up by their shameless decadence and unchecked emotions created a mighty daemonic god of the warp, whose birth cries ripped the souls from hundreds of billions of their people, sending their race into a chaotic downspin of tragedy and desperation. Their power gone, those few still surviving struck out on different paths. Many escaped before this tragic event on great ships known as craftworlds. These planet sized vessels, crafted from wraithbone, ferried billions of faithful away from their decadent brethren.

Some, like a craftworld known as Derris-Kharlan, were sucked into the warp when this dark god, Slaneesh, was born. Drifting for centuries, the precious few survivors within Derris-Kharlan managed to escape the warp at last, and then come across Symphonia.

Fighting the native humans in a savage war, the psychic power from both sides proved to be so powerful, that the entire make up of the world began to fall apart. The humans living there were forced to start over from scratch, and the others were forced to take measures to ensure the planet was not torn to pieces as a warp storm engulfed the space around it and the craftworld, sealing it away from all the horrors of the countless savage wars that raged throughout the galaxy in the years to come...

And so it has remained for nearly ten thousand years...

-

It had been the pride of Cruxis. The mighty hulk of ancient mana that was Derris-Kharlan. Inexhaustible in its energies, it gave life to the madness of Mithos, and sustained his legions of deathless servants, for whom there was nothing in life but to serve his every ambition.

Technologies the likes of which had been lost upon Symphonia since before the great Kharlan War had been locked away throughout its depths, their surreal power furthering the madness of Mithos. Armed with powers ancient and deadly beyond compare, he sought to instill his regime across the entirety of the planet.

For four thousand years he plotted and schemed, his personality split between the carefree youth that existed the day his sister had died, and sought to bring her back, and the insane, cruel, and cunning corruption that was known as Yggdrasil, who was hell bent on building some kind of empire. He took his pain and spread it to those around him, sucking them dry of all hope and promise.

With his followers zombie like in their actions and his will unopposed amongst them, he erected Welgaia within the ruins of the once great Derris-Kharlan. It was true, the elves had left it and went to Symphonia, but no one ever knew just exactly what Derris-Kharlan was, or where it had come from.

Whatever it was truly meant for, to Mithos, it was his everything. It was his salvation. There were no humans or elves there, only himself and his servants. It was all he could have ever asked for. So there, on that ancient and hallowed ground, was born the madness that nearly consumed the world.

In fact, had Kratos not felt but a moments pity for the victims of the harsh regime, the world would likely be destroyed by now, or at least twisted into a shape befitting the madness of Yggdrasil. The anger of Mithos at his sister's rejection of everything he had created drove him over the breaking point, and he tried to leave, along with the Great Seed and all of Symphonia's hope for survival.

But disaster had been averted all because Kratos, thought to be the most capable and uncompromising follower of Mithos' views, had fallen for a lowly piece of human ranch scum. But not just any lowly scum. The scum that carried within her the Angelus Project. From there, the rest was history.

And even though he was never a history buff, Kratos couldn't stop replaying the events in his head over and over again. Martel, Mithos, Anna, Kvar, Yuan, Lloyd and the rest. The names and faces would not leave him be. Though he didn't complain.

Trapped as he was, within the confines of Derris-Kharlan, with tens of thousands of lifeless beings the only things for company, he savored every moment his mind granted him visages of those he had cared for. Those he still cared for.

"Five years..." he sighed, gazing out at the emptiness of space, catching glimpses of the tiny shreds of debris that had become trapped with the orbit of the great construct fly by. "Five years. I wonder what's become of it all. Everything I had once worked so hard to destroy, only to father its savior. I can hardly imagine..."

He pushed a lock of hair out of his eyes as he squinted out into the blackness, searching for it. Several minutes passed, his immobile form looking akin to a statue save for the scat movement of his eyes. Then, suddenly, they went wide, and he took a step forward, almost leaning against the large, slanted glass that ran along the distance of the corridor.

Off in the distance, he could make it out. Barely, but surely. There was Symphonia. Shining bright as it reflected its sun's light in the vastness of space. It warmed his lonely heart simply to be able to see it, despite the memories that he wished never to relive coming to the surface.

In a moment though, it was gone, the tiny light that was Symphonia. Kratos' heart sunk when it went, and he slumped down to the ground in the narrow corridor, staring out the window with a distant and stoic expression upon his face. He couldn't help but wonder why the universe had to be so cruel to him.

Standing up quickly, he mentally scolded himself for doubting even for a moment his reason for being here. It was his fault Mithos had nearly destroyed everything that was good and pure on Symphonia. He owed it to Lloyd, Anna, Martel, even Mithos, and the rest, to see that the powers of Derris-Kharlan never again fell into the wrong hands.

With his old resolution once again burning strong and bright within his mind, he turned to leave for the upper levels. At least he could train there, to stave off a little of the boredom that plagued him. The strange weapons they had uncovered, left over by the ancient elves no doubt, were quite interesting to behold and use.

Confident that he would feel better after pretending to kill things, he went on his way, walking along the narrow passage towards the nearest lift. At least, that's what he knew them to be called. In truth, there was no way a lift could possibly move one around such a massive place as Derris-Kharlan as fast as they seemed to, so he expected that they actually were some kind of teleportation devices. But, in the end, as long as they worked, he didn't care.

Out of the corner of his eye, something caught his attention out in space. Now, this was a surprise to him as much as it would be to anyone else. For, what could possibly be interesting enough in space to stop a stoic and generally uncaring man such as Kratos dead in his tracts?

But there was something there. And it was moving, fast. It looked to the Seraphim like an asteroid of some kind, but it appeared to be moving way to fast for that. That and there were hundred of them, and a faint white glow behind each. Had that been what he took to be Symphonia? Though tiny in comparison to the hulking might of Derris-Kharlan, Kratos knew that such a large amount of them could seriously damage a lot of valuable equipment.

Now running towards the lift, or teleporter, Kratos was knocked forcibly to the ground as a mighty shaking took hold of Derris-Kharlan. It continued for several minutes, ending with a tremendous crunch as something smashed through apparently just above him. Despite the risk of being sucked out into the vacuum, he got on the lift and set himself to be taken to the nearest damaged area.

-

Cursing under his breath as he ran through the corridors towards the balcony overlooking his intended destination, Kratos was quite worried. He had tried to go through the lift, but was unable. That could only mean one thing: whatever had hit them was quite large and was blocking the lift in that area. Or worse, it had completely demolished it.

Climbing a small ramp, he emerged onto a balcony. He was taken aback by the mass of space rock that greeted him, filling his entire vision. So it had been an asteroid. He was somewhat relieved to at least know what it was that had hit them.

Looking up to see how high its bulk stretched, he saw Derris-Kharlan stretching away beyond what his eyes could see, balconies such as the one he was on jutting out every level all the way from the top to the bottom, hundreds of miles of them up and down. And it was all white, except for the occasional red or blue glow of lighting here and there. It made him dizzy to try and take it all in, even after seeing the sight thousands of times throughout his long life.

There were a few score Kharlan Guards standing around, seemingly unbothered by the great rock as they stood ready in battle formation. Wondering why they were preparing for battle, he found out as soon as he took one step forward.

There was a very strange mana signature emanating from the asteroid. In fact, thousands of strange mana signatures. Hand going to his sword sheathed at his side, he knew something terrible was about to occur. Something, he sensed, that would change the fate of millions. Perhaps even alter everything that had been worked so hard for on Symphonia? He would not let that happen. He would sacrifice his life to make it so.

Walking to the head of the formation, he turned to count his forces. He found it difficult though, as they all looked the same, dressed from head to toe in black plate and all bearing black wings. In fact, the only variation amongst them was weaponry, and even that was pretty redundant. He estimated at least eighty, though there were many more flooding onto the balcony from where he had come.

"My Lord Kratos." An angel approached him slowly, speaking in its hollow and monotonous voice. "Two hundred other objects similar to this one have embedded themselves throughout various levels of Derris-Kharlan. The Kharlan Guard is gathering at each and standing their ground. The Seraph Guard are positioning themselves at the largest of these anomalies. The entirety of our forces await further action from these 'space rocks' or orders from you, Lord Kratos."

Nodding slowly, Kratos was now very worried. Two hundred of these massive asteroids. Each filled with, at best guess, several thousand, life forms emanating very troubling mana signatures. But the angel had said some were larger then the others. It all added up to pretty much scream of danger waiting in the wings. He prayed silently to whatever deity there might be watching over them and hoped whatever was inside the rocks was not hostile.

Turning back around to face the asteroid, he suddenly was confused as to why they weren't being sucked out into space. Then he remembered Derris-Kharlan's self repair abilities. Glad to put that worry from mind, he grimly realized some less fortunate individuals must have been sucked out when the asteroids first hit.

A small crack appeared suddenly on the asteroid, catching Kratos' attention instantly and breaking the chilling silence as small pieces rolled down onto the gleaming white floor. Narrowing his eyes, Kratos gripped his sword's hilt even tighter as the crack grew larger and larger.

Then, the portion around the crack collapsed on itself, forming a rather large hole through which several men could fit. A massive green clawed hand came out, grabbing the edge and pulling up.

Kratos' first impression was that of surprise, but it soon turned to horror, and the creature staring at him through its beady black eyes from where it stood on the edge of the hole, was indeed horrific. It possessed a very pronounced lower jaw, massive and razor sharp teeth, two capable of being classified as tusks, overlapping its upper jaw. Its ears were tiny, and its nose had a pig like quality to it.

But by far its most prominent feature, was its green skin. Literally all of the creature, from its arms, which were so bulging with muscles they were almost thicker than Kratos was wide, to its legs. It was surprisingly well garbed for such a barbaric looking thing though, with thick armor covering much its abdomen and chest, and even a pair of tattered pants of sorts and boots of some kind. What worried Kratos though, was not just the gore covered axe with a blade as wide as his arm was long, but the fact that though it was hunched over and putting its weight on its knuckles, if it were to stand up fully, it would be nearly nine feet tall.

Both Kratos and the beast stared at one another for almost a minute, as if both were unsure what to do next. Even the normally stoic angels looked somewhat tense in the presence of the strange creature.

Suddenly, the creature opened its mouth and let lose with a loud and guttural war cry, which pierced through the air and echoed off into the vastness of Derris-Kharlan.. To Kratos' horror, it was joined by the simultaneous shouts of what sounded like thousands of others from within the asteroid and even more echoing down from above.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!"

Kratos drew his sword in a flash as the monster leapt off the asteroid, followed by what literally looked like a sea of green as its kin followed from the hole.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!" Kratos found it impossible to suppress a shudder when he heard the even louder and more crazed rendition of the war cry. Eve so, he composed himself quickly, ready even in the face of intense horror to fight to the death. Such a reaction is expected of those who live for four thousand years though, fighting almost non stop throughout the entirety of their long life.

"Angels! Charge!"

Kratos ran across the small expanse of ground between him and the massive tide of monsters, meeting the first one half-way and ducking under its clumsy blow and driving his sword up to the hilt into its stomach. Wrenching it out, he swung in front of himself blindly, luckily blocking the blow from one armed with a vicious claw weapon that crackled with an eerie arcane power much like electricity. Or maybe all it was, was electricity. He didn't right know or care.

Using all his might, Kratos forced the beast back, driving forward at it as it stumbled backwards in an attempt to recover. Planting a boot on its left thigh, he leapt clear over its head, spinning as he fell behind it with his sword. Landing easily on his feet, arm straight out with sword held the same way, he rose slowly as the beast collapsed with a cry of rage, its back shredded and gushing black blood.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the angels decimating the beasts with the advantage of their long spears. But just the same, the monsters were wont to simply yank the spears away or snap them in half, rendering them useless. It all came down pretty well balanced, except the fact that they were hopelessly outnumbered by the things.

Driving forward sword first, he used his momentum to skewer one through the throat. Planting a boot on its chest, he tugged his blade free and stumbled backward, slashing outwards to score a near fatal blow on another. Regaining his footing, he launched himself at the wounded monster, carving into its abdomen with a brutal hacking blow.

Three angels flew over him, dive-bombing the monsters with their spears and launching magic at them, creating quite a disruption in their ranks as the beasts tried to flee from the flames the angels poured on them. Many of the angels were doing the same thing, tearing into the ranks of the foul creatures very effectively. What they lacked in strength, the angels certainly made up for with their magic. Kratos took heart to see them faring so well despite the odds.

But his heart sank into his stomach when he beheld the sight of all the angels in the air suddenly begin falling to the ground, their blood splattering violently as if they had been struck by some tremendous blow.

Cringing at the screams, the only sound an angel might make to prove that it really was alive, he battled fiercely against the oncoming tide even as they were now outnumbered even more incredibly with the loss of so many angels in the air.

Slicing into one's hamstrings, he followed up with kick to its abdomen, sending it sprawling on the ground where an angel swiftly plunged its spear into its chest. Said angel keeled over uselessly as its head was shredded to a bloody pulp by a monster with a crackling claw weapon like the one Kratos had seen earlier. Crying out in anger, he carved a vicious uppercut in front of him, badly wounding the angel's killer and rendering its left arm useless as it hung on by a thread. He then brought his sword down onto its skull with both hands, splitting the creature's head wide open.

Turning to face the sound of a loud snarl behind him, he saw one of the monsters holding a strange weapon, which, from what he could guess, was pointed at him. But it possessed no blade, no edge with which to cut. It could be a form of club, but the creature sure was holding it wrong if that was the case.

It was long, about a meter, and wide, just an inch or so short of a foot. A smaller opening at the end which was pointed at him showed no sign of any threat, just an empty hole which seemed to travel through the length of the thing. A rectangular protrusion and what looked like a tiny trigger were placed near the other end. The monster laughed quite madly, and pulled the trigger.

There was a loud and sudden series of cracks from the weapon, and the next thing Kratos felt was searing agony in his arms, chest, and abdomen. Soon after, before he blacked out from the pain, he felt the warmth of his blood oozing down his sides as someone grabbed him beneath the armpits and lifted him into the air, the sound of the crazed beast's weapon still ringing in his ears as the screams of the angels below grew increasingly quiet.