Gamer4 in. Welcome, one and all, to my newest fanfiction! I know, I know, I'm in the middle of another one already, (Hi, Prisoner of Subspace,) but this is one that I really felt had to be written. True, I'm not the only one writing a story of this ilk- fanfiction author RaikiRhythm is already writing a story like this- I should know, I'm subscribed to it. However, though he/she is doing a great job, there are a few choices that I disagree with, and, in general, I wanted to see what my take on the story might come out looking like. Maybe I jumped ahead a little far. As you could probably tell from the description, this is a novelization of the game Xenoblade, which has become my personal favorite game of all time. The problem is, it's one of those cult classics that not many people seem to be aware of, but among those who are, it's generally considered nothing short of fantastic. Great story, great gameplay, great characters, great everything. A few characters also happen to be in the aforementioned Prisoner of Subspace, and I've already written another fanfic for this story, Beyond a Joke. My main goal with this story is to promote it a bit, as well as show the story to a few people I know who aren't really gamers, but can still appreciate a good story. If they happen to read this, they'll know who they are. Anyways, long enough opening notes, let's dive right in!
Disclaimer: Xenoblade is owned by Monolith Software. I'll say that once and only once- as anyone who reads my stories will know, I despise excessive disclaimers.
Xenoblade Chronicles: A Novelization
Prologue
The Battle of Sword Valley
Long ago, when the stars were still new, the world was nothing more than an endless sea, cloaked in a boundless sky. The water was salty, and couldn't support life, and thus, the world was barren... until one day, when two great titans came into existence: Bionis and Mechonis.
No one knows where the two titans came from, or what their purpose was. All that is known for certain is that within each titan was born an incredible hatred for the other. From the moment they appeared in the world, they sought only the other's destruction.
For centuries, they waged great battles across the world, neither ever gaining ground on the other. Other legends tell of their battles, of the day that Bionis struck Mechonis, striking off his foe's arm, allowing it to crash into the sea, or of the day that Mechonis blinded Bionis with a bolt of lightning. However, one day, both titans suffered so greatly from their battles that they died where they stood.
Millennia passed, and eventually, life rose from the ashes of their great battle- from Mechonis rose the Mechon, strange creatures of metal and wheels. And from the ashes of Bionis were born the Homs, a race of people who swiftly colonized their land. And for a time, all was peaceful...
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Night had fallen over the place known as Sword Valley. Thankfully, however, the moon and stars shown bright over the land, because a great battle was currently being waged there. On one side was an army of Homs, an alliance between the last two colonies, 6 and 9. On the other were the Mechon, great machines that were rolling forward and mowing down any resistance the Homs offered. The Homs carried weapons of their own, of course, but they did little good, as every shot fired by their various guns seemed to only bounce off of the Mechons' thick armor.
Working as one, three of the soldiers were able to come together, knocking a Mechon to the ground and using the blades at the end of their gunlances to pry the armor away, successfully killing the creature, but it was only one of the hundreds swarming across the valley that had once been Mechonis's sword. Meanwhile, at the other end of the field, Homs were being slaughtered, some begging for mercy from the ruthless machines. The machines, not having faces, didn't show the slightest traces of mercy or remorse as they continued the massacre.
One of the Homs, panicked, pulled out a device of some sort and yelled into it: "We need reinforcements! We're facing an army of M-78 Mechon, numbers unknown!" Before there was any response, he found himself being flung to the side, landing heavily on the ground with a grunt. Looking up, he almost passed out from fear- another Mechon was rising above him, this one different from all the others- it was swinging tentacles around as it advanced on him. The poor Homs tried his best to scramble away, closing his eyes as he waited for death to come...
But it never did. He heard a loud shout, and nervously opened his eyes. A blur of light was running past, slicing the Mechon apart. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a man, fighting so gracefully that he might have been dancing. He had long, dark hair, the rough shadow of a beard, and a confident grin on his face despite lacking the heavy armor most of the other soldiers wore. In his hands was a red sword with a large, round hole in the hilt, currently lit with a blazing white symbol to match the blazing blue blade currently emanating from it. As the Homs watched, the Mechon fell, its armor sliced open with almost absurd ease. The man spun around to face the Homs he'd just saved, still smiling as he plunged the blade downwards into the Mechon's body, just to be sure.
"Can you still fight?" he asked, extending a hand. The Homs took it, nodding nervously as his savior helped him up. "Good. They need some help on the right flank- they're weakened over there, you see, and the Mechon are trying to take advantage of it." Here, the man scoffed. "For a bunch of soulless machines they seem to know a thing or two- but we'll see, right?"
The man nodded again, thrown off by how calm this man seemed. The man nodded, patted the soldier on the back, and ran back into the battle, slicing many more Mechon open as he went.
Abruptly, a Mechon leapt out of the fray and nearly body-slammed into him, causing him to leap behind some nearby debris for protection. Looking up, he saw a small squad of soldiers running towards him, seemingly led by two men. One of these men, and older warrior with long, blond hair, a moustache, and dressed in almost no armor at all, waved the others back off into the battle as he made his way forward, before leaping next to the man with the sword. "Dunban!" he shouted over the noise of battle. "We've been given the order to retreat! We're pulling back to Colony 6!"
"A good idea, Dickson," Dunban agreed, his glowing red sword dormant, for the moment. "Can't spend much more time here, or we're done for."
"I'm with you two," said the other man from the squad- a hulking figure with oily black hair and armor culminating in claws over his hands. "We gotta get out of here!" He spoke with an unpleasant, gravelly voice.
"Or-" Dunban said, that characteristic grin appearing on his face once more, "- we could stay and fight?"
"Are you kidding me?" the oily-haired man asked, fear appearing in his eyes.
"It's true," Dunban nodded, "we may die if we take a stand here, but if we stay, we have the chance to change our destinies!" As he spoke, he raised the sword, and it seemed to unfold, revealing the blade of light once more. "Don't forget, we have the Monado! With this, the future is ours for the taking!"
As he was wont to, he was so pumped up by his own pep talk that he almost leapt over the debris and back into the battle alone- and would have, had Dickson not raised his hand at the last second and pulled him back down. "Stupid beast!" he growled. "You can't take much more of the Monado- I can tell just by looking at you!"
Dunban shook his head, still grinning. "Getting short-sighted in your old age, Dickson? I'm fine- I'm still in control."
Dickson stared into Dunban's eyes a little longer, trying to stare him down, but eventually, he gave a grumbling sigh, leaning back down and beginning to reload his weapon- and old-fashioned shotgun. "Should have known I couldn't talk sense into a beast," he grumbled. "Let's do it. If you're going out there, I'm coming with you. Someone needs to drag your corpse back home, after all."
"If you still have the strength, old man," Dunban easily retorted.
"Oi, you two, we're supposed to be pulling back!" the oily-haired man objected. "You can go get yourselves killed if you want, but I'm leaving!"
"Well, I say you're coming with us!" Dunban grinned, turning on him. "After all, Mumkhar, what would we do without those?" as he spoke, he nodded at the claws that served as Mumkhar's weapons.
A nearby soldier called out, "The second wave is approaching!"
"It's now or never," Dickson noted. "Let's give them a warm Homs welcome, shall we?"
Dunban grinned as the two of them prepared to vault over the debris. "Acknowledged!" And with that, the two of them leapt over the scrap metal and ran into the approaching army.
Crouching behind, Mumkhar mumbled to himself, "What are those two trying to prove? No point dying in some godforsaken field... nothing for it, I have to stick around at least a little longer, just long enough for them to die- then I can take that sword of his and make my escape!"
Smiling a very unpleasant smile, he leapt over the debris after his comrades.
Plunging into battle, Dunban raised his sword high, causing what appeared to be a blue cloud to emanate from the weapon, enveloping both Dickson's gun and Mumkhar's claws. The two found that their weapons could now penetrate the Mechon's armor as easily as Dunban's sword, and began fighting twice as hard. However, it seemed that for every Mechon they struck down, three or four more stepped forward to take its place. Next thing they knew, yet another large, tentacled one was stepping forward, preparing to tear them apart. Dunban smiled, motioning for the others to stay back as he advanced, raising the Monado above his head. As he did, the blade began to extend to almost four times its usual size, before Dunban finally brought the sword down, destroying the tentacled Mechon along with several of the Mechon surrounding it.
"Maybe you should open with that next time, hm?" Dickson snidely suggested.
"Can't," Dunban shrugged. "You know this thing feeds off my energy- can't afford to do that too often."
As Dickson shrugged this off, Mumkhar let out a grunt of fear. "You've got to be kidding me!" he exclaimed. Dunban and Dickson turned to see yet another wave of the machines approaching.
"It's their main force," Dickson muttered. "Looks like they're hell-bent on taking us out."
"They'll have to be, if they want to beat us," Dunban replied. Looking, he saw that Dickson and Mumkhar's weapons had stopped glowing. Summoning up some more energy, he caused another blue cloud to come from the blade, restoring the glow- and the ability to penetrate Mechon armor. "Let's even the odds a bit, shall we?"
The three of them turned and dashed headlong into the oncoming wave. Each one fought with everything they had, Dunban and Mumkhar slicing and Dickson shooting, and occasionally using his gun to batter the Mechon to death.
The fight raged on until Dunban stood on top of a pile of scrapped Mechon, when disaster struck. It seemed like electricity was crackling around the Monado, entering Dunban's body and beginning to course through it. His body began to go numb from the pain, and he crouched down, trying to master it- all as yet another Mechon noticed his weakness and began approaching. Dickson turned and saw it, lunging forward just as the Mechon struck- instead of piercing Dunban, its claw slammed into Dickson's body, full force. However, though Dickson grunted, he was still smiling as he turned around, ramming the end of his gun into the Mechon's center, and blasting it to smithereens. "I'm not going down that easily," he grinned. He then quickly dropped the grin, turning, with concern in his eyes, to Dunban, who was still struggling against the pain his blade was inflicting on him. "Are you alright?"
Even as he spoke, the electricity stopped crackling, and Dunban forced himself to his feet. He still looked as though he were in pain, but he hid it behind a weak smile as he responded- "What does it look like? I'm still good to go."
As Dickson shook his head, they both heard a wild cackling from elsewhere in the field. "I guess even a hero's got to reach his limit eventually!" They both turned to see Mumkhar making his way across the field- away from them.
"Mumkhar? What are you doing?" Dunban asked, his eyes widening. "That way is-"
"Sorry to break it to you, boys, but it's the Monado they're after!" Mumkhar called back in that gravelly voice of his. "So have fun keeping them occupied for me- I'm getting out of here!"
"Mumkhar!" Dickson shouted, rage filling his eyes. "You dirty-"
"Oh, don't worry, I'll make sure to organize your funerals!" Mumkhar laughed. "See you around!"
Dunban lurched forward, only being saved from collapsing on legs refusing to support his weight when Dickson grabbed his arm and pulled him up. "Wait!" he cried. However, there was no time to brood- an explosion sounded behind them, knocking them both to the ground. Looking behind them, they saw a Mechon larger than any they'd seen before- one of the legendary turret units, standing taller than most Homs skyscrapers, and currently making its way towards them.
"If this is a joke, it ain't funny," Dickson grumbled. "At least we know things can't get any worse from here..."
As he spoke, however, Dunban forced himself to his feet, grunting in pain but refusing to fall again. "Dunban?" Dickson asked, looking up in surprise. "What are you doing?"
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Elsewhere, Mumkhar continued sprinting away, running as fast as his legs could take him. "Idiots!" he laughed to himself. "They've made my job easy- just wait for everything to quiet down, then come back and get the Monado! That thing's gonna be mine!"
Suddenly, he stumbled on an abrupt hill, tumbling down the rest of the decline. As he looked up, he found himself surrounded by enemy Mechon, currently reaching out for him. "Wait... no, wait, stop, please!" he cried as their claws and tentacles began to grab him. "NOOOO!"
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"Vile Mechon," Dunban muttered, still sounding strong despite barely being able to stand. "If you think the Homs, the people of Bionis, are going to just sit and wait for you to pick us off, you're sorely mistaken!" Dickson, realizing what he was about to do, forced himself to his feet as well, reloading his gun once more. The two stood together, and finally rushed forward into the last wave of Mechon, with life or death on the line.
And far above them, still and silent, stood the remains of Bionis and Mechonis alike, not knowing or caring of the war raging on long after their deaths.
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Perhaps it's kind of an awkward end, but it's really late right now, I really need some sleep. Hope you enjoyed the prologue, because I'm going to continue to update this one alongside my ongoing Mario Mario series! Hope you stick around, but either way, please R&R, constructive criticism is fully welcome, (as usual, I'm trying to make this the best story possible,) flames are not, Gamer4 out!
EDIT: Re-uploading this first chapter because, in my infinite wisdom, I somehow managed to click the wrong document in my manager, leaving a chapter from one of my other stories as the first chapter in this one. Genius, I know. Thankfully, another author kindly pointed it out, so here's the actual first chapter, now with 98% more actual Xenoblade! This time for real, Gamer4 out.