Author Note: Star Wars: The old Republic and Star wars does not belong to me. Dragon Age does not belong to me. OC were made from characters that I played as in the game of SWTOR. I hope you will enjoy the story, so it will help to hear you over the Reviews. This chapter will be a little bit shorter than what I normaly want to write ( 2k+ words per chapter). Cabour and Sushai would on mando`a mean protect and sensor while Galas Lausk on sith means Last hope. Let`s not prolong it more than it is needed, here is the story.
Rakghoul blight,
Chapter 2: Expedition
Thedas, Ostagar, Duncan POV (several months before Ostagar battle)
King Cailan is young, inexperienced and expects a lot of things. He probably thinks that the Grey Wardens will come riding the griphons every time Darkspawn emerge from Deep Roads and underground to wreak chaos on Ferelden. But it is true that the reports on number of Darkspawn did make Duncan little bit worried. He will have to find new recruits for the Grey Wardens, because if his suspicions are true, then this emergence of Darkspawns is a work of an Archdemon. Grey Wardens will need every woman or man, human, elf or dwarf, that they can recruit in their ranks. And the duty has been befallen upon him.
Duncan POV (after sending the new recruits to retrieve the ancient treaties and vials of darkspawn blood)
Duncan was remembering the last few months, which have not been easy on him. Firstly, he ventured into the Deep Roads to hear from the first hand from the dwarfs on are their thought on the massing of Darkspawns. It just confirmed and hammered him in his belief that the new Blight was coming, and helped him encounter and recruit dwarf noble born, Gulark, who was exiled from Orzammar and left in Deep roads. He was not speaking much, but what little did he speak, he was worried about some dwarf woman. Duncan decided rather not to pry in the reasons of his exile, for the dwarfen society and politics were on a level of Orlesians. With the Gulark, and information that he got from the dwarf Legion of the Dead, Duncan ventured into the Denerim to retrieve a vials of Archdemon blood needed for the ritual of Joining to Grey Wardens.
The dwarf did not want to enter the city, and after retrieving the vial, Dunacn found that something unusual was happening in elven alienage. He went to investigate it, and found that elfs were mourning because some lord decided to come and thrash a wedding ceremony and took women. The opportunity was right for Dunacn because a possible new recruit has appeared. He managed to infiltrate the mansion of noble, only to find that the groom killed the noble. With quick thinking and seeing that the abilities of the female elf could come well in Grey Wardens, he conscripted her as a new recruit. She also had her own share of truble, and needed a lot of help from Dunacn to stay mentally sane. While he was nursing her, a thief tried to pickpocket him, but he managed to catch the thief red handed and conscripted him. Sent the thief with some Grey Wardens that were already in Denerim to Ostagar, becuase he had to nurse a Kallian from mental hell that she was living through. The help that he did not expect was from the dwarf, Gulark. Gulark found them in Denerim and was vouching for them to start moving while Duncan was of other idea, but he had to agree with dwarf that they had to move. When they left Denerim, there have been some improvements in Kallian mental health, and most on his surprise, the dwarf was helping the elf.
Duncan hoped that with the new recruit there will be no suffering or personal drama, but seems that Maker was playing a wicked game on Duncan. Duncan, Kallian and Gulark arrived in Highever for the son of the noble. While the dwarf and elf stayed in the inn, Duncan found the lord of Highever preparing the army and his oldest son to march and help king Cailan against the darkspawn. The preparations were going nicely, and the lord welcomed Duncan with open arms, and even introduced him with his youngest son Aedan. Dunacn saw a potential in Aedan but decided to wait until tomorrow to decide if he will recruit the Aedan or sir Gilmore. The fate is cruel, and the Howe`s man who were late to march together with Cousland army attacked the Highever. The Aedan and Duncan managed to escape from them, and they were joined later with Gulark and Kallian. Duncan saw the potential in his recruits, mostly in compassionate dwarf Gulark who was nursing the Kallian and Aedan. He even for the first time opened about himself after hearing what happened to Aedan, and managed to lift a spirit of Aedan. The Kallian was little better and she was managing to hold herself now, but she used to cry once or twice while she slept.
Well, with his ragtag group of recruits, Dunacn arrived in Ostagar. He knew what was waiting all recruits, but he hopped they will not die through ritual in becoming Grey Wardens. The recruits were accompanied by the Alistar, so Duncan decided to prepare the mixture for them to arrive and pray to the Maker for his good will and mercy in ritual of Joining. He also sent the recruits to find the ancient treaties, for he did not trust Calian. He could feel that the threat was bigger than what he thought at the beginning, and if they could not stop the Blight at Ostagar, they would be in the need of old allies. But he hoped that will never happen.
Taris, Galas Lausk POV
Well, I was sceptical at first that the Arkanax will uphold to the deal, especially after saying he will need a week to prepare everything, but in the end, it paid off to wait for him. He arrived with the drone that looked a lot like centipede, but it was bulky and could store supplies that were tightly secured from external damage and biological contamination. He also made whole expedition practice moving in small and tight space, and making sure we will always check if we are still under influence of rakghoul serum to avoid being infected by the rakghoul plague. The expedition was containing Vette, Cabour and Sushai, which turned to be actually called Arkanax and Mako, Turian, Jaesa, Pierce and Doctor Lokin, if you do not include Galas and several drones that they took for precaution and that they may watch over camp were team would sleep. The jawa following Arkanax was an interesting fellow and he was their master on communication with outside world. Even though they were going on important mission, he had to remain in contact with some of his companions and the Chakara, so that she would know how the things were progressing.
We were already a week underground and killed a horde after horde of Rakghouls. The drill that Arkanax made whole team memorise by letter was paying off, and none of us was infected. We managed to map a lot of severs and tunnels of Taris from time before Empire bombing. On the seventh day of expedition did we find what we were looking for, a ruinous sith space ship. We managed to salvage as much as information as we could from it, from galaxy map and travel path to the items of archaeological and scientific importance and even a sample of a dead unknown race of Rakghouls which was labelled genlock in ship`s computer. The genlock fascinated Doctor Lokin because he had a form of tribal clothes and armor, so it was clearly that it had some intellect and culture, which was unheard. We all managed to get out of the damned tunnels just to be ambushed by some passing Republic forces, which we managed to repel and get in Empire controlled territory. I thought that after finishing with this expedition, the bounty hunter will part ways with us but he stayed and offered a help in this kind of a project. Said that he was interested in it, and that his gang managed to decode the travel path of ancient ship and found a planet in Unknown Space which was not mapped in galaxy charts. That made me wonder and fear, for the Unknown Space was called that because of reason. Many things were not known about it, from Chiss and Rattataki homeworlds , to some myths and folk tales originating from there. Bounty hunter would only reveal the coordinates of that world if I would reveal reason and idea of all this expedition and fascination with rakghouls. Even though I already had an ally in Chakara, sith inquisitor, the bounty hunter proved to be a trustworthy person on who I could rely and he had an aura around him familiar to the older Galas brother who was took by slaves 12 years ago. Also, it is better to send a scout before bringing a bigger force on the planet. So by going with that path of thought, Arkanax was let to know everything about project that Galas started and was given a mission to scout the planet before the rest of forces lead by Galas and Chakara would arrive.
Jaesa Willsam would accompany Arkanax in his scouting party as an insurance of Galas that they will scout the planet. Also for another reason, if there were intelligent beings on that planet, that her training as jedi may come handy in dealing with natives of planet on diplomatic scale. Galas really hoped that Jaesa would relax a little bit around people maybe a company of mercenaries would be able to do it. Arkanax seemed that he will not have a problem with having a Force sensitive on his ship, until it wanted to influence his crew. Jaesa was not slightly happy about it, but after she heard the explanations that I gave her and saw a reason and logic in them she decided to follow them. Lieutenant Pierce left to meet some old friends on Taris and Doctor was inspecting the genlock. Finally, some free time and free ship for him and Vette. He will have to compensate for all the time he and Vette could not have their intimate moments alone in almost a month. In any case, he will put a note on door to ship labelled as " Out of Order, come later. "
