I do not own Valkyrie Chronicles or the Halo franchise. One-shot.

The still, heavy night dawns on the traveling squad of soldiers through the dark, heavy woods. The moonlight is the only source of illumination to guide them through the maze-like forest before they reach their destination. If it were left to the soldiers, they would prefer fervently to travel during the day to ascertain more sight and to not wander aimlessly through darkness, but their leader insisted they go under the cloak of darkness as to minimize the risk of detection and ambush by their enemies. She will be their guide to their destination—a small probe of light guiding them through the darkness. The person in command of the small expedition is Lord Maximilian's forever-loyal warrior, the Valkyrur herself Selvaria Bles. The fact she is the one leading the expedition speaks volumes to how important this mission is as her Grace desires to know the fate of the small outpost outside of Fourzen along with the eerie transmission received a day ago.

To fuel their war against Gallia, the Empire has set their sights on a mining city called Fourzen. Its rich deposits of ragnite ore and along with its refineries and manufacturing capabilities makes the city vital to the Empire. Taking the city would mean slowing down Gallia's production of ragnite while bolstering the Empire's. However, the Empire wishes to take the city with minimal collateral damage to the city for damaged mining equipment and machinery serves no purpose to them and have no desire to rebuild or transport equipment; they would prefer to start their mining operation immediately after the city falls. To keep tabs on the mining town, The Empire established a small outpost in an abandoned cabin house just a few miles outside the city. Every day, the outpost would send scouts to spy and gather intelligence about the military presence in the city, learning their usual routine, and guards' positions to optimize the best time to invade. They have executed these procedures for two weeks now, and the Empire is ready to strike at a moment's notice. However, two days just before the invasion, the outpost suddenly ceased their transmission to the main forces on standby. Not wanting to risk unnecessary casualties, they attempted to establish contact with the outpost on multiple occasions but with no success. Infuriated, General Gregor requested Lord Maximilian to send a small scouting party to investigate the outpost. At first, His Grace refused for he decreed it as a non-essential task and decided to continue with the invasion on the specified day. Then, the day before the Empire's invasion of Fourzen, during a meeting with Lord Maximilian and the Triumviri, one of General Gregor's subordinates interrupts the meeting. He knew this would invoke a punishment for disrupting His Grace's meeting, but he was under strict orders to report to the General Gregor at any time if they receive a transmission from the small outpost. Leaving a recording of the transmission, the subordinate swiftly departs.

"If your Grace doesn't mind, I would like to play the recording and find out the fate of the men at the outpost near Fourzen." Gregor request.

"Very well, Gregor. You may proceed." Lord Maximilian allows.

"This should be an interesting tangent. Wouldn't you say, Selvaria?" General Jaeger comments. Selvaria, however, remains silent. A click is sounded, and the recording begins

…ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ…

"It's just static…." Lord Maximilian states, a bit irritated for the underwhelming result.

…ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ… …ZZZZZZZZ….

"You all heard that, right? Hidden in the static." Jaeger states.

…ZZZZZZZZZZZ….

"The static stopped…." Gregor points out.

"No." this time coming from Selvaria. "It's still playing."

ZZZZZZZZZ…..

…

Reclaimer… Reclaimer… Reclaimer…

…

…

…

"The transmission has now ended." Selvaria states. It should be noted everybody in the room is at the edge of their seat for they never expected for such an unusual transmission.

"Reclaimer... It kept repeating that singular word. Who is this reclaimer supposed to be?" Gregor thinks outload. Could it mean the Empire? This does make since considering they are endeavoring to claim Gallia, but Gregor knew whomever was speaking was not referring to them in the slightest. At best, it was either an unknown person.

"I think the better question is if this message is meant for us" General Jaeger shares. "who is to say this transmission was only intercepted by us. For all we know, the transmission could have been sent in all direction for us and the Gallians to intercept." General Jaeger suggests.

"This could be a trap, or some elaborate hoax. However, I have my suspicions on those conclusion since are invasion of Gallia has already forced them back and have no time to initiate a hoax during a war. It may mean nothing, but my instincts suggest otherwise. Whoever this reclaimer is, he or she might have some answers as to the nature of the transmission and could be heading towards the outpost as we speak." Lord Maximilian shares, looking directly at Selvaria. "Selvaria, gather a small force of the best men available and learn the truth about the outpost and this mysterious transmission." Selvaria immediately stands, placing her right hand over her heard.

"Your Grace, I will carry out that which you wish most. Whether it is trivial or dire, I will follow without hesitation for I am your will." She swears her allegiance, leaving the conference room immediately to perform her duty asked by her Grace.

"Continue your marching, men. The outpost is coming up so prepare yourselves for surprises waiting for us." Selvaria warns the 9 hand-picked men by her: two scouts, four shock troopers, two lancers, and a lone engineer to support the Valkyrur commander. Despite having the ability to call upon the powers of the Valkyrur, Lord Maximilian requires her to conceal that part of her identity until a more appropriate time presents itself. As a result, Lord Maximilian bestowed upon Selvaria a specialized machine gun to combat those who would dare stand in her way. She may not have a lance and shield in battle, but she is still a forced to be reckoned with, and those who have underestimated her have paid the price dearly (those who survived have described her as a one-woman army). However, that is the only equipment on her, so the Valkyrur has an Engineer to accompany her as support: healing, cover fire, explosives, etc. The reason being she doesn't like to have ragnite on her. When asked, she stated it makes her uncomfortable.

As she takes the front-most position as the designated guide, the men following her have the rear and sides covered with the lancers and the lone engineer in the middle.

"These trees, man… they're so annoying. How much further until we make it?" One shock trooper whispers to his ally next to him.

"I don't know, but you better not let General Bles hear you." The scout warns silently.

"I know what you mean. She is intimidating when it just you and her. Believe me. I remember my body temperature skyrocketing when she called me by name and put me on his small squad of hers. From what I heard, she wanted the best of the best to execute this mission because Lord Maximilian has a newfound interest in this outpost, so I guess we should be honored the general hand-picked us." Another shock trooper shares. The men and Selvaria keep their pace towards the outpost with no noticeable changes throughout their journey other than the occasional stumbling on tree roots. With nothing but the echoes of an owl hooting, the deep silence has becomes a bit uncomfortable for some of the men, so another conversation springs up to lighten the foreboding atmosphere.

"So what do you think might be waiting for us at the outpost?" A lancer inquires.

"I assume dead bodies. That is what most of the guys back in the barracks have kept echoing for quite some time. It might have been some Gallian patrol that discovered them, but that doesn't explain much about the weird transmission that was intercepted." The first shock trooper shares.

"I heard it could have been the infamous Squad 7 of the Gallian Army. They have some pretty unconventional tactics that are surprisingly effective, so it wouldn't surprise me if they are the ones responsible for cutting off our transmissions to the outpost near Fourzen." The engineer explains

"Enough chattering." The Valkyrur speaks out, injecting a sense of urgency into her men and effectively shutting them up. After 10 more minutes of walking… "We are here. Exercise caution for we don't know what awaits us. For all we know, we could be walking into a trap." The change is swift as the shrubbery and forestry surrounding them throughout their journey is non-existent in the large circle of open land housing a small cabin house is within vision. The main building is composed of a two-story house with a garage located on its left. Surrounding it are two smaller cabins that are 1-story with tents from the empire set up around. Apparently, this place used to be a cabin house for some locals near Fourzen, but it has been abandoned for quite some time now, so the Empire decided to use the structures as an outpost to conduct their business.

Before stepping into the vicinity, Selvaria inspects her surroundings for clues to ascertain the clues. Her eyes scan the area, finding nothing out of the ordinary—the darkness doesn't help her either, but that won't discourage her in the slightest. At this distance, she and her men cannot pick out the small details on the outpost under such pervading darkness; it will require her to draw nearer to the buildings. However, a lone tree catches her attention, so she walks towards it. She places her hand on the tree and traces over the tree where bullet holes are lodged on the tree. Look more at the surrounding forestry, she sees more bullet holes on trees and the ground.

"There was a firefight." She concludes. "Men, proceed with caution. The enemy might still be around." She orders as she gingerly steps forward towards the outpost, weapon in hand and aiming with her men following her suit. As they draw closer, the veil of darkness begins is slowly uplifted to unveil more signs of a firefight as bullets shell can be seen scattered all over the floor and increasing the closer the move inwards. Almost at the outpost, more bullet holes and scorch marks of explosions are visible on the walls and floor. Sandbags around the base are either astray or destroyed along with various Empire weapons littered on the floor: rifles, machine guns, and lances.

The enemy must have attacked the outpost from where we came from and left quickly. However, if the Gallians did attack, their forces would have to come from the other side and not where we came from. Could they perhaps gone around, but that would hold no strategic advantage for them, not the mention the difficulty of them moving around without being spotted. Also, it would serve in their favor to occupy this area as to prevent us from establishing another outpost.

"This place is deserted. The enemy must have assaulted the outpost and gotten the hell out of here. I wonder why they didn't occupy it for themselves?" One scout shares.

"They probably didn't want to spare the man power. They would probably be bolstering up their forces as we speak. However, what I find weird about this situation is the lack of bodies? Where are they?" a lancer points outs. "If a firefight did occur, and the enemy did leave swiftly, wouldn't it be better to just leave the bodies on the floor instead of cleaning them up. As a matter of fact, I would venture both sides lost people, yet there are no bodies to confirm this assumption."

His logic is not wrong. I, notice, the lack of corpses in this outpost.

"General, take look at this." The engineer shouts, bringing the Valkyrur towards him along with the rest of his squad mates. "We see all these Empire weapons but look what's next to them." The engineer steers his hand to the left of the machine gun, digging it into an ashy substance to pick it up, only to loosen his grip to allow the ashy substance to erode with the wind. "What do you suppose it is?"

"Ash…. but from what and where? Last time I checked, there are no volcanos in Gallia. It looks like there is ash around all the weapons."

"You don't suppose it might be from… a human body?" one soldier thinks aloud.

"I'm not sure about that." the engineer counters. "If it is from a body, then wouldn't the bones of the person remain? Bone doesn't really turn into ash by regular means of burning. Plus, there are no sign of a fire ever being ignited."

"I have heard enough speculation." Selvaria interrupts as she approaches the main building. "We will spread out and search the area to uncover the truth. Engineer, you are with me. You will be my rear guard and support. Everybody else, split into groups of two and search the place. If you find anything for importance, alert me as soon as possible."

"Yes, Ma'am." The men acquiesce and spread out with two groups searching the vicinity and the other two groups searching through the other buildings. Reaching the door, Selvaria gingerly pushes the door open, creating an ominous creaking noise. Her steps onto the hard-wood floor echo throughout the abandoned building, alert anybody in the building if there is something inside. The engineer follows right after her.

"This place is a mess." He comments. The furniture is in ruin, the walls have aged and stained, and the floor is dirtied dust and old documents. Some are relevant to the Empire and others are not, but what does draw attention is the blood splatters across some of the documents. The patterns of thin lines of blood splatter indicates to Selvaria that the people were slashed with a sharp weapon. This only conjures more questions with no answers, but Selvaria is determined to figure this out for her Grace. She and her engineer search the first floor thoroughly and find nothing of importance. She then heads upstairs with the engineer behind her. She gazes down the long hallway, finding nothing of significance yet, but continues nonetheless. Out of the four rooms available, the only one that lures the Valkyrur in is the room with a custom label on it that read "Lieutenant's office."

The officer in charge's office. She grabs the door knob and turns it slowly, pushing the door with minimal force to let the door open itself, creeking.

"As expected." She mutters to herself. The office is in complete disarray. Documents scattered over the floor, tables and chairs haphazardly scattered about, pictures on the walls torn off, and bullets holes on the wall with the entrance to the room. However, one aspect draws her attention in front of the table. Bending down onto one knee, Selvaria inspects the liquidly, orange substance.

"What do you suppose it is?" she inquires of the engineer as he enters the office.

"I don't know. I have never seen something like it before. It kind of looks like blood."

"Orange blood…? What kind of creature do you suppose bleeds orange blood?"

"I would think insects or arachnids." He ventures a guess as he walks past her. "I can't imagine something large like a deer or pig to have orange blood."

"And yet, there is this orange substance splattered over the floor like blood." Selvaria continues her scrutiny. She moves her hand near it and pokes at it, but the orange substance doesn't stick to her, suggesting it must have dried, as with blood.

"General! There is a body behind the desk!" She hastily relocates herself to the side of the desk, looking down on the fallen Empire soldier lying dead face down. The symbol on his left arm indicates he is a lieutenant and the person in charge of the outpost. She kneels and moves the rotates the body over on his back. "What are those?" The engineer points at the gray, crystal-like objects imbedded onto the soldier's stomach and torso.

"It is what killed this soldier." She answers, reaching over and pulling out one ash-color crystal from his chest and bringing it before her as she rises from the floor. She squeezes it between her fingers, but the crystal doesn't shatter. It is as hard as a rock. She places the tip toward the desk and presses down while running her hand across, leaving a scratch line behind. It is not soft like graphite. This would bear more investigation at a more convenient time. She places the crystal inside her front uniform pockets.

Phhffff… Phhfff…

"Gunshots…" Selvaria states reactively, drawing her weapon as she sprints out from the room, down the hallway, and sliding down the stair railings to make her way outside

And yet, I have never heard such a gunshot as… odd as that noise, but I do know it was a gun shot. Gun shots have a distinct noise anybody can identify—its loud and anybody can tell when it's a gunshot. There are some, like Selvaria, who can distinguish what kind of round was fired. However, the sound that echoed throughout the outpost didn't sound like an average gunshot from a rifle, machine gun, sniper, handgun, or shotgun. To the Valkyrur, it had a more fluid-like noise to it, but anybody around would still consider the noise as a weapon discharging. Downstairs, she busts down the door and realizes she is the first to arrive.

"It came from the North." The cloak of darkness makes it arduous to make out anything near the outpost. Eventually, her engineer arrives outside, but Selvaria has already taken off to investigate the weapon discharge.

"On me, men!" she orders as more of her men arrive back at the main outpost building except for two of them. However, they stop in their tracks as something large grabs their attention.

"General Bles, behind you!" Her engineer screams out. She immediately halts her momentum and swiftly turns around, aiming her weapon; however, her shock more so comes the fact that something large is above and behind her, catching her off-guard. Her assailant forces the Valkyrur onto the ground as it lands on top of her with its feat barely missing her head. She first notices the large, orange-tinted legs cladded in armor inches away from her head, even realizing the large thud it made when landing, corroborating its heavy weight. Before this information can register, she instinctively turns her head upward to ascertain her assailant's facial features. It gazes at the silvered-hair, red-eyed Valkyrur as she locks onto its cold, neon-blue eyes hidden behind its odd-designed helmet with 5 protrusions sticking out with the middle being the longest. Its head draws nearer to Selvaria's face as if it's curious about the Valkyrur before it. It then autonomously opens its helmet wide open, revealing the fire-like, glowing, neon-blue skull.

"GAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

"Back away, you beast!" she returns as she swings her weapon upward, delivering a large force onto the side of its head, staggering it as it closes its helmet, giving her enough time to escape from beneath it by driving her feat backwards to pushing herself forward, rolling, and landing on her feet with her weapon already pointed at her assailant.

It all my life, I have never witnessed such a creature. To think this… metallic… thing is capable enough to force a Valkyrur such as myself, handpicked by his Grace, onto the ground. Unforgivable!

"What the hell is that!?" the engineer shrieks from afar.

"It forced the general onto the ground!"

"It's a m-monster!"

The creature in question is massive, standing at an intimidating 10-feet tall as it towers over Selvaria and her men by about twice their height. Its entire body is clad in orange-tinted armor with intricate, neon-blue patterns of light etched throughout its body. Its legs are long and massive, but the bigger surprise is they are not connected to the metallic creature's main body as its body suspends in place. Its body has a thin underbelly where the legs are supposed to be connected, but quickly diverges outward into a large, insect-like carapace acting as the upper body with three long protrusions behind its head on its back with two neon-blue orbs of light located on its shoulders. Selvaria also notices its four arms: two small, human-looking ones located just underneath the shoulders, but those are overshadowed by the two, large, segmented arms right above the them for those ones are in possession of weapons. The left is armed with a neon-blue, curved blade of light, and the right is armed with a large, angular-designed ranged weapon of sorts with red highlights throughout. To Selvaria, it looks to be a heavy-ordinance weapon capable of discharging massive rounds—she will need to be mindful of that for it screams explosives.

"Identify yourself and explain what you are!" the Valkyrur demands, but the metallic creature continues to gaze at the silvered-hair woman, focusing more on the fact she is armed and presents a danger.

"I asked you a question! Reveal what you are or face the consequences of attacking one of Lord Maximilian's Valkyrur!" she warns once more, cocking her weapons back with her finger right on the trigger. It doesn't respond, but instead swings its blade in preparation. Selvaria lets go of her breath.

"It appears you are ignoring or, more likely, unable to answer or understand me. If this is the case, then communication is futile. The only thing you seem to understand is battle. If that is the case, then I, Selvaria Bles, will communicate with you with the only means at my disposal. Through your defeat, Creature of Steel!" She proclaims, squeezing the trigger and unleashing a storm of bullets towards the metallic creature. The bullets make contact, but the creature remains where it is with most of the bullets ricocheting off the creature's metal armor, leaving no scratch on it.

"Impossible!" She utters as the sound of an empty magazine echoes, giving the metallic creature's chance to retaliate. It raises its heavy ordinance weapon at an angle above Selvaria, letting our growls in doing so. Two crimson orbs of light discharge out of the weapon in quick succession, arcing down towards her position at a high velocity. Instinctively, she leaps to the left. The orbs smash into the ground, detonating upon impact, catching Selvaria at the outermost blast radius, propelling her farther than anticipated before falling on the ground once more. The metallic creature takes aim once more at the fallen Valkyrur, about to fire off another quick succession of rounds.

BOOM!

The metallic creature staggers forward as a large, spear-like projectile crashes into its back, adjusting its aim irradicably as two orbs of explosive light discharge at a much lower angle then desired, landing and detonating at the creature's feet. Looking towards the outpost, Selvaria sees a lancer standing with an empty lance with a trail of smoke leading back to him. Taking this time gifted to her, the silvered-hair Valkyrur works through the pain and runs towards her men, reloading her weapon in the process.

"General Bles, are you alright." Her engineer inquires as he brings a dose of ragnite to heal her wounds. However, Selvaria holds her hand out facing him.

"I am fine. Do not worry yourself with me just yet." She advises as she glares at the metallic creature now facing her and her men.

"You got to be kidding me! That thing is still standing after taking a direct hit!" Flabbergasted, the Lancer slowly backpedals away from the creature, noticing the red glow accumulating at the end of its heavy ordinance weapon. Raising its weapon at an angle above the small Empire forces, it unleashes a stream of successive explosive orbs arcing their way towards its them, unleashing a River of Light upon them.

"Take cover, now!" Selvaria warns, moving away as she takes cover inside the outpost's main building. The men scramble with some following behind the general while others take cover inside the other buildings. Small explosions littered the ground, uprooting the dirt and making small craters. Once over, the men and Selvaria step outside, facing the metal creature as its weapons vents out steam, indicating its weapon is in a cooldown mode, providing a chance to take an offensive, but after witnessing the durability of the metal creature's armor, it is hard to say what this small squad can do to it. Selvaria and her men take aim as they spread themselves out as they leave their cover to adopt new positions.

"What is that?" One soldier comments an orb of light appears from nowhere in-between them and the metallic creature. It continues to grow larger and unstable. They keep watch, until the light orb explodes, materializing three individuals onto the battlefield, looking just as menacing as the metal creature.

"Reinforcements" Selvaria grumbles as she beholds the three new metallic beings. The one in the middle looks the same as the orange-tinted metal creature but with gray armor and less intimidating as there are no protrusion from its helmet or carapace. The two other metal creatures have a humanoid appearance but with segmented body parts that are not joined together and instead float in space. These two humanoid beings stand at an intimidating 7-feet tall and are heavily clad in white plates of armor with pointed shoulder pads and bull horn-like helmets. Unlike the orange-tinted creature, these reinforcements instead emit a fiery-orange glow about them. The weapon they have don't look to be of heavy ordinance but still requires two hands to wield—except for the large creature which only uses one. The humanoid beings hold their weapons at their waist, and the weapon doesn't have any aiming sights that indicate mid to far range. This suggest to Selvaria they are wielding a close-quarters type of weapon—a shotgun in the most likely case. The metal beings and creature glare at the Empire soldiers, taking aim at them as they slowly approach them with the orange-tinted metal creature—presumably the leader—staying back to watch.

"Soldiers of the Empire, show these metal abominations the power of the Empire. Fire!" A bullet storm ensues. The enemy reacts accordingly. The lumbering metal creature bends its leg while holding its blade back and leaps an incredible distance towards a lancer, narrowly escaping an oncoming large projectile, landing right in front of the lancer, swinging down and cutting through metal, skin and bone before the blade strikes the ground. The metallic creature quickly recovers and swipes its orange blade of light across into the abdomen, cutting through his blast armor and lodging the blade into his body and launches him towards the sky, landing and tumbling violently several feet away from the creature, dead upon impact.

The two humanoids go into a sprint before hastily deconstructing themselves, swimming through the air like a snake on land, dancing and weaving through the bullets before reconstructing themselves in front of a shock trooper and scout. The two soldiers jump back by the sudden appearance of the menacing, 7-feet tall, metal beings. The shock trooper uses the butt end of this machine gun to whack his opponent, but is ineffective as the being only stares at the now-terrified empire soldier slowly backing away. The metal humanoids aim their shotguns at the two soldiers and squeeze the triggers, firing pellets of light that strike the two soldiers, killing them instantly as their bodies are propelled back by the blast. That is not the end of the terror as Selvaria and her men witness the two dead soldiers' body quickly disintegrate into an ash-like substance. This excursion only leaves 4 soldiers—one lancer, one shock trooper, one scout, and the engineer—and Selvaria herself.

One metal humanoid phases away to its left towards the lumbering metal creature to assist with the remaining Empire soldiers. The second would have followed suit but is pelted with bullets on its right, damaging its armor. It turns to greet its attacker with its shotgun already aiming, but the attacker closes the distance quickly and grabs ahold of the shotgun with her right hand and pushes it upward, causing the shot to miss. Her left hand has her weapon that is still firing while she performs the other task simultaneously. The armor plates shits around to withstand the constant firing, but its armor has already sustained too much damage and enters a critical mode. It reaches for the firing gun with one hand, and pushes it downward so it is aiming at the floor, locking the two combatants into a stalemate, though the metallic humanoid is much stronger than its female assailant and would eventually win in the long run.

"Do not underestimate a Valkyrur, abhorrent creature." Selvaria warns with an enmity-filled glare directed at the metal, humanoid being.

"Prideful as ever, human, but your hollow threat fazes me not the slightest."

"So you can speak. Who are you and enlighten me on your reason for assaulting us."

"It does not matter who we are, human. Forerunners have defeated humans once so long ago, and we can do it again, especially in your primitive state."

"Humanity defeated… What do you mean by that? Explain yourself!"

"It won't matter in the long run for you, human. You will be humbled from your arrogance; all of humanity will. The Promethean Knight, Commander Lochagos, and the rest of the Prometheans will ensure this fate becomes reality." It reveals as it looks out towards the orange-tinted, Forerunner knight in command with Selvaria following its gaze. "The Mantle belongs to Forerunners alone, human. For that, you will die where you stand. If not by my hands, then by the rest of the Prometheans." A silence between the two starts with the metal beings slowly overpowering the Valkyrur's strength as it slowly lowers its gun at her. Having time to think, she looks at her attacker straight in the eyes.

"You are right about one thing." Selvaria admits, sliding under the Forerunner armiger, pulling its weapon down onto the ground while hitting its ankle as it drops to one knee as she lands on her feet. She twirls around and smashing the butt of her gun into the armiger's head, breaking its armor and exposing red, glowing area around its body and head. It looks up, only to be greeted by the end of a barrel. She squeezes the trigger, discharging one lone bullet to impale its head, shattering the entire body of the armiger into various pieces before all of them disintegrate, leaving no trace of the armiger whatsoever. Its weapon also disintegrates upon landing on the floor. "You won't be the one defeating me."

Looking over towards her men in their engagement, she witnesses the last armiger disintegrate away along with the scout that delivered the final blow to it, leaving only the metal creature called a Knight. The remaining lancer aims and shoots his last shot at the knight, but the knight discharges its shotgun as well, striking and killing the lancer with his body disintegrating shortly after. However, the lancer's parting shot strikes the knight in the shoulder, forcing it to stumble backwards as the right side of its heavily-armored carapace blows off, revealing a core to the Valkyrur. No bullets left, the silvered-haired Valkyrur rushes towards the knight as it slowly approaches the garrisoned engineer. Using the momentum gained, she grabs ahold of the massive knight's light blade, ripping it off from its arm and slashes its leg, forcing it to kneel. Even on one of its knees, the knight still towers over the Valkyrur. Unintimidated, she places one foot onto its knee and propels herself up as the knight takes aim at her, but that only the Valkyrur to uses the its weapon as another platform to scale the knight. Now on top of it, she places the blade in both her hands facing down and forces it down, impaling the knight's core with its own blade. She swiftly jumps off the defeated opponent, sticking the landing and turns to watch the knight disintegrate away from the core outward. The shotgun it wields drops to the floor and shatters into many pieces but does not disintegrate. The engineer ungarrisons himself and heads towards Selvaria.

"General Bles, Are you uninjured?"

"I am fine, but it would seem everybody else has been killed by the… Prometheans."

"That is what they call themselves? How do you know that?"

"One of them revealed it to me, confident its ability to defeat me, but I killed it instead."

"I am glad you are unharmed, general."

"Do not celebrate yet for this battle is not over." She declares, turning towards the remaining orange-tinted knight commander. Its weapon is not aiming at them but the red glow at the end of the barrel indicates it is charging its weapon. It roars at the Valkyrur and engineer before jumping into the air, unleashing another stream of red orbs in a haphazard manner to achieve a wider area of effect.

"Move!" Selvaria and the engineer sprint away from the outpost, strafing to the left and right as orbs of light explode all around them.

"General, look out." The engineer hollers, accelerating forward towards Selvaria, grabbing her waist and tackling her to the side, narrowly evading a lone explosive orb from striking the Valkyrur.

"Sorry for that, commander, but I saw an orb about to hit you and didn't know what else to do." He attempts to vindicate himself.

"You risked your life to save mine. For that, I am grateful, but we should keep going before it sends another volley of explosive orbs."

"General, I don't see that thing anymore" Selvaria turns around, confirming the engineers claim about the knight's sudden disappearance. "Where is it?"

"It must have retreated." She decided. "We should consider ourselves lucky we survived this excursion, but the same cannot be said for the 7 men we lost tonight."

"But we accomplished are mission. We were sent to discover the truth behind the outpost, and now we know and can report it to Lord Maximilian. We took out those three with that orange one escaping. From the looks of it, I think it might be the one in charge of the other three."

"Commander Lochagos. That is what that humanoid being revealed to me." She responds. "It referred the Commander as a Promethean Knight. However, we still don't know why they came to this outpost or their motivations. However, we now know there is another enemy upon us besides the Gallians, and the information uncovered here will serve us well." With those remarks, the two survivors being their journey back to headquarters to report their findings.

"Where are you going?" Selvaria ask the engineer goes in the opposite direction back to the outpost.

"There is something that I need to get to make your report more feasible." He answers.

"To reiterate, you and the rest of your men were attacked, but not by the Gallian forces, but by a large, metallic creature called a…." General Gregor glances down at the report to make sure he has the correct phrase. "Promethean Knight."

"Yes. My men and I were attacked by a Knight that goes by the name Commander Lochagos. It boasted heavy armor as bullets and lance projectile could not make a dent into its armor. It is when we acquired distance that reinforcements materialized in the form of another knight and two metallic humanoid beings. Regrettably, only myself and an engineer survived the ordeal. The bodies of the dead soldiers were disintegrated by the Promethean weaponry."

"The events of this report are extraordinary, so much so I find it difficult to believe without proof."

"I would have to agree with Gregor." General Jaeger joins in. "I know you are a Valkyrur and capable of magnificent fleets, but what you speak of giant, lumbering soldiers of metal with advance weaponry is hard to swallow without evidence."

"If evidence is what you desire…" she starts as she grabs a bag from underneath the table and empties its contents all over the table.

"It looks like scrap metal to me, albeit shiny." General Jaeger comments.

"The engineer salvaged what he could from the fallen knight's weapon but could never achieve a functional state. He remarks the weaponry as an intricate puzzle. If this is the case, then to complete the puzzle…" She pulls a piece of metal out of her pocket. "You need all the pieces." Selvaria drops the single metal part into the pile of forerunner metal. Moving the pieces around, she grabs the part that looks to be the handle and holds it up.

"Do you expect us to watch you put this pile of scrap…." Gregor is cut short as the metal pieces start to levitate off the table around the handle. The members of the Triumviri watch the metal pieces assembled themselves one-by-one as if each piece knows where to go. It takes 5 seconds for the completed puzzle to yield a shotgun-like, weapon with intricate patterns of orange, glowing lines now in the hands of Selvaria.

"You don't see that every day." Jaeger comments, now standing out of his chair along with the rest of the Triumviri.

"Selvaria, let me see that weapon." Maximilian request with his hand extended out.

"Yes, my lord." She takes one step and stops. All they can do it watch as the metal shotgun disintegrates away in the hands of Selvaria. "I am sorry, my Lord! The weapon must have been damaged during Commander Lochagos's attack and assembling itself must have destroyed it. I ask for your forgiveness." She bows with her right hand over her heart.

"Stand up straight, Selvaria. The weapon is irrelevant at this point. We now know you are speaking the truth about the existence of these Prometheans. However, this only poses more question than answers with the first being their relationship to the Valkyrurs."

"If I may speak my mind, your Grace, I don't believe these Prometheans have any relation to the Valkyrurs. One would expect these Prometheans to utilize ragnite, just like us and the Valkyrurs from back then. However, my body did not react when holding their weaponry or drawing near to the metallic beings or the knights, especially Commander Lochagos. It would be my hypothesis they don't utilize ragnite as the rest of the world does. Also, recalling the knowledge and history I possess about the Valkyrurs, there is no mention of Prometheans or Forerunners. But, I do know they are highly advanced for their weaponry, armor, and capabilities are decades beyond what we could muster currently."

"I see. So we face an unknown enemy with highly advanced weaponry that may be superior to Valkyrurs. Is there anything else you would like to share?" Maximilian relaxes back into his throne.

"As of right now, I believe the Forerunners and Prometheans are one in the same for the time being. Having stated this, it has been revealed to me the Forerunner have defeated humanity a long time ago."

"Defeated humanity…. Why do you supposed they want to defeat us now, Selvaria?"

"The metallic being mentioned something called the Mantle, and judging by his speech and his defense about it, it held this Mantle in a high regard." Selvaria shares. Lord Maximilian remains at his throne with a pensive expression about him. A lot was revealed today, and he needs time to sort all this information out. He stands up and walks over towards the table.

"The Valkyrurs are an ancient race who helped form history and our countries. Since the Darcsen's Calamity, they are revered as gods and are worshiped by people. Now, there are few to tell about their abilities with even less living descendants. However, another aspect of history rises from the sands of time, and they are calling themselves the Forerunners, and they appear to have no use for ragnite. This is a matter that bears further investigation for I don't believe even the Valkyrurs of ancient have knowledge of these Forerunners or their capabilities. For now, we continue our invasion of Fourzen and push the Gallians back, and if these Prometheans intervene, then take them out and salvage anything dropped. The discovery of an ancient race more unknown than the Valkyrurs is an achievement. Unlike Valkyrurs, there is no recorded history on them but miraculously survived and have decided to reveal their existence once more. I want to know why." Lord Maximilian expresses, sitting back down in his throne as he continues to ponder on the Forerunners and their claim of defeating humanity. "For now, we will remain patient and let them come to us. Gregor, Jaeger, and Selvaria, see to it we bolster up our defenses. If one Knight can overpower you, Selvaria, then they can do the same with others. Now go!" Each general salutes Lord Maximilian, before leaving the conference room.

"Is there something else you wish to share, Selvaria?"

"It is about what has transpired at the outpost…."

"Do not worry yourself about it. I only requested that you uncovered the truth, and you did. To go in without your lance and shield to face an unknown, powerful enemy is too much to ask even for you. In any case, I still want you to keep yourself hidden from the Gallians until the time has come, but if you are to encounter more Prometheans, then by all means, show then your true power."

"If that is your will, your Grace, then I will shall follow." She salutes one more time before leaving the room with Lord Maximilian pondering in deep thought about the new developments and where to go from there.

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