Chapter Text
There are many worlds like this, stories spread upon this universe scattered like dust to the wind, this is the story of ‘heroes’. People from various places banding under a single banner against the encroaching darkness from every corner of the eyes.
One comes from the ancient time, the first war of the universe that was waged upon the heavens, others come from the time of humanity both past and golden age, some come from the time where the greatest species fell to debauchery and birthed the 4th god of chaos, last are the children of the imperium brought forth to the unlikely fellowship.
This is a story of ‘us’. We who march under the banner of an impossible task at hand, to salvage the future and timeline, to bring hope against the tide's chaos.
We are not heroes, none of us are saints.
We are merely salvagers of this timeline.
Arc 1 Ark of the Forgotten
Chapter 1 Cold Beginning, Unwelcome Reception by Lord of Crucible Shaxx
The last 5% of the boss's health remains.
Hello everyone. My name is Jack and I’m currently teaching a group of FF XVI newbies the copied factory raid. It’s been over two hours of trying to beat this whole thing. Guess that’s just my luck.
My favourite music keeps blasting through the speakers as the boss's health drops to 3%. Teaching new players raids is a really time-consuming activity... But knowing that, it’s a great feeling once you do it, because one day, they may teach others.
2% . Mechanics already done and it’s a homestretch. The raid is finally coming to a close. It’s already late, but I’ll see it through.
0%. 9s lies defeated and the alliance cheers on the discord.
”Man, that was difficult.”
”No, it wasn’t. You were just adamant to not spoil the experience by watching guides”
”To each their own, I guess”
With a tired smile, we begin rolling for the last bits of loot. I roll for the last piece of gear missing from my collection and to my surprise, roll a 96.
”Hey, dude! I wanted the pod! I rolled 95, what the hell?”
I snort lightly: ”Well, I rolled a 96 and it’s the last item I’m missing from the full collection. It’s mine now!”
With the group laughing in the background, we say our goodbyes, people leaving the alliance and the discord channels.”
”Hey, Fourties?” Goddamnit. Told them to call me by my actual name, not the name of my character ”Can I count on you to run this again next week?”
With a sigh, I reply ”Sure can, add me to your list, see you later. I’m going to sleep”
”Thank you so much!”
Full collection complete. Other than teaching and some materials, I have no reason to keep running this anymore. The curse of a completionist I guess. Sitting down on my bed I look at the clock. 2 am. It’s going to be an interesting day at work tomorrow, that’s for sure. Closing my eyes I begin to drift off.
...
I wake up, but not in my home.
Lazily looking around I take in my surroundings. The room I’m in is spacious. There is some furniture, including a bed, but I’m lying on the floor facing a doorway ahead of me. The window behind me is obscured by a wall of metal for some reason. Slowly picking myself up, I begin to think. Unfamiliar location, no idea where and my body feels extremely heavy for some reason. Was I drugged and thrown in here? Standing up I look myself over. I have never owned such... extravagant clothes. A form-fitting jacket, expensive-looking black boots, my hands are in gloves... And I appear much thinner than I was before. Something doesn’t add up. As I approach the door, it opens automatically, showing a corridor beyond. The situation is getting really confusing. Where am I, in some sort of simulation? The corridor stretches in both directions. As I leave the room of my awakening, I turn around to take one last look at it. At the first glance, it appears normal... just very white. But what catches my attention, is a name plaque on the left side of the door.
”42-s”
What. the. hell? That’s my character’s name!
Realization slowly begins to creep into my mind. I start sprinting down the hallway. I pass more rooms, but these ones are already open. ”11-s”, ”4-s”, ”32-s”,”801-s”... I halt and gaze inside at ”9-s”. The room looks exactly like mine, but this time I see something that appears like another corridor behind the window. I don’t think I’ll be able to break that glass anytime soon.
My journey eventually reaches an elevator. I can see from the distance that the corridor keeps going forward. A short decision later, I step inside it. Making a mental map of the place, I look around the lift. I press the highest button and it begins to ascend. Looking behind me, I am met with a reflective surface of the doors. I halt the process, so I can get a good look at myself in them. Expensive clothes that are likely worth more than my monthly paycheck? Blonde hair, when I previously had brown? Check and check. The final nail in the coffin, however, was the blindfold over my eyes I haven’t realized was there. With shaky hands, I reach behind my hand and undo it. I am met with a pair of bright, blue eyes.
I slump over the backside wall of the elevator. This does explain why I feel heavier than usual. I’m literally made of metal... Somehow, I was turned into an android overnight. I barely start up the elevator again. I feel like I’m about to fall over. The doors open at the top floor and I take a shaky step forward, only to fall and let the darkness overcome my vision.
Once my consciousness returns, I get up again and start going forward. No matter my current state, I need to find out everything -...
There is an android corpse in front of me. Not just any YoRHa android (I’m a scanner type android from Nier: Automata), but an operator. Unmistakable blonde hair in that peculiar hairstyle, a face mask, and a skin-tight suit over the defined female body. Now that my memory fully restarted I realize WHERE and WHEN I am. My walk accelerates to a full sprint, as I pass multiple bodies on my way, eventually reaching a much larger door. Upon entering I’m greeted with the YoRHa command centre. Error messages across every screen, A mass of operator bodies on the floor, together with a lot of armoured androids, also lying around. I slowly walk downstairs. As I approach the downed units, one operator begins to twitch. Running close to her, my instincts scream to help her, but my efforts are met with a fist to my face as I fly at a wall. The eerie, red eyes of the half-broken operator shine brightly in contrast to the white environment.
I’m not going to die. The damage suffered by her, will make her much slower than me. But I can’t let her run around unchecked. Picking up a YoRHa spear off of one of the battle types, I charge at her and impale her on the tip. The red eyes dim and shut down completely, leaving me alone again, as the only being alive aboard the bunker...
Aboard a YoRHa bunker, as a scanner type, alone, post logic virus, in god knows where. I’m in deep trouble.
I look at the weapon, still lodged in the operator, With a pull, I remove it from her torso.
I need to get out of here and fast.
But here appears another problem. If she got reactivated somehow, perhaps she won’t be the only one.
And so, I began the morbid task of stabbing every single body I came across, to ensure that they were really dead.
The task of checking them took longer than expected. Mainly because there were more bodies slumped over the walls. Two more operator units were activated, but I eliminated them smoothly, without getting hurt in the process. Luckily, none of the battlers were active. With the room now secured I need to take control of the bunker somehow. At least I’m in the right spot.
One of the few terminals still active was unlocked. It provided me with some general information about the place. It detected 5 black boxes still active (more infected) in the lower levels, the power was still on because solar panels had something to charge off from and if the sensors were to be believed, the bunker had crashed into something. Most likely the thing I saw through 9s’ window.
I was able to cut off access from some floors, including the hangar and multiple living quarter floors. Few places remained out of my access, but mostly because they got wrecked by whatever the bunker crashed into. The other was the storage on the right. I am safe for now.
With that said, I can’t survive long on my own. Leaving the command room, I make my way towards 9s quarters. With the spear, I should be able to break the glass and have access to whatever lies beyond. So, with a determined face, I enter the lift again and return to the previous floor, weapon in hand. I know for sure there are 4 more infected somewhere since I also count black box signals, but now I’m ready to fight back.
Entering the room and closing the door behind me for safety I begin to strike the reinforced glass with my tool. A scanner’s body isn’t built for combat, but eventually, the glass cracks and a wave of cold air hits me right in the face. At least there is air on the other side. I continue breaking more of the glass to make a hole large enough to go through. A few seconds later I vault over the opened space, into the unknown. The path ahead of me goes straight ahead, seemingly without end in sight. Picking up the pace, I begin my walk forward, checking out the corridor for potential dangers or rooms to check out.
After a minute or two of walking around, I find something resembling a door. It doesn’t budge at all. It’s reinforced, and my spear isn’t a weapon designed for breaking heavy stuff like this. Seemingly out of options, I sit by a wall and start to think of a way to pass this obstacle ahead. The bodies in the command didn’t have any weapons for this purpose either. Think, you’re a Scanner now, thinking is what you do best... scanner... as a scanner, I should have hacking capabilities. Standing up I look over the door again. There appears to be some opening mechanism at the top, but what grabs my attention is a terminal with an image of a lock. Now, smiling lightly I push my hand forward, much like 9s did whenever he hacks something and... nothing. Not deterred in the slightest, I try again and again without any results. My smile turns sour as yet another attempt at activating the hacking function fails.
”Hack it, you senseless limb, or I’ll cut you off and replace you!” My vocal threat does nothing to activate this function, and my enthusiasm has died completely.
”Fuck you, door.” I say as I slam my fist against the terminal. And suddenly my vision goes white.
When I come back to my senses, my consciousness is contained within some sort of triangular vessel. Happiness returns to me. I can hack stuff now! Figuring out how to move and fire took a bit, but now I’m moving with a purpose, looking for anything that can grant me access to the door controls. I finally reach a panel of sorts, which firewalls I proceed to break into and reach my prize. Switching the control on, I am pulled back into my body.
The access panel is now showing the picture of an open lock and the door slowly activates.
With a smile on my face, I enter the now unlocked section. The room I find myself in is spacious. It appears to be some sort of a storage facility since I see multiple crates. Fortunately, they don’t obscure any doorways. Taking a quick look behind me, I notice just how small the door I came through is compared to everything else. I must have entered through some maintenance corridors. As I head towards the door ahead of me, I begin to wonder about what is ahead. It’s either a spaceship, or space station, either suggests some sort of occupants and considering the lights are on, I may come across them soon... I hope they’ll be friendly.
I try hacking the door again, this time from a distance, repeating the same movement as I did last time. I’m getting better at this. As it opens, I face another corridor. I take my first confident steps and... the lights turn red, alert starts blasting, and from the corner of my vision, I see something activating on a far wall. Ducking back into the room I came from, I quickly peek at my potential adversary. An automated turret with two, very big guns are now slowly moving back and forth, scanning the corridor. At this point, my life depends on whether I can eliminate it, so I’m left with no choice. As the turret field of vision passes over my location, I jump out and begin the hacking procedure.
The biggest challenge yet. The firewall of the turret took a long while to break through, It’s defensive measures taking few strikes at me. Eventually, it’s disabled and I can leave my safety corner for now.
My success doesn’t last long, as I suddenly hear the sound of something heading my way. It’s either moving very fast or is very heavy. I take a few cautious steps back, behind the door I came from, and watch from the door frame as IT arrives. A large metallic figure with mechanical tendrils is currently investigating the disabled turret. Its long body stretches behind the corner, leaving me unable to see its full size. Without a way to reliably escape it, I reconnect with the turret it’s working on.
Reactivating it and changing its targeting system was surprisingly quick without a firewall protecting it. I watch from the door as the entity takes a confused step back as a turret reactivates. I stifle a laugh as the turret proceeds to fire at the robot. I am left in shock as it obliterates the turret with a single strike. It then turns to face me. At least the impact had some effect as a chunk of its head armor is missing. I take my chance at hacking the thing, but the much superior firewalls push me out almost instantly. The moment I return to my form, I sidestep back and run back the way I came. The unholy metallic screeching follows me into the maintenance corridor, as I reach a safe zone.
Turning back, I see it’s tendrils searching for me. Grabbing the weapon firmly, I use it like a halberd and strike at one of them near the floor. To my immediate surprise, the appendage is cut and the machine retreats for a moment, only to restart its search with more vigor. It likely doesn’t know my weapon of choice, as I proceed to remove two more tendrils with a single strike. Its angry screeches are getting louder, but now, I know that it isn’t invincible. The moment the tendrils return, jump in front of them and stab my spear in the unexpecting face of the machine, striking its vital systems. To my shock, it still works after the fact, so I let go of the weapon and hide. I can hear it’s screeching for a while longer until I hear a loud thud on the floor.
Cautiously, I leave the safety of the corridor and see the mechanical monstrosity disabled completely. When it tried to remove the weapon, it must have dug it deeper into its systems... I’ll take it. Removing it took a fair amount of time, but it’s back in my hands and I can continue... Not that I want to again, considering the security so far. My train of thought is interrupted, as the door I came through is closed. Trying to hack it again yields no results. I hide behind one of the crates and start peeking at the still open corridor ahead. I can see some form moving ahead. At this point, my life depends on if I can take it down, whatever it is. It finally turns around the corner... It’s rather good looking... for a machine, that is. Cyan-White coloration, feminine shape, and a pair of back protrusions, likely some sort of propulsion system. It enters the storage room and quickly notices the downed entity.
”Oh goodness, it did THIS to a keeper?” Its very feminine voice said.
”It speaks?” I whisper to myself nearly silently. Unfortunately, the new machine must have heard me, as it quickly turned around, lunged, grabbed me by my torso, and lifted me up with one arm, on the other an energy blade appeared, ready to gut me like an animal.
”Did THIS do it? How did you defeat a keeper!?” The, now defined, ‘female’ demanded.
”It attacked me so I stabbed it in the head and then it tried to remove it?” I replied quickly ”Please miss, I don’t want to die!”
We stood there for a solid minute.
”What are you” She finally asks, with much less malice in her voice.
”I’m an android! I woke up some time ago and my wandering led me here!” Please accept this, I’m not ready to...
She slowly lowered me to the ground, grabbing my weapon with her other hand and leaving me defenseless at her mercy.
”If you do not want to die, you’re going to do everything I say”
”Ok! I didn’t want to fight anyway, just wanted to talk!”
”I will be the judge of that.”
So, this is how I’m going to die. Unable to defend myself, without any chance of rescue...
”I need some help. And you, little one, are going to provide it.”
I look at her with wide eyes. ”What... what can I do?”
”I assume you are capable of hacking systems, yes? Well, you’ll need to reactivate my ship. The hulk we have crashed into damaged many systems.”
”What hulk?” This doesn’t sound good, if it is what I think it is...
”A space hulk. We don’t necessarily know what ships are a part of it, but once you help me reactivate the systems, you’ll be responsible for its exploration.”
”Please let it not be 40k, please let it not be 40k...” I begin to repeat to myself.
”Of course, should you find something dangerous, like an ork krooza with an intact crew, you are to report back.” My hope has officially died.
”Oh fuck, I’m in Warhammer 40000”
”It’s technically the millennium thirty...”
We look at each other again, this time in mutual shock.
”You’re not from around here, aren’t you,” she asks me with a tone that won’t take any bullshit.
...
Meanwhile, within the lower levels of the bunker, a group of three androids with glowing red eyes began to move out, heading for emergency stairs, only to cross through a breach point into another place, with a long way to go. They begin to slowly walk forward, weapons are drawn, leaving behind a slumped over, blonde android with white clothing. Unheard by anyone was the message her system kept on repeating in low voice: ”Virus infection halted at 73%. Recovery possible”