Chapter One

"Chrom. We have to do SOMETHING!" Lissa flung her hands in exasperation.

"We are." The man they had retrieved from lay in the ship's medbay. He was unconscious, but the monitors showed his vital signs as reading positive. There was very little brainwave activity, though. Chrom frowned. "Aren't you the medical expert, here?"

"Yes." Lissa admitted.

"Yes." Lissa look at the stream of information the monitors were giving her. "Subject is in a coma, most likely self-induced using a stasis pod when the ship he was on malfunctioned, stranding him in deep space."

"When will he wake up?"

"I've injected him with stimulants already." Lissa bit her lower lip. "Between three to twelve hours."

The intercom crackled. "Bridge to medbay."

Chrom tapped the intercom. "This is Chrom. What's the news, bridge? Any contacts?"

"None. It looks like our friend was alone out there. Empty space as far as the eye can see. It doesn't seem to have been a trap."

"Have you identified the ship?"

"It's registered as Robin. Aside from that, nothing. Keep an eye on him, though."

Chrom sighed. He was (usually) able to put up with Frederick's paranoia, but sometimes it just got on his nerves. Chrom turned his attention back to the patient. Just in time, too. The monitors spiked. The man's eyes opened. Chrom tapped he intercom. "He just opened his eyes, Freddy. Keep a watch on the security feed, ya?"

"Of course, my liege. What do you take me for?"

Chrom looked at the man, and smiled. "There are better places to drift around aimlessly then in space, you know."

"All vitals are normal." Lissa checked the monitors. "You're fine, don't worry. Gave us quite a scare when we found your ship adrift in space. You were unconscious inside a stasis pod."

"You all right?" Chrom asked.

"Should be … thank you, Chrom."

"You know who I am? Good, that saves us some trouble."

"No, actually." The man frowned. "Hum. That's unusual."

"You have a name?"

"I think I – agh!" The man sat up. He clutched his head. "My memories!"

"Amnesia, huh?" Lissa said. "Makes sense. Your brains waves were almost nonexistent when we picked you up. Small miracle you woke up in the first place. Prolonged stasis is infamous for playing havoc with memories. They should return within a few hours."

"I don't even remember my name!"

"Okay, that's atypical of stasis." Lissa frowned. "Could be you were attacked…?"

"Hogwash," the intercom crackled. "His ship took no damage, and anyone attacking him would've left him for dead. What motive could they have had for leaving his body for us to find? He's obviously lying."

Chrom raised his hand. "Never mind him. That's Frederick the Wary. He's a bit paranoid."

"Someone has to be. 'Twould not do to let a wolf aboard the Shepherd."

"Shepherd?"

"It's the name of our ship. Speaking of names, do you mind the name 'Robin'?" Lissa asked. "It's the name of your scout ship that we found you in."

"My ship, huh?" Robin sat up. "Well, I guess I don't mind too much, though I'll probably have to rename the ship, then. Where is it?"

It's in the hangar now, actually. You can take it whenever-"

"No." Chrom raised his hands. "I'm sorry, but I think I'd like you aboard the ship until we can figure out what happened. Frederick likes crying wolf, but he may have a point. Besides, it'd be safest for you."

Robin nodded. "That makes sense."

A klaxon sounded throughout the ship. Robin jumped, but neither Lissa nor Chrom seemed affected by it. The intercom crackled. "We're receiving a distress signal from a nearby mining station." Frederick called over.

"Battle stations! Accelerate to attack speed! Full speed ahead!" Chrom cried. He tapped a button as he and Lissa ran out. "Sorry about this."

"'Battle stations'?" The door slid close with a pneumatic hiss. Then it magnetically locked itself. Robin sighed. "So, I'm on some form of a warship, I guess. Called the Shepherd. With no memories."

Arriving at the bridge, Chrom took the helm. "What are we looking at, Frederick?"

"Raiders. They've taken refuge inside the station."

Chrom nodded. "Blast their ship. We'll enter through the airlock, and clear them out."

Inside the medbay, Robin clearly heard their voices. They had forgotten to switch the intercom off. "Well, that sounds violent. And they probably could use my help." Robin flexed his hands experimentally. Everything seemed to be in working order. He looked around, and spotted a large coat locked up in a plastic chest. "I'm going to assume that coat is mine. Hopefully, it might even contain what I need."

"Steal anything worth taking!" The brigand snarled, as he activated his gauntlets, forming a red comet of energy around his hands. He punched clear through one of the mine workers, exploding the unfortunate man in a visceral spray of blood.

"Dastard!" Chrom came charging in. The brigand saw him and laughed.

"Oi! Look, it's the prince-y!"

Chrom plucked the sheath off his belt, and activated Falchion, his ancestral sword. The sword was made with a rare, near-infinite energy power source, so Chrom didn't constantly need to replace the power-pack. Chrom slashed forward once, and ended the brigand. "All bark, no bite, it seems. Who's next?"

Three more ran up. "You can't get us all, Prince-y!"

"Ahem." The brigands looked around to see Frederick emerge from around a corner in eight-foot-tall mechanized battle armor, equipped with energy shields to protect the pilot from danger, and holding a massive disintegrator cannon. Frederick looked at the group, and pointed his cannon at them "Pick a god and pray!"

The cannon fired once, and the remains of the bandits dropped to the ground. Frederick nodded to himself.

'Raaaaahhh!" A new brigand launched himself off a crate, and landed a blow against Frederick's energy shields. Frederick calmly faced him, and smashed him to the ground with two giant, mechanized hands, turning the unfortunate man into jelly. A faint smoke rose from his armor.

Lissa ran up. "Frederick, are you hurt?" She pulled a canister off her belt, and fired a nano-bot repair swarm into his armor, repairing the burntout circuitry in his shield generators.

"I'll be fine, M'lady." Frederick responded. He pushed Lissa to the side and stood in front of her. "Look out!"

Beyond Lissa, another pair of brigands appeared. As they watched, however, a ball of electricity hit one, sending him into convulsions. A cloaked figure walked into view, calmly deflected the second brigand's punch on an energy sword, and speared the man through the heart. He threw off his cloak to reveal a grinning face with shock-white hair.

"Robin!" Lissa said shocked.

Robin raised his left hand, growing another ball of electricity in it from projectors in a gauntlet upon his arm. He slammed in down into the chest of the convulsing brigand, upgrading the poor man from mild seizures to cardiac arrest. "Nice to see you guys. Need a hand?"

"Wow! Swords and war-tech!" Lissa's eyes grew wide. "Can you do anything else?"

"I'm more curious to know how he broke from the medbay." Frederick said quietly.

"He's an ally!" Chrom said. The three turned to him, where he was finishing off an enemy duelist. "Explanations can wait."

Robin nodded. "Good idea. Um, I noticed the blueprints coming in. Your entry kind of makes sense, but you could have flanked them by docking at airlock A1I-3 instead of A11-3. Speaking of which, there probably is a group of them flanking us now from that sector, judging from the thermals I glimpsed at when I came here."

As he spoke, another group of brigands rounded the corner. Robin pointed his left hand, and fired electricity directly into the crowd. The lightning arced from brigand to brigand, stunning the group. Robin rushed forward, sweeping with his sword, as Chrom dashed forward in a lunge. The brigands fell.

The last brigand dropped his gauntlet. "I surrender!"

"Where's your leader?" Chrom demanded.

"Top floor!"

"Thank you. Lissa, knock him out."

The girl approached the brigand, and injected him with a clear vial. Lissa looked at Robin. "Knockout," she explained. "I fix everything on the team – equipment, armor, bodies. I can also knock someone out using anesthetics…"

"…But that's hard to do in combat." Robin finished. Lissa nodded.

"To the top!" Chrom called, pointing to a nearby lift.

The lift stopped, leaving the four heroes facing off against a massive brigand, armed with a massive glowing gauntlet.

"Stay out of this, Lissa." Chrom warned. "You aren't ready for combat yet."

The brigand snarled. "What are you doing here? Where are my men?"

Frederick pointed his cannon at the brigand. He then clicked the trigger. The floor beneath the brigand exploded as he launched himself forward at Frederick, swinging wildly. Frederick didn't move as the brigand hit him square in the face-shields.

"Checkmate!" Robin lacerated the brigand's back with his sword, then Chrom plunged Falchion in. They looked at each other, and nodded in mutual respect. Robin leaned on his sword. "Well, that's the end of that."

"Excellent plan, Robin." Chrom complimented him.

"Yeah, well, three on one is never good odds for the one." Robin shrugged.

Lissa walked over to the three of them, and pulled out a scanner, reading Frederick's shields. "Your shields are fine, Frederick. Lucky for the station we were nearby."

Chrom looked at Robin with approval. "You're quite the capable warrior. Do you remember anything now?"

Robin shook his head, only for Frederick to look at him suspiciously. Robin raised his hands up in defense. "I understand your skepticism, Sir Frederick. But I don't know anything about my past, or how I know how to fight. I just know how."

Frederick's only response was a level, unblinking stare.

Chrom threw his arm around Robin. "You fought to help us. That's enough for me."

Frederick sighed. "Very well milord. Let us ignore the fact he broke out of the Shepherd's facilities."

"How'd you do THAT?" Lissa wondered.

Robin's face turned red. "Ah, I may have hotwired the door panel with my thunder-gauntlet. Which I got from the chest. Which I opened by using the door's magnetic seal to scramble the electronic lock on the chest. You might want to upgrade your holding cells, or switch to more conventional methods, like tying people to chairs or such."

"Quite skilled, aren't you?" Chrom laughed. "You don't seem to be doing anything for the moment, so would you care to join our band? Completely optional, I understand if you'd rather seek out your missing memories. But, if you join us, there's risk, travel, meeting exotic people, and…"

"Killing them." Robin said.

"More or less. But we only kill the ones who deserved it."

"Who are you, exactly?" Robin asked.

"We are the Strategic Hazard Enforcers Protecting Humanity: Elite Recon Division." Chrom grinned. "But we're mostly known as SHEPHERD. We're responsible for protecting Ylissean interests outside of normal military jurisdiction."

"You had me sold at the acronym." said Robin. He paused. Haven't I heard that somewhere before... Nah, I'm just imagining things.

Author's Notes: So, in case the blurb or the contents of the first chapter didn't tip you off, this is a science fiction retelling of Fire Emblem: Awakening, of which I own precisely zero rights to. The game, not the contents of the first chapter, which is protected under the Creative Commons Act. (Hypothetically.) The game is property of Nintendo, more relevant to my geographical location, Nintendo of America.

In case you're wondering, there are five rules that I will stick to. They are: 1) Magic is banned. Thoroughly. 2) Stick to the plot as close as possible. 3) Make as much sense as possible. 4) Don't be afraid to get creative. 5) No time travel. This is the result of a writing exercise, which is why I'm restricted by the rules. I banned time travel, because (while FE:A does a good job of keeping the plot coherent) I would classify it under 'magic' rather than 'technology', even if technology did exist for magic, as per Clarke's Third Law. Laser swords I'm fine with, though. Because Star Wars.

RavenSeldon is a reference to the classic 1940s Sci-Fi trilogy 'Foundation', the chapter title is a reference to the classic text-based-adventure games where the protagonist would 'Awaken to darkness', the SHEPHERD acronym is based off of one of the many SHIELD acronyms. You get a Seliph's Sword if you caught all three references.

The opening chapter isn't really worth a long rant, especially considering that I chose to start with the Prologue, rather than the Prelude. I can't start with the Prelude (despite the fact that I'd like to) because time travel is banned. Do, however, expect me to go on long rants about the game in these Author's Notes. Expect them even more if you leave helpful comments and/or feedback. New chapter next week. Same Raven-time, same Raven-channel.