Well, for anyone who likes New World fics, here you go!
This is something I thought of while watching Star Wars one day that I immediately told Cormag about. We spent the next week or so going over the basics for it before we finally decided to start writing. For reviews, Cormag will answer via private message while I will answer at the start of each chapter. Beware; if you ask anything too spoilerific we will give contrasting answers to confuse you. Also, if you wish to see our other works, my fic I have Order and Chaos while Cormag is the writer of Sanity is not what it's meant to be and Impossible Emblem.
Disclaimer: Neither Cormag nor I own Fire Emblem or Star Wars. We do however, own the OCs.
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"...Three small starships vanished in the area around Plegia today. The cause behind this is to be investigated, however, Plegia's rising tensions with Ylisse is the most probable cause."
Most probable cause my ass, we all know the Plegian Empire caused that, we just don't want to cause yet another war with them.
I saw a hand waving in front of my face. "Hello? Ylisse to Nocht, can you hear me?" I heard the voice of my friend Hawke beside me. He had light brown hair that was parted to the right side, as well as bright orange eyes, the right one holding a mark the shape of a rabbit's face. That was the mark of the taguel branded, one of the two races that had formed in the time between the fall of Grima and the repopulation of the dragons, which happened around the same time as the colonization of space. Due to the two happening around the same time, there are none who know what the current calendar stood for. The year was 3776, F.E. I myself had silver hair and emerald colored eyes. On my right palm was the mark of Grima, showing that I was one of the Earth branded, a variation of the Manakete branded that rose up along with the taguel branded. Manakete branded have multiple variations based on the type of dragon they are descended from, while taguel only have one, but have just as wide a pool of talents to be inherited. Both types are either capable of learning their -bane ability or an affinity ability. Manakete tended to learn magic of their respective, such as my own shadowgift, while taguel are very skilled with a certain weapon, as Hawke is with his firearms.
"Nocht, seriously, get your head out of the stars!" Hawke began to grow irritated as I became lost in my thoughts. "We're going to Triple A! Get excited, dammit!"
He was talking about Ascending Angels Academy, a prestigious school that took in the most talented high school students in both the galaxies of Archannea and Jugdral. The school once took people from all reaches of both galaxies, but due to rising tensions, it no longer takes students from the Plegian and Lopto Empires.
"Yeah, but the other students will mostly be people who have enough money to get personal instructors. We are both self trained, even if we have learned a little from our parents, it won't necessarily be enough to keep up."
"Nocht, remember how we got here? We managed to capture a rank two criminal, one that was fairly close to rank three at that. That means that the two of us can take on a lieutenant at least, and are individually close to a low ranking officer at least, skill wise. We'll have no problem here!"
That was a fair point, most civilians are lucky to take out a level zero criminal, petty thieves. Level twos are only a level below some druglords, and are usually sent either a small squad or a fairly high ranking officer. However, that didn't change the fact that, with the exception of a few who apply for the entrance exam a few years after the normal first-year age, most of the students were scouted out by the academy and
"There's also the fact that we are missing a third of our power, since that stupid thief decided going on a heist was more important than taking out that criminal."
The thief, Jett, had bright orange hair and hazel eyes, just like her mother Anna. She also had a scar running down her shoulder.
"Oh, don't worry about Jett, she's probably extremely excited for the two of us."
"Yeah, but we'll have to make it through three years without her, it just won't feel right."
We had all only known each other for the same amount of time, but we had become inseparable. I still remember the day we all met, although I doubt anyone could have forgotten such a crazy turn of events. Jett had attempted to rob the store owned by Hawke's parents, only for Hawke to pull a blaster pistol on her. When I walked into the store the first thing I saw was Hawke firing multiple rounds at Jett while she was throwing her knives at him. Both of them had minor injuries, but overall they had done much more damage to the store than each other. I had to use my dark magic in an attempt to create a wall between the two. Of course, it didn't last very long, but it held out until Hawke's parents came back. As a punishment, Hawke's parents made them help prepare my family's church's services for a month. While they technically didn't have any power over Jett, Hawke's dad was formerly a Feroxi warrior, and Jett knew she wouldn't have been able to avoid him for long.
As we all worked together, we came to a realization. None of our families, or at least Mine and Hawke's; Jett's parents died a few years prior in a shipwreck, had very much money. We also realized that together we could easily collect small sums of money by turning in low level criminals. Soon after, the three of us formed a gang of sorts, I would plan a way to catch vandals out in the open, and Hawke and Jett would wait somewhere to catch them off guard and knock them unconscious so we could take them to the police.
I was pulled out of my reverie as the ship came to a stop.
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We walked out into the entrance, savoring the view of the massive marble walls reaching up through the academy's 13 floors. Through a large dome, we could see the flight training center, which was set to hold enough oxygen in the case of a malfunction during the session. There were doors leading to multiple libraries, magic, physical combat, tactics, and flight each getting their own libraries. There were also several forms of training areas for multiple classes and trainee classes, and were those… shops?
"Pretty massive considering there's less than 100 students, huh?" Hawke asked with a bright gleam in his eye.
"Maybe the architects sensed that one day, a man with an ego as large as yours would walk these halls and made sure they were ready." I said in a tone mimicking that of a storyteller.
Hawke chuckled "Then they should have added a few extra floors." And with that we both burst out laughing. "Ah, when we get our break after the first term we need to make sure Jett regrets not coming with us to bag that guy."
"Who says I needed an invitation in the first place?" We heard a familiar voice pierce through the hallway. We both turned to see Jett standing there, wearing a Triple A uniform. The uniform was typically a white jacket with either trousers or a skirt, depending on the students preferences. Extra adornments were added depending on the planet. Ylisseans chose either blue lining or, in the case of the growing 'Order of Altea' faction, the symbol of Naga. Feroxi used fur lining and the people of Jugdral added the emblem of their planet's respective crusader. Jett's uniform was the basic Ylissean one with one exception: that skirt didn't look uniform length to me.
"How did you get here and where did you get that uniform?" I asked her, extremely surprised at her presence.
"I got this uniform from my cousin who got an invitation but wasn't interested in joining the military." She responded in an innocent sounding voice.
I saw a man walking up towards us. He was blond with bright green eyes. He wore a grey suit, dark colored glasses, and carried a cane in his hands. Judging by the ears, he seemed to be a manakete. "You certainly look like an Anna, but you do not look like someone who has been working on one of the merchant ships for her whole life. You are obviously not the person who you claim to be, do you understand the consequences of your actions?" The man leaned in close to Jett with an inquisitive gaze.
"N-no sir?" Jett sputtered out, cracking under the man's dark gaze.
The man's face brightened "Why, there are none, of course! If you were able to get by the heavy security on that ship, then you certainly have the potential to become a great trickster or even an assassin someday! Now here, let's fill out this form." The man, who may have been the headmaster, brought out a pen and an information form."What is your name?"
"Jett, sir."
The manakete took on a disheartening look "So you're the daughter of that Anna, I'm very sorry for your loss."
"Wait, you knew my mother?"
"Why yes, the same goes for your friends' parents. They were all part of the same training crew about twenty five years ago now. Your mother was one of the finest tricksters to walk these halls, and their team was very formidable as well. I'm sure she would be very proud to see you here today. Now what will your trainee class be? Nocht and Hawke here have chosen the Scholar and Firearms Expert paths, respectively."
"Which one will give me my certifications for knife usage?"
"Well, there are several for that, but considering you are a thief, I would recommend the Cutpurse class."
"That sounds fine with me!" Jett smiled brightly.
"By the way, how did all of you meet?"
"Well," Jett began "This little thief ran into them at the store and stole these two's hearts!" She said with a goofy grin as she grabbed both of our arms. I felt heat rising to my cheeks at Jett's actions.
"I'm pretty sure I remember it differently, and with a lot more property damage." Hawke said as he began to tell the Headmaster how the events had actually played out.
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Artemis yawned and resisted the urge to stretch her arms. She did, however, scratch the Brand of the Exalt. Something of a nervous habit she'd developed.
And who wouldn't be nervous? She was going to one of the best academies in the universe! Triple A! She had her family's honor to uphold, it wouldn't do well for her to make a fool of herself.
"C'mon Artemis! Cheer up, this is what you've always wanted!" said a woman with shoulder length black hair. "I didn't train you to be nervous!"
Artemis took a deep breath and nodded, her long blue hair flowing as she did, "Of course. Thank you."
Her long time childhood friend Victoria chuckled, "You just have to be more determined! And that means you need to train more."
"If you keep training her like you used to, she'll never make it through the academy," said their third companion, Perseus.
"And that's why we have a healer, so we can train hard without having to worry!" Victoria declared.
Perseus sighed, "Artemis, one of these days Victoria's going to kill you with all that training."
"If I don't get her first that is!" chuckled Artemis.
"Hey! I'm better because I train more. I always win," Victoria said with triumph.
"No you don't," accused Artemis.
"Shut it you two, you're evenly matched. We're on the transport to Triple A, we don't need another one of your fights. It'd probably get us expelled," Perseus said exasperatedly.
The two women nodded and accepted their tall, blonde friend's advice.
"So, each of us picked a trainee class. It be helpful to memorize them, right?" Artemis asked, more to Perseus than to Victoria. "I'm an Apprentice, you're a...?" she turned to Victoria.
"A Halberdier," she supplied.
"And I'm an Advocate, to save you the trouble of asking," Perseus rolled his eyes. "Honestly, did either of you research this at all?"
"Too much training," said Victoria.
"Her fault," Artemis said as she pointed at Victoria.
Perseus sighed, "After those three, there's Scholar, Firearms Expert, Cuttpurse, Harpoon Man...and some others I don't remember."
"Hark! Does the high an mighty Perseus not know the rest!" Artemis said with a smile.
"Shut up," muttered Perseus. "It's both of yours fault. I had to stand by in case you needed healing. You should really stop beating the crap out of each other. Give me a break for once."
"Bruises teach best!" declared Victoria. "Besides, we didn't have all that much time usually."
Artemis looked down, that was her fault. Her parents were very against the idea of her learning to wield a sword. She and Victoria had trained in secret for years, and only when she had gotten her invitation had they accepted that she was going to live the life of the sword.
Victoria had convinced her to enter a tournament a few months ago. Apparently, Artemis had done quite well. Well enough that the Triple A agent in the audience had an invite for her before she left the arena.
Victoria had been jealous of her, so the axewoman made it her goal to enter another tournament and destroy the competition.
And she did. For all the advantages Artemis had over Victoria in weapon choice, her friend was used to fighting against a sword wielder and knew just how to take advantage of it. The Triple A agent seemed to have seen that, because he commented on it when handing Victoria her invite.
"I'm kind of mad that your motto applies to healing as well," Perseus grumbled.
Perseus had been guaranteed to go to Triple A for a long time. Both of his parents were two of the best magic users in the galaxy. Perseus was undoubtedly good, and he had shown it several times.
Artemis felt the transport slow to a stop. She jumped up with a smile, "Ready for school?"
Victoria rolled her eyes, "It sounds boring when you say it like that."
"Quiet you two. Let's get going," Perseus said, but the mirth was unmistakable in his eyes.
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Reno took a sip of his beer and slid all of his gold pieces to the center, "All in."
The three other men at the table glanced at each other. The two on either side of Reno folded, but the one across from Reno match his bet.
The bar that the game was in was on Dain, one of the planets in the Jugdral Crusaders alliance. Reno's home for most of his childhood.
The blond man hid a smile. Reno was very good at cards, and he was very good at cheating. But he wasn't cheating this time. He didn't need to. Flying with the Space Pirates gave him the opportunity to become skilled at cards...and cheating, but that was beside the point.
"How old did you say you were kid?" the man across the table said.
"21," Reno smirked. Oh, he wasn't 21. Reno didn't know how old he was, the side effect of having his parents killed when he was young and being left on his grandfather's doorstep.
Reno didn't mind. He enjoyed changing his age for the situation. One day, he could be 21 in a drinking contest at a bar, another he could be 18 flirting with a pretty girl.
"Four of a kind," the man on the other side smirked. "Lucky sevens."
It was a nice hand. It would take a lot of luck to beat it.
But Reno was a lucky man.
"Four Kings, Chrom leads the line," Reno said, laying his hand on the table.
There was silence.
Reno quickly gathered up all the gold pieces in the table before the man finally reacted, "You cheat!"
The blond man sighed, of course. This always happened. Some people just couldn't see skill when it punched them in the face.
Reno set his heavy sack of gold on the ground and looked at the three men, "Do we honestly have to do this?"
"We don't tolerate cheaters around here," said the man who Reno had beat.
"Fine," Reno reached up to his head and pulled his sunglasses down over his eyes. He liked keeping them on his forehead at all times, plus they made him look cool. But that wasn't the only reason, a friend from the Space Pirates had made them for him. They were like having a computer of his eyes. An unbreakable computer.
But the main reason was that sunglasses are cool. And Reno was cool. It was a symbiotic relationship between the two.
The first man inched up to Reno, his fists up and ready to swing. Reno cockily put his hands in the pockets of his pants and smirked. The goon roared and threw a punch.
Reno leaned back. He wasn't the fastest person, but everyone could have fast reaction times.
Reno threw his foot into the goon's kneecap, sending him to the ground. As the man began to fall to the ground, Reno brought his knee into the man's face. The card player fell down, out cold.
The tall blond man threw his ponytail behind his back and ran a hand through his spikey hair. He casually brushed off the beat up, unbuttoned black suit coat he wore. The untucked white shirt he was wearing was given the same treatment. "Who's next?"
The second man, who had been on Reno's left ran at him. Reno blocked the first punch. And the second. But when the third came, Reno brought up an arm and directed it off course while taking his other fist and driving it into the man's solar plexus. Reno gasped slightly massaging his hand. That had hurt a bit.
With two men down, the last one (Who Reno had skillfully defeated) approached cautiously. Reno managed to block the first punch, but the second hit him in the chest. Knocked back, Reno was left defenseless to a third punch to the face.
Reno fell back and felt his head smash into the ground. His sunglasses flew off his head. Quickly grabbing them, he began to sit up and put the glasses on. Reno stood up as fast as he could and just in time to dodge the next punch.
Reno and the card player exchanged a rapid succession of punches and blocks, neither gaining the upper hand.
Finally, Reno managed to land one successful punch in, causing the man to stumble back a bit. Reno leapt forward and threw up his foot, smashing it into the man's gut.
Reno pushed his glasses back up to his forehead in his usual cocky manner with a smirk.
That's when Reno realized that there were still other people in the bar.
Reno wasn't stupid. He was probably going to get arrested if he stuck around.
Quickly gathering up his winnings, he bolted out of the bar.
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"That was rather impressive," came an unfamiliar voice from behind him.
Reno turned around to see a man with interesting ears.
Manakete.
"It was just a bar fight," Reno shrugged.
"Yes. But for a pilot such as yourself, hand to hand combat wasn't something I expected. But I guess, flying with the Space Pirates teaches you things," the man behind Reno said.
Reno tensed and gave the man his full attention, "Are you going to arrest me?"
The man laughed, "Oh no, there aren't many pilots out there who are as good as you. It'd be a waste to arrest you. I have an...offer for you."
Reno quirked an eyebrow and invited the man to go on with a wave of his hand.
"Well, there's this school called Triple A..."
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"Gramps! I'm back!" Reno shouted, walking into their shoddy apartment.
I hate being poor, Reno thought to himself.
"Finally!" came a wheezy voice from further in. "Swindle anyone else today?"
"Quiet you geezer, no need to be so insulting," Reno said, irritated. "I got us some money for a while. And I have news."
Reno's grandfather looked at him from his chair, "What sort of news?"
Reno passed a piece of paper to his grandfather, "I've been invited to some crazy, prissy top notch academy called Triple A."
Upon hearing that, his grandfather snatched the paper away from Reno and quickly read it. When he finished, he laughed, "Finally! I was hoping they wouldn't overlook such a good pilot as yourself."
"What," was Reno's answer.
"Your father, he went to this academy when he was your age. I knew you'd go too! I just knew it!" his grandfather said with joy.
"Calm down gramps, you'll give yourself a heart attack," Reno said. "The guy who gave it to me said it wouldn't cost me any money to go, so I planned on going."
"Go. Don't worry about me, I have money stashed away, I'll be fine. Though you could sell those fancy new fangled glasses of yours," Reno's grandfather glared at him.
"They're a gift from a friend, hell no!" Reno declared angrily.
His grandfather shrugged his shoulders, "Fine. Now go, get on a transport. Take your winnings from tonight, you'll need them."
"Alright. Whatever, see ya, grandpa," Reno said. Typical Reno, sappy goodbyes didn't work for him.
As Reno left, his grandfather chuckled, "That boy...he's like his father. Arrogant, irksome and good at flying. I suppose that makes sense given..." Reno's grandfather trailed off with a chuckle and went back to reading the book he had in front of him.
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Okay, this will be an SYOC fic, so I'll try to give you the rundown on factions before you see the form. We will limit the number of characters, but we aren't sure how many protagonists and antagonists we will take.
First: the basics:
Akaneia/Jugdral: Ylissean army: Soldiers serving the republic of Ylisse. Leaders chosen by the senate.
Altean Order: A faction of the Ylissean army trying to revive the exalted line.
Ferox: Same as in-game, basically.
Plegian Empire: Led by an ill-tempered descendant of Gangrel, an empire trying to defeat Ylisse. In any war, the two are usually on opposite sides.
Earth Dragon Revival: A combination of the Lopto empire and the Grimleal. Their goal is to revive the race of earth dragons and recreate their war with the humans.
Jugdral Crusaders: The union of all 12 planets named for the original crusaders.
Tellius Galaxy: Ruled by the mighty Begnion Empire. Every planet in the galaxy is ruled by their Emperor/Empress.
New Greil: An assorted group of beorc, laguz, and branded. Their goals are to protect their galaxy and finally fix the strained relations between races.
Elibe Galaxy: 9 planets that constantly war with eachother. But in times of great need, unify a fight as one mighty force.
Dragon Slayers: A group that fights to ensure that the dragons are once again extinct.
Neutral: Space pirates, Anna Trade Corp.
Now, for each star system's status:
-Akaneia/Jugdral: (Two separate galaxies, but might as well be the same) Jugdral is ruled by the council of twelve, made up of each planet's ruler. Loptyr is ruled by the 'child of Loptyr' a dangerous earth branded sorceress. Ylisse is ruled by the senate, who also vote for military leaders. The Altean Order wishes to make Ylisse a monarchy, once again ruled by the exalted line.
-Elibe: A galaxy where every planet is usually at war amongst themselves. Most of the time, Bern and Etruria face off and the other planets get dragged in. But when time is dire, they unify and fight as one under the Dragonslayers 'Council of Eight.' The Eight leaders are stylized after the Eight Legends of Ancient Elibe.
-Tellius: Ruled by the Begnion Empire, an autocracy that worships Ashera. Every planet is controlled by them. New Greil however, opposes the racist views of the Empire and seek to overthrow it. The Begnion Empire usually is on opposite sides of Loptyr due to religious differences.
-Magvel, The dead galaxy: With the exception of a few pockets of resistance, the only humans are farmed and harvested for consumption. The greatest predators are the specters, led by the four grand specters that have lived since the revolt against humans. These specters could easily take out another galaxy or two if they would stop fighting each other and join forces. (Although they are weak to light magic and blessed weapons. The slayer skill would work too but there are no known holders of the skill and the rings that grant it can only be found on Magvel, so you'd already be in their territory) Antagonist OCs only for this one!
The new races:
Taguel Branded: Branded with extreme physical capabilities (can inherit increases in weapon affinities or beastbane)
Manakete Branded: Branded who obliterate their foes with arcane power (Inherit magic affinities or wyrmsbane)
Specters: Shapeshifters capable of wielding both human weapons and claws.
And the form:(There seemed to be some confusion so I added an example)
Name: Nocht
Age: 15
Gender: Male
Race: Earth Dragon Branded
Faction: Ylissean army
Class: Tactician
Job: Navigator
Parents: Sage and Dark flier
Inherits: Galeforce and Shadowgift
Trainee class: Scholar (+5 to magic) (You get five stat points or a new weapon class with a few stat points depending on the weapon type)
Assets: Skill, Speed, and Magic
Flaw: Def, Res, HP, Lck, Str (Since there are more flaws than assets, the flaws will be smaller losses while assets will be larger gains)
Uniform: White cloak with blue lining and the mark of Grima on the right sleeve
Casual: Torn jeans with a dark purple t-shirt
Formal: Dress pants with a black silk shirt. Only wears a suit on rare occasions.
Appearance: Silver hair with emerald green eyes, thin and wiry, average height. Brand on his right palm.
Personality: Calm and collected, the first to notice any change in someone's mood or in the environment. This calm persona melts away whenever the thief or lord teases him, leaving him in a flustered mess.
History: The son of two former soldiers who retired to take over the family's old church. Sadly, the church never quite got enough money from donations, and Nocht often had to earn money himself. He became the mastermind of the three demons of Southtown after he was caught up in a robbery three years prior to the story and ended up making money through minor bounty hunting. He was sent an invitation to triple A after he and the rifleman took down a class 2 criminal by themselves (The thief was off on a heist while this was happening)
Cormag Ravenstaff: Howdy! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, as you can probably tell, Shadow wrote the first half and I wrote the second. We have different writing styles, so you could probably tell. Shadow created the six main characters (Nocht, Jett, Hawke, Artemis, Victoria, Perseus) and I created Reno. And yes, he's based off who you're thinking of. But that's fairly obvious. So now go check out our fics if you're bored! Huzzah!