Matriarchs and Patriarchs alike stand with talons gripping the soft wood of overhanging canopies on this jungle area, the trees having been specifically grown in such a fashion as to mimic the arenas of ancient times, their angled faces gazing down at the battle below where several young and old warriors of the Hissho dynasty fight for the glory of commanding their own ships in battle. The fighters are each champions of their homeworlds with distinctions from taking down entire packs of mammals to gargantuan predators that plagued nearby civilian areas and in the space beyond. Now these heroes face their toughest foes yet, eachother, in a death match to see who gets to pilot the Tyrandis, the flagship of the newest and most recent invasion fleet in the dynasties navy. With muted silence the leaders of world gaze on each silently hoping for their champions to make it through.



Although there are many different fighters in this grand melee only three stand out as the top favorites. Trisk Hellios, a spry young pilot from the Adromeda Cluster that earned his title by fighting off nearly a dozen pirate fleets on his own in a simple Tyrannis class destroyer. With distinctions on nearly all levels of piloting and tinkering to adapt and modify his own ship to the coming situations Trisk specializes in solo or small gang warfare with a band of trusted warriors at his side. Though not ideal for large fleet command or engagements the leaders of his solar system are confident in the young one's ability to adapt and change a situation to his own advantage, giving Pilot Hellios a unique chance at becoming the first unranked officer to command a flagship.



The second favorite of three is a ruthless commander by the name of Gnarr Nntroska known by many as the Scourge of Lacenta for his dominating victory over the United Empire's fleets in the invasion of that system. Using brutal strike tactics against both military and civilian hard points he weakened the morale and overall strength of the humans before swooping in with a fleet of overwhelming size. Though the honour of his tactics are in question they are shadowed over by the fact that the system in question held many vital resources including the most coveted Void Stones, Concrete Artifacts, and Redsang as well as Tirtanium-70 and Hypernium. Without a doubt Gnarr won the dynasty a great victory that day, but at the cost of him being doubted for the honour he upholds as a fleet commander. Regardless of these facts though the Scourge of Lacenta has an exceedingly high chance of becoming the flagship's commander as he has experience with small and large fleet engagements, and commanding hundreds of troops under his wing.



Finally the third hopeful and favorite is a warrior surrounded in mystery as the star system he comes from is unknown to the leaders of the Dynasty. He has no name and no origin so the others around him simply call this Hissho The Giant. He is huge, larger than any Hissho before or after him by at least two times. There is no doubt about The Giant's ability in combat nor his honour as he lets fallen warriors rise again once they have been downed, but besides that there is nothing really known of fleet or troop command. Never seen speaking it is rumoured that The Giant is from a frontier research base, a specimen of highly controversial sciences which seek to manufacture the perfect warrior. Regardless of if the rumours are true or not his prowess in battle is hard to deny as, before all the eyes that watch the arena bellow, he destroys almost five warriors at a time with powerful swings of his bare claws.



From above the arena looks like a large playing field with pieces moving in real time on the whims of great gods of combat and politics, deciding the fate of a major decision with the lives lost and won below. From the field itself it is not so grand with the blood of fallen warriors from the death match turning the ground into mud below warriors feet and making the footing all the more treacherous. The match started with thirty champions all from the worlds of the Hissho Dynasty not currently involved in expansion or defense against invading enemies, all the fighters though are seasoned pilots, warriors, and commanders each with a line of distinctions longer than the lives of most ground pounders.



Now the match has reached its climax with The Giant, Gnarr Nntroska, and Trisk Hellios dominating their respective corners of the conflict each with at least a half dozen marks of warriors slain or immobilized upon their scores. Trisk, the noble warrior he is, has merely immobilized all those that came before him with the rational that they are all good warriors and should then fight behind him and on his side when he takes command of the Tyrandis, a waste of good fighters is a great waste indeed. Gnarr on the other hand has brutally slaughtered all those before him killing each with the others weapons and then displaying their loses for all to see in a gruesome show of victory and ego. Meanwhile The Giant does not differ between death and immobility, though when an opponent is rendered unconscious he backs away from them allowing the fallen to be removed from the field. As it stands now the three favorites are all tied up in score with six victories each leaving nine warriors still standing including themselves. Now the real fight begins as the final hour of the match will show who the real commander of the Tyrandis is, not by commendations or skill in a ship, but by the raw victory of wading through twenty-nine other champions to achieve a state of pure glory over all others.

"Ksss! Is that the best you have got, feeble egglings? I could crush an ant and get more enjoyment from it than defeating the likes of you!" Gnarr spits words of venom at three opponents who have banded together to take him on. They all saw his brutality in killing the others before them and agree that he should not ever be allowed to leave this battle alive, his dishonour would be a stain on the pride of the Dynasty.



Staying silent the three fighters encircle the Scourge and begin to step around him moving in the same pattern and keeping their eyes on both the prey as well as each other. With an enemy on every side Gnarr seems to be in better spirits than one in his situation might normally be, his attitude only gets better as the three warriors make their move. One from behind strikes first, and they call The Scourge dishonourable, his claws raking through the air trying to catch Gnarr in surprise before the other two move in for the kill. Planting a clawed foot in the ground the commander pivots and grabs one of the outstretched arms of his opponent before the man can react and without even a batting of an eye he twists and lobs the now flailing Hissho into the coming charge of one of the other allies. With the sickening crunch of bones snapping as the airborne fighter meets his compatriot Gnarr turns to the final one and bares his sharpened teeth at the final opponent, "I will enjoy killing you slowly, worm."



On the other side of the arena from the ganged up fight Trisk can only hear the pained cries of the dying warriors as he circles the one opponent before him. There are no words shared between them, no breath wasted on hot air for show or ego, simply glares of concentration never leaving the body of the other and making sure there isn't one feather moved out of place that would mean an attack. A third circle now, the track in the mud from both becoming one and the same almost like a rail that a train would follow going within an endless circle. Finally Trisk spots a weakness in the stance of his opponent as strikes, he leaps forward covering the gap between them in mere seconds with his powerful legs only to find that it was merely a ruse. An arm comes out and blocks his claws so that instead of them going through any major veins or organs below the fleshy skin of a torso they simply rend the flesh from an appendage.



Not letting up Trisk rakes his claws along the others arm until they catch on what can only be bones. Piercing two finders through the space between two bones he grabs a hold of the arm and uses it to bodily throw his opponent, now unconscious from pain, into the way of a mighty swing aimed directly for Trisk. He'd concentrated on the fight before him for too long and The Giant succeeded in sneaking up on the both of them. Watch, as if in slow motion, the body of his enemy shatter in a spray of blood and gore with the force of hitting the massive warriors weapon, a club as big as a tree, Trisk can't help but wonder if this massive Hissho can win against the ruthless Gnarr and maybe honour could win the day after all. Those last thoughts are the only witnesses in the humid arena to Trisk having his brains liquidized in one great blow as his body is thrown like a rag doll across the bloody ground only to fall limp on the body of another dead warrior. Standing tall, silent, and concentrating only on the final battle The Giant turns away from the dead and lumbers off towards the now silent corner where Gnarr Nntroska killed his enemies.



The Scourge greats his new enemy with a scene befitting the most gruesome of barbarians as he has managed to flay the three other warriors alive while he waited. Without hesitation or even batting an eye at the carnage The Giant simply takes one more step forward and swings with his mighty club at Gnarr in an attempt to take his head clean off his shoulders. With cackle of glee Gnarr ducks under the strong yet clumsy swing and darts past the large Hissho's reach where he leaps upon the things back. With arm blurring at the speed of his attacks Gnarr starts shredding the feathers and skin on The Giant's shoulders spraying blood and torn flesh in all directions. If the huge warrior had the ability to speak, which he clearly does not now, would be screaming in agony at the ferocious attacks placed on him. Eventually the fighter can no longer hold the weight of his club with the last of the tendons in his back snapped by Gnarr's talons and lets it fall with a thunderous crash to the ground. The weapon is quickly followed by its wielder as Gnarr simply gives the targets neck a violent snap and leaps off the falling body.



Above in the canopy both cheers at the glorious battle being finished and yells of jeerings and chagrin fill the air. The gathered Patriarchs and Matriarchs are split as to the outcome of the battle. No doubt Gnarr is the winner and now commander of the flagship Tyrandis, but the ways he came by victory will forever leave a dark shadow upon this Dynasty's honour. Will the Hissho Shogunate be able to reign in such a brutal warrior with the command of entire fleets or will he eventually break away and even perhaps try to overthrow the leaders that put him there. Whatever the outcome the Grand Melee is over and the long succession of trials has come to a close, indeed when these events are held by the Emperor Patriarch legends are made whether they are good or bad.

Another very interesting story! Personally, I'm not sure of the practice of having some of your best officers and warriors killing each other to command a new ship, but, eh, they're Hissho. They'll be easy for my UE fleets to conquer that way :P



Joking aside, another good job. Any idea what your next one will focus on?

FinalStrigon wrote:
Another very interesting story! Personally, I'm not sure of the practice of having some of your best officers and warriors killing each other to command a new ship, but, eh, they're Hissho. They'll be easy for my UE fleets to conquer that way :P



Joking aside, another good job. Any idea what your next one will focus on?

Not sure, might be another UE one or maybe Cravers. I'm a altogether not sure how one would write a story on Horatio... will be an adventure.

DeathSarge wrote:
Not sure, might be another UE one or maybe Cravers. I'm a altogether not sure how one would write a story on Horatio... will be an adventure.

Hmm...The Horatio would be difficult. The first idea of mine that comes to mind would be an origin story, with Horatio "Prime" leaving the UE and stumbling upon the planet with the Endless cloning/gene modification tech. Just a though.



Either way, you're a better writing than me. My stuff is all focusing on the UE so far, as I just don't like writing from the perspective of other races.

This is the first time I've ever done fan fiction for a game... I feel like the Hissho in my avatar discovering great new things.

DeathSarge wrote:
This is the first time I've ever done fan fiction for a game... I feel like the Hissho in my avatar discovering great new things.

Heh. I've fiddled with some in the past. A KotOR one way back when, some Mass Effect ones...Not too many, really, as most of my fan stuff for games comes out in play-by-post RPing. I'm hoping to see a thread or forum somewhere pop up for an Endless Space RPG pop up somewhere, but...Well, we'll see.



For a first attempt though, you're doing some good stuff.

FinalStrigon wrote:
Heh. I've fiddled with some in the past. A KotOR one way back when, some Mass Effect ones...Not too many, really, as most of my fan stuff for games comes out in play-by-post RPing. I'm hoping to see a thread or forum somewhere pop up for an Endless Space RPG pop up somewhere, but...Well, we'll see.



For a first attempt though, you're doing some good stuff.

I've done more fan fic roleplay than real or fan writing in my lifetime all together. Can't wait to see if an RP forum pops up... may suggest it in the website support area one day along with a Fanfic forum.

DeathSarge wrote:
I've done more fan fic roleplay than real or fan writing in my lifetime all together. Can't wait to see if an RP forum pops up... may suggest it in the website support area one day along with a Fanfic forum.

I'd second that. Or perhaps a social group, for all those interested.

Love the story. The battle between the thre warriors and there different back stories is superb. I'd like to read more about this Gnarr character, and hope that he comes to a terrible end.