"Move in a calm and orderly fashion!" The armored golems said as they lifted arms as thick as logs, muscled in the fashion of Herculean gods knocked up with steroids, above their heads. Most of the villagers among the convoy of refugees were convinced that their unexpected saviors, riding on their metal pegasi, didn't have any necks. Some were even sure they weren't human, rather some Ogre-Human hybrid. Except the few who didn't wear their strange helmets proved that theory wrong, though they still held their suspicion.
Though what caught most of the soldiers in surprise were the women among them, dressed in the same steel-iron armor, and one of them even seemed like the leader of several of them. As it stood though, the villagers were not ones to say no to help, and their iron pegasi that flew in the air above them- circling around the group like guardians -gave them a feeling of safety.
Some of the villagers, elderly and young mostly, were allowed to ride on their metal carriages while others were given right to ride inside their iron pegasi. The Golem People also helped out whenever a carriage became stuck, and provided water when necessary, though they couldn't supply it every time.
Sergeant Alexandra Brand, leader of Foxtrot-Six, was smiling as she handed a little boy and his mother her canteen, nodding to them before continuing with her patrol around the caravan. It was good work, she thought, and she reaffirmed herself that this was why she remained with the Gears.
While she couldn't forgive the Gears for what they had done to her in Jilane, she could reconcile with her past. Her time in the Gears taught her fundamental values of the Gears, a family of soldiers, who admittedly readily that they weren't saints. They were men and women of war, part of the cog that kept the system running. Ultimately, she couldn't hate them, not when good people like Marcus Fenix, Dominic Santiago, Jace Stratton, and all other 'Delta Gears' among them.
It also helped that they saddled her with a squad filled with naive hometown boys who'd never seen a woman in their life.
"That girl has silver hair," Derrick, one such of the hometown boys, muttered as he stared with wide uncomprehending eyes at a girl sitting at he front of a horse drawn carriage next to a old man with a ridiculous pointy hat. Alexandra glanced at the girl, and squinting her eyes, she realised that she had naturally silver hair with a tuft of blue hair at the front.
She smirked as she looked at Derrick's awestruck expression. Unlike the other Gears who wore their springtime armor, Derrick still wore the winter armor with the sleeves, and somehow managed not to burn up from the heat. The other Gears liked to joke that Derrick stuffed ice in his sleeves to stay cool, but he brown-haired, doe eyed seventeen year old always denied it.
"Careful there Derrick, girl's can tell when they're being spied on," Vos, Foxtrot-Six's sniper, said as he wrung and arm across Derrick's neck. "Besides I'm pretty sure the Sergeant can hear us." He nodded his head at Alex and the two of them quickly sobered up when she sent them a wry grin. She turned her head when she heard the loud roar of an Armadillo engine, and watched as it revved up next to the convoy, scaring a number of the villagers at the same time. Some were screaming that the 'Flame Dragon' had arrived, and the Gears were quick to try and placate them, hands raised in the air and voices practically cooing at them.
"Jace," Alex greeted when the Armadillo stopped next to her. Jace gave her a nod in greeting, alongside a small grin, and eyed the long convoy of people. Alex let him take as much time as he needed to soak it all in, as she knew Jace was the most affected with the things he had done and seen during the Locust War. He took a small breath and nodded to himself in some form of self-satisfaction.
"How many?" He asked.
"A little over six hundred," Alex replied. "What happened at the village? Were there any survivors?"
"Yeah, a goddamn elf is what we saved," a Pesanga soldier driving the car replied to her. He pointed a thumb at the back of the Armadillo, and a hatch opened up to reveal a female gear tending to a blonde haired woman lying on the ground. To Alex's surprise, she saw pointed ears on the sides of her face. She had seen the big beastly creatures during the attack on Jacinto Square and the battle at Arnus Hill, but those things were a lot closer to the Locust and thus, weren't really that surprising to her. The, elf, looked human but at the same time it was obvious she wasn't, which made her appearance all the more shocking to the experienced Gear.
"Is she alright?" Alex asked, somewhat wary of the new creature they had found. She was beautiful however, Alex couldn't deny that, and for some reason that made a bitter taste in her mouth. "From the reports I would thought that whole place had been burned to the ground."
"It was," Jace said, "The girl survived by hiding out in a well."
"Smart," she replied. She turned to the medic watching over the girl. "How is she, doc?"
"It's normal, for a human being anyway. I honestly don't know how an elf's body temperature would normally be. For all I know she could be extremely cold or unbearably hot. She's stable though, no signs of outward stress or damage. She's probably very tired, is all," the medic replied.
"What about the convoy? How they've been holding up?" Yash asked.
"They're mostly tired. We've been helping out where we could, providing help and transportation to those who need it, but there's just too many," Alex replied. "I've got some civilians in the Ravens, but I can't put too many since they'll be our first line of defence if this, 'Flame Dragon' ever shows up."
"There's a girl on the pathway. She's got a huge fucking scythe-thing above her head. Hostile pending," Lieutenant Diaz reported through the . "Bring the convoy to a halt! Any active units to check?"
"This is Corporal Jace, Recon-Two, we're free to check it out," Jace said.
"Much appreciated, Corporal, the convoy will be on standby if you need us," Diaz replied. Jace gave Alex a small nod and sped off towards the front of the convoy.
0oo A Tomorrow For Us oo0
Rory Mercury, Apostle to the God Emroy, was said to have gained many titles. The prevalent of which was Rory the Reaper, with her Halberd as her instrument, she would bring violence upon the heads of those she deemed unfit and unworthy. As a demigoddess she had lived for many years, seen many things, experienced joys, sorrows, and a myriad of other emotions too strong to describe.
She had watched civilizations rise, armies march under the banners of their kings, and bloodshed that stretched hundreds of miles. As a demigoddess, her loyalties lie only to her God Emroy, and she only involved herself in matters that interested her or would otherwise be one of her duties as an Apostle.
So that was why she was currently so engrossed in watching the newcomers in Falmart. She had heard the news, of course she had. If the sudden disappearance of hundreds of soldiers within a few days hadn't alerted her, then the panicked chatter of the winds definitely did. Her companions run far and wide, and while most of them could never hope to live as long as she did, Rory wasn't so arrogant as to assume she was the oldest. So when some of these oldest creatures too made sounds of doubt, she made a point to see what the fuss was about.
It only helped that their paths naturally intersected. Thus, she stayed and watched as they used strange metal dragons to protect the mortals under their care, and carriages made of steel roared to life as they sped towards where she sat. Her curiosity was piqued on that alone as she had heard of self-drive carriages before, from stories of the twin gods La and Elange having been able to achieve such feats through their understanding of magic and logic. Though she doubted they had arrived to the result that she was seeing with her own eyes.
One of the vehicles stopped just ahead of her, growling in some low artificial howl, and the top portion began to collapse back into itself to reveal several armored soldiers. She eyed them closely, and her senses immediately honed in to the heavy smell of blood and death around them. It wasn't like the blood she was used to, and she wondered if these men had a decent shower in ages. But it was a striking mix of scents all the same, different brands of beings she never encountered. They hung around these men like a warning to any animal or being. They smelled like Death given form. That alone, in its very own right, got her senses rolling. A grin formed on her lips and she watched as the armored men, some as big as a young Orsimer, make their way towards her with their hands upon strange staves pointing towards her direction.
But Rory's eyes, eyes that had seen the aging of man and the long since past sands of time, tracked a specific person. One she had picked among the other warriors drenched in the stench of blood. The blood around him was unique, it had a hint of stone in it, with the smell of strange beasts that she was certain were ferocious underground behemoths. But it wasn't just the unique smell that garnered her attention- it was his eyes. The eyes of a Holy Man.
"Easy there," the man said, his hands open in a palm towards her. "We're not going to hurt you." He sounded strained as he spoke, as though he was merely repeating words he was wearing at that time, very slowly so that he didn't mess up.
Rory smiled at him and tilted her head. "Oh? You can definitely try," Rory stated. The man raised an amused eyebrow, stopping just underneath his strangely braided hair. His dark skin and facial features made him out to be a foreigner long before Rory heard his accent, but with the way how he seemed to be, she guessed her was a tribal. In fact, most of them looked tribal. They way how they painted their armor with skulls, marking white sketches onto the sides of their helmets, and how they stood. It spoke volumes of what they are. Warriors. Soldiers. But not ones she was used to, she immediately understood.
"I'm sure I can," the man said, and pulled back his lips to show off a smile. He didn't eye her as though he was underestimating her, rather, he glanced at her weapon and tightened his grip on his own. A man who would not be fooled by looks, but the way how he seemed to avoid pointing the tip of his weapon at her showed he'd rather not show violence to someone he perceived as innocent. A contradiction, a contradiction of a contradiction. Seeing something as harmless when it is armed, showed naivety, yet preparing to battle and yet restraining the effort, that was something Rory had seen a rare few times. Rarer in those who had the eyes of this man. The eyes of those who had their faith tested, wavered, and renewed.
This was very interesting.
Strange voices radiated off the man's neck, and Rory tilted her head at that. She wondered he was a Sorcerer, for she had never heard of Magic being able to transport sound through distances, but to her surprise the man snapped his sight onto her, mouth open and disbelieving, before snapping shut. "I'm sorry, your, uh, holiness." Jace stated.
Despite herself, Rory couldn't help but laugh. His face had switched from wariness, to sudden shock and embarrassment so quickly she was left wondering in bewilderment for a stupefied moment. "That's Rory Mercury," she said hefting her halberd up and staring at the gathered men, "I'm an Apostle of Emroy."
0oo A Tomorrow For Us oo0
Lelei watched as the strangers dressed in iron and steel escorted them back onto the trail, furthermore as she watched the Apostle of Emroy, Rory the Reaper, smile in invitation at the children in the back of one of their horseless carriages. The Reaper that was widely feared for her abilities in death and destruction was content as a group of children rushed around her, speaking with her Holiness about the newcomers, all the while she sat atop the lap of one of the newcomers, a darker skinned male who didn't seem as affected by it as she thought he would.
She watched silently as the newcomers brought the convoy back into movement, and the 'King Ravens' that flew about continued to circle them. The newcomers, calling themselves 'Gears', swung large arms to signal the people to speed up and Lelei snapped on the reins to do just that.
:"Strange these people are. They have female soldiers, flying metal pegasi, and all sorts of other things. Truly, they are men from another world," her master, Cato, said as he stroked his beard. Lelei glanced at him, her red eyes expressionless as she too pondered on her own thoughts. "One of them even seemed to have an interest in you."
Lelei blinked and turned her eyes towards the person she knew had been staring at her for a while. She eyed him, taking his appearance into consideration of what she knew about the newcomers she had already seen. Like most of them, his skin was tanned showing long hours under the sun, and his eyes were honey brown. His hair was cut short around his face, but long enough to cover his forehead. Around his neck was a band where his helmet was suspended on. He looked much younger and smaller than the majority of the 'Gears' but he was still heads taller than her.
He seemed to realise she was staring back at him, as he turned away, whistling quietly to himself,.and hurried towards the front of the convoy. "Lelei, you've gone and scared the poor boy," Cato chuckled, "Though, you'd think for someone armed with those strange sword-things, he'd be much more imposing."
"Master, he is several heads taller than you, and looks as though he can bench press twenty of you without any problem," Lelei muttered emotionlessly. Her master only continued to laugh as he stroked his beard, and like her, she knew he was watching them like a hawk, studying them as much as she was. Though, their methods differed.
"It's too bad their women are so rough, though their curves are very nice by themselves," her master chuckled. Lelei bit the inside of her cheek as she stared at her master, her eyes deader than usual. But her musings were cut short when she heard a sound that she had never heard before. A slow whine, like the winds of Fall, before sharp bangs rising into a crescendo rang across the entire area.
Lelei pulled on he reigns as her horses panicked, and she glanced up just in time to see the battle.
That very same battle, would come to build the reputation of the Golems. It would be known as the battlefield that saw Fire, Steel, and Blood, in an instant so fast, no one could comprehend.
0oo A Tomorrow For Us oo0
"It's right on top of us!" KR-One-One yelled as it swerved to the left, its front gun letting loose a stream of bullets onto the thick scales that protected this 'Flame Dragon' in the air. "It's a fucking tank with wings! Get those missiles locked!"
The King Raven didn't have time though as the Flame Dragon breathed a ball of fire onto them, and while King Raven Helicopter were built with armor to withstand small-arms gunfire and certain anti-air weapons, it could not deal with the intense flames of the Flame Dragon, however. The metal warped from the intensity of the heat, burning the Gears inside and cooking the pilot alive as it twisted in mid-air. The other King Ravens, some of them carrying civilians, retreated further back, while other launched a trio of rockets at the flying tank.
The Dragon, unlike King Ravens, had a lot more flexibility, and dodged both strikes when it realised that they were it was distracted, Alexandra Brand quickly ordered the convoy to speed up towards the valley ahead before the Flame Dragon could turn its sights on the people below. That thing was much, much, larger than a brumak. It was like ten brumaks stacked up together. "Get those people moving, now!" Alex yelled.
To her dismay, some of the people began to panic and run each other over. While the Flame Dragon was busy with the King Ravens, the convoy was still sustaining casualties due to incidents and idiots not following orders. She watched as a wooden carriage fell atop a mother and her child, while the stronger more able-bodied people rush into the back of their fellows and ran atop their bodies as though they weren't there.
She gritted her teeth, and felt a sharp inkling of annoyance and resentment. Even the Stranded weren't so...amateurish and while she understood the fear, Alex couldn't justify what they're doing it with that. She had seen civilians act up the same way, and while they panicked, not once had their shown such disregard. She shook those thoughts away and called her Gears forward. "Control the crowd! Help any of the injured up and get them moving! Derrick and Vos, I want you to grab a Mortar from the truck and set up at the hill!"
The two named Gears saluted and rushed off to do as she told. However, as they did their duty, the Flame Dragon had retrained its sights on the King Ravens, and with a throaty roar, it latched its talons into one of the King Ravens. It crushed the helicopter in its grip, and tossed the broken husk towards the ground where it impacted and exploded to destroy three dozen villagers.
Gears aimed their Lancers up at the Flame Dragon and opened fire, and most of them were dismayed to see that their bullets pinged off the Dragon's armor as though they were nothing.
Jace, inside the Armadillo, glanced up at the flying Flame Dragon. He greeted his teeth, and glanced at Leana at the back seat. "I want Vulcans aimed right down that lizards gut!" He ordered. Leana nodded her head and before long she had her vulcan trained on the Flame Dragon and firing. Unlike the regular bullets of the Gears, the Vulcan managed to pierce the Dragon's skin, allowing blood fall onto the ground as the Dragon engaged the King Ravens in an aerial dogfight.
The other Vulcans available to the Gears lit up the sky as well. Jace watched, gritting his teeth as they only seem to piss the thing off even more than necessary. "This is Derrick, we have the mortar set up! I repeat, the mortar is set up! Get that sonovabitch to stay still so we can land the hit!" Jace frowned, trying to think of a way to try and get the Dragon onto the ground when something large, silver, and sharp, flew by his face and into the sky.
A loud thoom sound was heard, and the Gears who witnessed it collectively dropped their mouths from the sight of a scythe impacting the side of the Dragon's head strong enough to cause it to very nearly snap its neck, and causing it to crash onto the ground on its back. The scythe dropped back towards the ground, and one of the KR pilots commented how his instruments had been 'fucked up' by the shocks the hit had caused in the air.
Jace looked towards Rory, and gulped when she smiled up at him. It was far from innocent, and Jace was suddenly wary at how he had thought she was nothing more than a little girl with a weapon. This girl was dangerous.
The Flame Dragon rose from its hit on the ground, turning towards the convoy with fire dusting around its mouth. It let loose another torrent of flames, and many of the villagers, including Gears, were unable to get out in time before they were burned to the bone.
Derrick and Vos, the two Gears that had set up their Mortar, trained their collective sight onto the Flame Dragon. "200 metres out," Vos said as he peered at the dragon with his sniper rifle. "You might want to hold onto the trigger a second longer, we still have friendlies in the zone."
"Roger," Derrick replied. Unbeknownst to them, Lelei and her master Cato had taken refuge in the bend of the hill, and it gave both magic practitioners to be able to witness what was to happen next. A small puff of smoke left the barrel of their weapon, a small disappointment that disappeared to the torrent of flames that fell from the sky.
Villagers yelled in horror, exclaiming that the sky was falling, as the back of the Dragon was bombarded with consecutive explosions. The Gears watched as the explosions penetrated the Dragon's tough scales, but didn't manage to kill it. Instead, the Dragon's wings were ripped to shreds, the right wing nothing more than flayed meat hanging on bone while the left wing was bare bones. The Dragon roared, and the King Raven all let loose a volley of rockets into the Dragon's side.
It's right arm imploded from the sheer force, blood raining down from the collective explosion, and the Dragon wobbled in its spot. "We have it! We have it!" KR-One-Six yelled over the . But to their shock and dismay, the dragon refused to go down without a fight. Another flash of fire, and another King Raven was sent to the ground as its rotors spluttered out smoke.
The Dragon twisted to look at them, and tried to escape the area. But without its wings it couldn't travel far, and Derrick launched a second volley of mortar strikes that ended him. The explosions hit directly onto the Dragon's neck, and the trauma was great enough to sever it, killing the Dragon instantly as it flopped to the ground mouth open and blood pooling over its fresh corpse.
The King Ravens hovered above its body, and all together fired another volley of rockets into the body of the dragon, lighting up even more with flames as the Villagers all stopped to stare in wide eyed shock and awe at the death of the Dragon.
Legend would come to speak of the terrible power that the Golem People wielded. In the end of the day, the Gears suffering casualties was the only normal thing about them, and even then, it only served to add more zest to their story. Now, and forever, Falmart spread the tale of their strength like wildfire through a dried forest.
Lelei La Lalena blinked as she stared at the Golem people, watching them as they watched the burning corpse of the Flame Dragon. She turned towards the two Gears that had fired their 'Apocalypse Bringer' and studied their small celebration. They grinned at the burning corpse, but they didn't seem to show any more outward sign of their tremendous feat. They seemed content, and before long they caught sight of both her and her master, and made their way to assist them. Lelei La Lalena was then given refuge inside on their 'trucks' and was given the opportunity to return with them. She agreed.
Rory Mercury was ecstatic at the power of destruction these people wielded. The blood of the Flame Dragon shed so easily as they had done was by itself a delectable taste in her mouth. Her body was already experiencing the souls of their warriors souls passing through her, and she felt each soul, truly shaped by war and death, past her body to be accepted by Emroy into the Gathering of Those Who Shed Blood. She eyed the Holy Man, and when she saw him stare directly at the dead, not turning his head head away nor allowing any expression of grief to form on his face, and muttering a prayer of farewell, she knew that she would spend the last of her years following these interesting people.
And one unmentioned Elf, Tuka Luna Marceau, who had only woken up in the ending moments of the battle, stared in awe as she witnessed the theatrical end to the Flame Dragon. Her mind flashed, wondering where she was, and her thoughts drifted to her father and where he may be. She turned towards the cockpit, and spied a strange looking man with light brown skin, staring into the distance. His face was foreign, with square shaped eyes and an angular face, he had the face of a Hunter, reminded her of her father. He turned towards her, and there was a brief note of surprise. He gave her a once over, and Tuka became acutely aware of her state of undress, and hugged the blanket covering her modesty close to herself. The man grinned and gave her a thumbs up.
"Welcome back to the land of the living," he said in a strange language.
I kinda sped through the Flame Dragon Arc, well, kinda. To be frank it's not really that hard considering the events of which can just be explained very easily. Dragons appears, gets its ass whooped, and left. Though here, I gave the Flame Dragon the credit it deserves and made it more of a threat, and the only reason why Itami suffered so few casualties was because, well, in ratio Itamis team was at like what 1:20 of the villagers? With those odds the Dragon was probably going to end up killing more villagers than the JSDF soldiers. Here, there are more Gears, meaning more casualties, and meaning more ordnance and weapons to kill the Dragon.
I have gotten up to date on the Gate anime and manga, only to find out that it also has a Novel, which is a web series apparently. Man Japan really looks for things. Now I may have skimmed over some details, they'll be explained as the story goes on in the next chapter. Rory interest in Itami, truth be told, was never really explained in any of the Gate mediums, so I reiterated it into her interest of Jace, because Jace is a spiritual man, he has Faith, but not too much of it. So Rori has a connection with him in that regard, as well as, you know, being creatures of mass destruction.
Lelei, now, apparently, Lelei has blue hair, both in the Light Novel, Manga, and Anime. However, the Manga and Light novel has it listed as very, very, light blue hair that make it look silver. And the anime, like most adaptations, went fuck you and went all blue. So I merged the two, because why not. At first I wanted Cato and Lelei to provide some magic assistance but the only type of magic I could think of was magic which made things exploded, but apparently, explosion magic doesn't exist in the Falmart universe because magicians (scientists) have mistaken the art of explosion with sealed gas exploding when you heat it up, which isn't sufficient enough to allow the use of explosion magic.
Finally, Tuka. She didn't get much shine in this chapter. Well, probably because she was out cold. Truth be told, I'm still thinking about her. Since now that the Dragon is dead, there'll have to be a more, 'Friends' or 'How I Met Your Mother' vibe to her realising her Father's dead. I'm sure the Gear psyches would love to deal with that.
And finally. Since so little is known of Falmart's more fantastical side, I'll probably be borrowing from other mediums that have a fantasy side. Places like Skyrim, which I have hinted at with Orsimer, Arhurian Legend, F/SN, and other such places.
Thaqif: I understand patience can sometimes be a bane in any man's life, but A Tomorrow For Us isn't my holy grail and while I enjoy writing it, I have other things to write, and other things to do in my life. Posting on my other stories solely in demanding me to post another chapter isn't encouraging. Telling me what I did right and what I could improve on however can be a much better alternative.