Chapter 3: Alter the Future
Disclaimer: I do not own C&C or Warhammer 40k. They belong to their respective owners. Credits to betapike and VexMaster for the scenes and inspiration respectively. I swear using my phone to write this is taking a toll on me.
{Five weeks after Noah's Gate - Feudal World}
Alena was telling the story of how she was rescued by the four strange men from beyond the mountains with their strange magic weapons to the other children as they worked in the village square garden, pulling out weeds and watering the fruit bearing trees and bushes that supplemented the villagers' diet of grains since Moonbright's founding centuries ago.
It was a tradition that the children became the caretakers of the garden since they turned five years of age and in the final three weeks before they turned ten, their last duty would be to teach the new generation on how to tend the garden before they began their adult responsibilities.
How it all started no one quite remembered anymore, but it continued just the same, the fact that Elric is able to watch his daughter from his blacksmith as he worked was welcomed, especially for him because... he tried to push the memory away but he couldn't stop it.
Five years and two weeks ago it all came back to him, the stench of blood filling his nostrils, and the sight of the blood... not even after seeing first hand the endless fields of Men and Ork bodies could he stand the sight of it, and... the look of despair on the midwife's face.
As his wife laid dying on the bed she looked up, and with barely the strength to open her eyes she asked.
"Can I see her, even if for just once?"
He looked back to the midwife who was carrying their newborn daughter, freshly washed of her mother's blood and wrapped in a blanket still crying profoundly.
He took her in his arms looking down at her and... "Please do not blame her." his wife said weakly "I wasn't... strong enough."
Of course she knew that he would, she always knew how he felt even though he rarely if ever revealed how he felt. From that first night they walked together hand in hand under the full moon and starry night, to their wedding day, to the times when he woke up in the middle of the night because of the nightmares he had of the Kingdom's war with the Orks.
She always knew what to say to drive back the darkness in his heart, to make his world more bright, and now he was going to lose her because of...
Something that his newborn daughter had no control over, and his wife had claimed full responsibility for.
He knelt down and began to shed tears, and with a cracking voice he replied. "I promise."
With that she smiled, that beautiful tender smile that she would wear whenever she saw something good happen in the world. She reached out and held his hand, guiding it to their daughter's hand who had started cooing as her hand was held.
With one last breath she whispered "I love you both, never forget that."
With that he felt her heartbeat stopped forevermore, her face still wore her last smile of seeing her daughter and husband at the end of her life.
A fresh wave of tears came over him as muttered the final prayer from the living to the dead.
"The Emperor protects the virtuous, seek his light for we've deemed you so. Goodbye, Alena."
At that moment his daughter started crying as if she understood what had transpired.
The rest of the day moved by so fast, all the people offering their condolences, having to explain things to his son, until he was at home sitting on his bed alone after his daughter fell asleep.
He began to finish his goodbye to his wife and complete the prayer chant in its entirety.
He stared the wordless vocalizing, his voice filling the darkness of his room and heart.
"My Beloved Alena, I must go on without you, thus I am filled with sorrow, for you will be missed always... the Emperor protects the virtuous, seek his light for we deem you so."
He vocalized again it felt like his soul was being cleansed with each second he continued.
"For I saw your light, I saw your hope, I saw your smile shine, I see a new life."
He sat and sang for what must have been hours, after his grief began to subside he began to think of a name for his child but nothing seemed to fit, until...
He got up from his bed and walked into the room containing his daughter's cradle, she was sleeping so peacefully in contrast to her birth.
It was then that he decided on her name and whispered this to her.
"Your name is Alena. I know you will never be able to fill the void left by your mother, nor do I expect you to, but that matters not, for no matter who you chose to be, no matter what path you chose to take, no matter what becomes of you, my choice will be the same."
"I will love you just as I love her, I will never blame you for her demise, I will never let her death be your burden, I will always be the best father I can be, through both times of strife and prosperity."
"I promise."
Years passed and Alena grew up with as normal and happy a life as can be asked for. But on the day of her fifth birthday she asked about her mother's absence, and he replied "I'm not ready to tell you that story yet."
Alena asked with a frown "Why not?"
And he replied with some distress in his voice. "It's… too painful."
Alena clearly wanted to find out what had happened and she found it strange that he wasn't willing to tell her a story like always, but she could tell her father was upset, so she stopped.
Two weeks later Elric returned home from the forest with roughly half of the other men from Moonbright, along with some oxen and horse carts to harvest lumber, as he usually did when there was no need for a blacksmith in the village, and he came home to a truly frightening discovery.
Alena was gone.
He looked all over the house and he could not find her. He checked to see if anyone had seen her and no one had.
Soon a search party was formed to look for her in the forest, all the while Elric was wondering. 'Did she run away? Was I too harsh on her? No, I wasn't. She must have gone to play in the forest. She had to be.'
He said his last thought out loud. "She cannot have gone far."
"Don't worry Elric." said his brother-in-law Hargen. "We will find her."
"Hey what's that?" one of the men in the crowd asked.
It was then that Alena emerged from the forest, holding a picnic basket in one hand and a few Pond's Grace Lotus in the other. There were also four unknown men behind her that he and everyone else neglected at first.
She rushed to him and they embraced each other, and with a hoarse voice he whispered.
"Where have you been Alena? When I found out that you were missing, I was so scared!"
Alena kissed him on the cheek and smiled wide.
"I was bring you a picnic basket daddy, and then I saw some Goblins and then the Goblins tried to eat me. Then Stephen and his Ranger friends saved me."
The events that followed past in a flash in his mind, Hargen questioning Alena about the 'Goblins', the introduction to her saviors, the evening feast and a brief discussion of the history of the land, the Kingdom, the Orks. Afterwards they went home and he asked her the question that lingered on his mind.
"Alena, why did you want to bring me a picnic basket?"
She was silent for a moment, then she replied, looking a little sad. "I wanted to say I was sorry for making you upset, when I asked you about mommy."
He felt heartbroken when he heard those words.
"I was never mad at you Alena, you didn't need to apologise, I'm the one who should be apologizing, all you wanted was to learn more about her and I couldn't give you an answer."
They hugged each other for a few minutes, then he pulled back and put his arms on her shoulders and he told her.
"When I'm ready I'll tell you about your mother. I promise."
Alena smiled wide and replied "Thanks, daddy."
Elric snapped his mind to the present and went back to his work, his hammer smashing at the red hot iron with strength and rhythm of a drum of war.
He would do anything to keep his daughter safe.
It had been two weeks since Alena was saved by men who called themselves Rangers during the evening feast held at the tavern. It was a fine evening with songs being played, stories being told, but eventually someone discussed the possibility of an Ork invasion.
The last time the Orks invaded was over ten years ago, and it took the combined might of the entire kingdom and the King's guards with their 'magic weapons' that shot red beams of light. The Baron and his fellow noblemen were also impressive with their swords that cracked with sparks of lightning, cutting through Ork hide like it was naught but old cloth.
Yet the Kingdom as a whole had just barely recovered, and the Southern Province (of which Moonbright resided in) was only a shadow of its former glory.
On the first day it was decided that the village of Moonbright would prepared for war, while Stephen Rogers insisted that the army would protect against an Ork invasion and that there was no need for the villagers to put their lives on the line, but he was met with firm resistance from Hargen.
"Not a chance Mr. Rogers, this land has been our duty to protect since long before our grandfathers were born. We're not going to stand by and let others die for it while we grow fat and lazy."
Rogers gave up trying to persuade him to drop the whole 'Prepare the Village for War' thing and decided to tell Central of what he had learned from this trip.
He went up to the room his squad resided in the local tavern, he said that he and his men were fine sleeping in the tents they had brought with them but the owner had insisted that they were welcomed. He smiled at how nice the villagers were, how beautiful the scenery was, he could get used to this place.
Once he entered the room he went to the table with the laptop on it, powered it up, made his report of all he had learned from the villagers and sent it all to Central.
Namly the legends about how the current rulers of this world fell from the stars some five centuries ago on a ball of fire bringing the light of the God Emperor and how the Orks had followed them here, how the Angels of the God Emperor that helped found the Kingdom have slept since the kingdom was first founded, the list went on and on.
After he finished his report he checked the latest news, and stopped when he found out that it was just political bullshit from Russia about America having unfair privileges because the Noah Gate was located on US soil, and then came the bullshit from the American politicians and it went back and forth.
It was honestly amazing, extinction was right in front of them and now they were bickering about someone not flushing the toilet. Rogers just had to palm his face at this.
He pushed those thoughts out of his head and went on to other things. Jesse Ventura didn't have time to bleed, Stephen Rogers didn't have time for stupidity.
Now two whole weeks had passed since that day and a whole lot of things had happened in that time period.
First was how his helmet cameras recordings somehow got on the Internet causing the "Second Panic", then the introduction of a crowdsourcing program called the Networked Minds (NetMind) which Rogers was skeptical about it being actually useful, to him it seemed like just a glorified community forum.
But he saw that the world seemed to be calming down and the price seemed to be just being more open with information whereas the enemy wasn't able to tap in on communications so he wasn't really complaining.
He changed his focus to what was going on at the Ark Base, and boy was he impressed.
A few thousand tanks and other ground based vehicles, near a thousand aircraft, and hundreds of thousands of personnel had arrived at Ark Base. All the while construction projects were being built night and day with the science facility located right next to the Noah Gate in the midst of the base. Rogers even did a double take when he realized Kanegawa Industries Gharial Hover Tanks and a whole host of cutting edge prototype weapon and vehicle systems from SteinsTech, all the way to China's Special Division were also present.
'They are not sparing one god damn expense on this endeavor.' He thought to himself. Two weeks ago he would have considered this overkill. But after learning about the universe they were in from their resident geek Gabriel…
He felt better having all of this at his back, even if this was just a Feudal World isolated from the rest of the galaxy... Well it was still in the 40k universe, only an idiot wouldn't be careful, and while Captain Stephen Rogers could very well be bold, he wasn't an idiot.
He shoved those thoughts aside for a moment and came across a report of a predator drone's findings. He reflected for a moment on how the information was as available to him as another fact on the Internet.
He opened up the report and found out that about twenty kilos west to where they first encountered the Gretchins, the predator found an Ork village that was made of the ugliest buildings Rogers had ever seen, with rock, trees and metal all mashed together to make the whole thing look like part of the forest from a distance, leaving him and probably the Intelligence Committee wondering if it was intentional camouflage or just sloppy building, likely the latter.
There were hundreds of gretchins and scores of big angry Orks, although they had no guns or vehicles, they did have some big axes and swords and they seemed to be preparing for war. It was soon discovered that messengers were moving between this and other Ork villages deeper in the forest.
Whatever the numbers of Orks this was going to need to be handled with the utmost care as the Orks usually preferred fighting each other, but that could change if they decided that "Them 'umies got a lot of good dakka now, let'sa go and give them a propa WAAAGH!"
If that was to happen the Orks will most certainly unite and they would advance in technology as well.
"Well this is going to be one hell of a time." Rogers muttered to himself. He also remembered that the villagers sent a rider to the castle of Baron Orlando Corbec. 'I wonder how he is going to react to all of this.' Rogers thought to himself.
"Is this accurate rider? Orks?"
"Yes, Lord Baron."
"And there is a new faction of men who are colonizing the Great Peninsula, of whom have gunpowder weapons so powerful and common they all but have replaced swords?
"Yes, Lord Baron. I saw them with my own eyes."
Baron Orlando Corbec a man who had just reached his twentieth year inhaled and exhaled then replied "The letter is correct this does sound strange." After a pause he spoke to the rider "Get some rest, I will need you ready to leave by morning."
The rider bowed and exit the chamber, leaving him and one other person alone to ponder on the latest news, he sat in his chair and looked to his adviser. "Well, what do you think?"
Sir Boris, a man in heavy plate armor raised an eyebrow and picked up a map from the bookshelf next to him. He spread it out on the large table in front of them.
"Moonbright is a village on the very edge of your fiefdom and the Kingdom's borders. Southwest of it is the Great Peninsula and directly to the west is the Forbidden Fores,t and beyond that is the Orklands."
He was silent for a moment "We always knew they would return, but how strong will they be this time? I don't even know."
Orlando stroked his chin as he studied the map. Looking at the peninsula that his father had died keeping the Orks from claiming it ten years ago in order to stop them from spreading their spores and growing their numbers further.
"And these new men who say they are building a settlement at the base of the mountains in the middle of the peninsula?"
Boris gave him a puzzled expression. "My lord, if I thought the villagers would be so bold and I didn't know the village chief myself, I would have thought it to be a lie."
Orlando waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. "Spare the formalities Boris, you and I are equals in this matter, as for this story... well that gives it some merit, but we can get to that latter."
He look up from the map to his mentor and friend. "The Orks, you have often said how glorious the war against them was, but what was it like really like to fight them?
Boris look at him with a puzzled expression and the young Baron.
"You always told it like a glorious tale but I always noticed that your face becomes tense when you tell the tale, as if you were remembering something horrible."
When Boris got over his shock that his lord and charge had saw through his farce, he closed his eyes and his face became tenser.
"Yes, it was… the Orks roared with their blood crazed laughter as they crushed men as if they were made of sticks, men who I knew for years were torn away from me before my eyes, the once great and beautiful cities that were once the jewels of the Southern Province were left as ruined husks, it was almost as if we could hear the screams of the dead crying out for justice."
"Then the final battle came where your father fell… I was consumed by rage and guilt that my friend had died and the oath to protect him was broken." he clenched his fist and open his eyes that were beginning to form tears. "The glory gained from the war was meaningless next to what was lost from it and those Emperor cursed beasts."
Orlando was slightly taken aback by the amount of distress from his usually composed mentor. He got up from his seat and placed his hand on his shoulder and said, "You came back with so many wounds it was amazing that you didn't die, and I have no doubt that if you could have saved my father and every last soul that the Orks took from us you would have done so."
He inhaled and finished. "I don't blame you, so stop blaming yourself."
Boris wiped his tears away at that and smiled "You really are your father's son, I only wished he could have seen you now."
Orlando smiled back. "Thank you, but now we must return to the matter at hand."
He looked back to the map on the table. "So what can we muster to protect what's left of our domain?"
Boris frowned and sighed. "Not much I'm afraid, the Kingdom's demands to send eight-tenth of our forces to battle the rebellions in the Northern Province has left us weak to the point where we barely have enough to scrounge up five hundred men even if we demanded the villages to send more able bodies to protect our realm."
Orlando cringed at that thought. "And we can't count on the Kingdom to send aid, correct?"
Boris burst out laughing. "Ha! The king was hesitant to send his armies when there wasn't any rebellions brewing anywhere else in the Kingdom. I'd bet my family's land that we'd be long dead before any help even arrived."
"So we're completely alone." Orlando summarized as he looked at Boris, who nodded.
The young baron looked back to the map, just staring at it for a few moments until he voiced his thoughts. "Do you think we could ally with the men that appeared in the peninsula? The letter explained that they wanted to speak with someone who could represent the Kingdom as a whole."
Boris shrugged. "I don't know enough about them to be able to say, they are outside of what I know."
After a moment of silence Orlando announced. "Well then, I have made my choice. We have little to lose and maybe something to gain, I will go Moonbright and meet the 4 'Outsiders' residing there. Who knows, maybe we'll find an ally."
Boris replied. "Very well, I'll ready your guards and we can leave within the hour." He looked as though he had remembered something. "I know of an old friend there, my lord."
"See to it then."
"Yes my lord." he made a slight bow and walked out of the room.
Now that Orlando was alone, he decided to pay a visit to the tomb of his father and his forefathers before he left.
The Corbecs were an old family stretching back to the days before the Kingdom, when the continent was divided into other countries. Back then, the land known today as the Southern Province was it's own country with its own proud history with the Corbecs being the ruling family since long before anyone could remember.
Even though they were no longer a sovereign power, the tradition of burying their rulers in the family tomb where the current generation could visit in hopes of finding wisdom and strength during harsh times, and if they simply needed to remember that they were not alone.
Orlando stood before his father's final resting place and knelt. He was silent for a minute before realizing that he had literally nothing to say. He was sure he would find the strength and wisdom to find his way through this storm on the horizon in due time.
He decide to simply sing the song that was sung to honor the dead.
He started vocalizing, his voice echoing in the silent tomb giving off a haunting melody.
"Mighty rulers of times gone, we must go on without you, thus were filled with sorrow, for you will be missed always... the Emperor protects the virtuous, seek his light for we've deemed you so."
He vocalized again.
"For we saw the land grow, we saw the land just, we saw the land be proud and strong, we saw the land at peace."
"For we saw the land grow, we saw the land just, we saw the land be proud and strong, we saw the land at peace."
He stood up, and left the tomb to join his men on their journey towards Moonbright.
Author's Note: HORRRYY SHEEET. FEHNALLY.
This was a bitch to rewrite and fix. I swear, writing on the phone is a horrible, horrible thing.
Anyway, in this chapter Emergence shit happens... Oh yeah. Hover Tanks are a thing now. You're welcome. I didn't focus on this chapter that much. I decided that Chapter 4 is more important. Which would be posted right after this one. The timeframe there was before the timeframe this chapter is in. A flashback, if you like. If you are still wondering the hell happened, I only cut up Chapter 3 into two chapters, this one and the next, and focused on Chapter 4.
Now on to the reviews!
CrazedGammaMan1721 : Yes. It is. *dejected sigh* And thank you.
zerochance117 : Thanks.
a very angry ravage : ...You'll know in the next chapter.
Seriously, nobody noticed anyone else from anywhere?
I am profoundly sorry if this story is bad, and I hope you are all enjoying this story!
And with all this said, I bid you adieu!
++Battlefield Control Terminated++