Priority: Novea Castle

--Coda Village--

Life in a village starts early before the sun even comes up, the men are getting ready for a day at the fields and the women are either checking their family's livestock, helping their husbands, fathers, and sons get ready for the day or taking care of their kids. The sound of farming equipment, livestock, wooden carts, and people makes the village feels lively but peaceful at the same time.

The 5th SIF soldiers who are not on lookout duty are having their breakfast around the vehicles just outside of the main entrance of the village. They use light sticks as a light source because the sky is still dark. While everyone enjoying their favorite breakfast made by the replicators, Ava is sitting in the front passenger seat of the command APC looking at the holographic map with Ashley standing next to her planning their next route.

"Look at this, at first it's just an ordinary old castle. Last night, the drone passed through it again and detected smoke a very faint sign of electricity" Ava speaks while the map zooms in on a large but old castle in the middle of nowhere near their location.

"As far as we know this world has not discovered electricity yet" Ashley looks at Ava "This is abnormal commander".

Ava tabs the castle as a blue dot appears at the castle location marking it as a destination "Exactly LC, that's why we are going there to check it out" Ava replies.

"Roger that commander, I'll go brief the men" Ashley salutes as Ava nods, and then she leaves to inform everyone of their mission for today.

Ava steps out of the APC and stands looking out to an open field. The sun is now peeking over the horizon shining its rays of light through morning fog onto the field. There are villagers working on the field or unpacking their equipment and getting ready to work, the entire scene is as peaceful and beautiful as a painting.

Jimmy holding the boy's hand leading him toward Ava, greets Ashley as they walk by each other. Seeing the boy is well and on his feet, Ava feels happy for him.

"This is Commander Ava, she is our leader" Jimmy introduces Ava to the boy.

"Hello there little guy, how are you doing?" with a smile Ava greeted the boy and kneel down to his eve level.

"He is shy commander, he barely speaks to anyone since he got up" Jimmy holding the boy's shoulders to show him he is safe.

"You are safe now, I will protect you, all of us will protect you and take you somewhere safe so don't you worry ok?" Ave looks at the boy in the eyes and tries to be as friendly as possible "My name is Ava, what is your name?"

"My name is Lucas, my dominus" Lucas bow at Ava.

"Dominus?...Oh, you don't need to call me that. You are a free boy now, I am not your master you can call me Ava" taken by surprise because the boy called her dominus (this is how ancient slave address their master in Rome), Ava puts on a smile and holds out the boy's hand "I'm here to help you".

"Why? Why are you helping me?" still shy and not trusting Ava, the boy is confused.

"Because you need help that is a good enough reason for us" understands the boy's position, Ava puts on a smile and continues "Now let get you something to eat then we'll be on our way ok?".

--Troop assembly yard, South Gate, Sadera--

In perfect formation is 2000 Rose Order Knights on armored horses waiting for the arrival of their leader. Usually used as a ceremonial force and consisting of only noble class warriors, the knight armors and horses are very well cared for and professionally displayed. The people of Sadera gather to see one of their most elite forces, made believe through propaganda march out to meet them, probably, the greatest enemy of their time. More importantly, to see their beloved princess Pina on her first quest.

Pina head to her horse in front of the formation after making everything is good to go. Following her are her most trusted knights, Hamilton Uno Ror, Bozes Co Palesti, Norma Co Igloo, Panache Fure Kalgi and Grey Co Aldo her mentor. Waiting for her is the Senators of Sadera as it is low and tradition that the Senate has to be present when a member of the Royal family marching out with an Army.

"Senators" Pina says as she approach them.

The Senators all bow slightly as they acknowledging her royalty.

"Your Highness, Calvus says "Italica is only days from Alnus on a horse, it is not your place to be so close to the enemy. Please reconsider"

Calvus is one of the most respectable Senators in the Senate. Born in a low-class noble family, Calvus was raised to his current position by joining the Imperial Army at a very young age. His opinion has always been held in high regard to the Senate but he is known to be politically aggressive and ruthless. She know what he means when he said that.

"Why? Because I'm not a man?" she asks knowing the answer would not be pleasant.

"Your Highness, I mean no disrespect but I know your Rose Order. Master Grey trained them well but not only do they lack experience, but almost all of them are also noblewomen. War is the realm of men, although glorious, your women warriors will rout as soon as they see their fallen fellow knights, the gore and horror of the battlefield".

She remembers Gery's teaching, the horror of war sometimes is too much even for the strongest mind of men. Even so, she still wants to lead her order into battle and win glory for her father, for the empire. She wants to be like the knights and heroes from the stories.

"I thank you all for your concerns" Pina gets on her horse and speaks up for all Senator to hear and her troops "But as the daughter of the Emperor, Princess of the Empire, I won't stand by and watch Sadera falls to the barbarians from another world".

She then turns and faces her troops as she starts her speech, her voice echoes the yard "My knights, sons, and daughters of Sadera. We hear the enemy from the other world is now occupying the sacred hill of Alnus. It is up to us to hold them there until the empire can muster a stronger army than ever before and drive them back through the hole they crawled out from. I Pina Co Lada, the 3rd daughter of Emperor Molt Sol Augutus, resolved to live or die amongst you in the heat of battle. Let them come with their dark magic, so long as we stand together, THEY SHALL NOT PASS! And when the empire is victorious we shall celebrate together in Heaven or on the throne of their capital!".

As Pina finishes her speech, the entire formation cheer at their leader. Everyone can see the fire burning in them as they yearn for a glorious battle ahead. She turns her horse and starts marching out of the gate, Boze gives the order for the troops to follow her.

Calvus stands on the side with the other Senator as the knights march pass them in 3 columns. He shakes his head in disapproval and believes that the Princess might not return from this quest.

--Novea Castle--

A recon drone was launched ahead to scout out the castle. Scan shows that the castle is on a small hill occupying over 75 000 square meters (750 000 square feet), 576 meters (1889 feet) in length and 200 (656 feet) wide. There are a few well-armed guards without any flags or banners and some activity inside the wall.

Ava orders the convoy to stop and observe the castle from a klick (0.6 miles) away. The convoy takes cover behind a rock formation.

"What do you think commander? You think they're hostile?" Ashley standing next to Ava looking at the zoomed-in vision of the castle through TACNet.

"Well they don't have any flags or banners, their armors are different than the Empire soldier" Ava then switch part of her holographic screen to the drone's feeds "Thermal scans indicate that there's no more than 60 of them about 30 armed, some women, kids. My best guess this is a private castle with household guards".

"So what is your order Commander?" Ashley asks.

"I see no siege weapons so our shield and armor should protect us from their weapon and possibly magic, me the 1st squad will go find out if they're hostile in the IFV. You stay here with the 2nd, APC and the Lancer to provide cover for us" Ava relay her orders to the rest of the unit through TACNet.

"Lucas" Ava lean in the APC and looks at Lucas "You stay here with Ashley ok? She will protect you, I will go talk to some men to find out if they are the bad guy" Ava smile to which Lucas nods his head

The area around the castle was scanned by recon drones and APC sensors to make sure there's no conventional traps or ambush. In addition, the wide-open field makes it hard to set up a good ambush, but Ava does not want to take any chance of putting her entire unit in one place until she can be sure the castle is no threat. Having the rest of her unit stay 1 km away from the castle is well inside of their engagement range, even the infantry thank to the advancement in weapon design and AI targeting assist in their helmet, so they can provide cover for her retreat if the situation requires.

As Ava's IFV gets close to the castle, a horseman rides out to meet her carrying a yellow flag. Realizing the meaning of the yellow flag, she orders the IFV to stop and get out of the vehicle to meet with the man.

"Greeting stranger from beyond the gate. My name is Gulon Aulus, the butler of this castle" Gulon bows before Ava then continues "My master, Aurelius Ceasa wish to invite you and your warriors to enter".

"I am Commander Ava Bennett, You know who we are?" Ava is surprised by the welcome.

"Our scout spotted you since you left Coda village, you can call the rest of your party to come in. We do not wish to harm you" the butler replies in a humble and welcoming tone "After all, we do not want to make an enemy out of the force that destroyed the most elite legions of the empire".

"You hear that LC? Bring 'em in" Ava talk to Ashley.

"Who did you talk to? Commander Ava" the butler curious.

"We have devices that allow us to talk to each other from a great distance" Ava replies.

"Interesting, my master would love to hear all about your device".

Entering the castle, Ava could see that the castle is very old but still very sturdy. The scan shows that the castle was constructed by someone with very advanced construction skills and knowledge, more than anything the UNE found in this world so far.

Ava along with Ashley and Rob follow the butler down a hallway with windows on the side that allow the sunlight to shine through, on the wall are sculptures like they are telling a story.

"Sir Gulon, may I ask what is the name of this castle?" Ashley asks.

"You can call me Gulon my ladies and sir, This castle name is Novea" the butler replies.

"Do you know who built this place, Gulon? It looks very well built" Ava asks Gulon.

"No one really knows my ladies, the castle has been standing even before the age of the Elves 40 thousand years ago. Some believe that the gods built Novea themselves" Gulon replies as he opens a door.

The door leads into a beautiful grand marble hall with sculptures that are fine to the details. At the other end of the hall is a man sitting on what looks like a throne. Behind him is a massive glass sphere.

"This is master Aurelius Ceasa, he would be able to answer your questions better than I can and I'm sure you have many. Now you must excuse me" Gulon then bows to his master and the guests then leaves through the door they came in.

Rob whisper to Ava "Commander, there's energy signature from that sphere".

Ava nods then lead the team to approach the man.

"Welcome, welcome, my name is Aurelius. I'm sure my butler has already informed you, please take a seat. Sir on the left, ladies on the right" Aurelius greets them with excitement.

As they sit down, the servants bring them something that looks like tea. A girl servant brings Rob his drink and two boy servants bring Ava and Ashley their drink.

"So tell me, what is your business out here strangers? And what may I call you?" Aurelius continues when the servants are left.

"My name is Commander Ava Bennett, this is Lieutenant Commander Ashley Le my second in command and this is Lieutenant Rob Anderson out tech expert" Ava introduce everyone then continues "Our mission is to explore this world and make peace with anyone who is willing to".

"A peaceful conqueror! Your kind is rare do you know that?" Aurelius laughs in excitement.

"So Aurelius, what can you tell us about this castle?" Ava asks.

"Ah, the castle, of course" Aurelius stands up like he's getting ready for a presentation.

"This castle is one of the most mysterious places in all Falmart, no one knows who built it or why. It has been passed down in my family for hundreds of generations each adding their own stories to the hallways of the castle. We are the guardians of Novea Castle, we serve no master, no king, no emperor" Aurelius as he stands looking at the glass sphere behind his seat.

"So you mean you're not under the Empire's influence? Why haven't they tried to take the castle?" curious about what he said, Ava asks.

"This castle is believed to be built by gods themselves, it has a soul and is considered sacred by the Empire and all of Falmart. No Kings or Generals, not even countless Emperors of Sadera dare to violate this ground and risk the anger of the gods" Aurelius replies then takes a sip from his drink.

"It has soul you say?" Rob asks.

"Yes, the soul of the castle is believed to be left by the gods to give us mortal their message" Aurelius look back at the sphere "but her message has always been the same 'primitive life form detected, this cycle has not advanced to sufficient level, shutting down to preserve power and no one has ever understood it"

"Can we meet this soul and hear her message? Maybe we can figure it out?" Ashley says.

"Of course, come up here I'll show you" Aurelius invite the team up to the sphere and press a large green crystal.

The top and the bottom of the sphere light up a blue light then appears in the center is a blue holographic sphere. The members of the 5th SIF instantly recognize that this is a piece of technology rather than magic.

"Advance technology detected, the cycle is at the optimal level, warning AI activated" the light and the holographic sphere turn to green and continues "Greeting, I am 105, I am the central AI of this post. Information about the Reaper is transmitting".

Aurelius is instantly on his knees when he sees the sphere speak to Ava's group "She recognizes you, she sends the message to you, you are truly sent by gods".

"Stand up Aurelius, this is not a soul and we are not sent by your gods" Ava pull Aurelius up with him still shaking.

"Commander, thousands of terabytes of encrypted files have been sent to our TAC" Rob says as he pulls up a holographic screen and scrolls through the files.

"Ashley, go back to the APC and have Chris send the files back to HQ for decryption" Ava then turns back to the sphere "What is a Reaper?"

"Reaper is an ancient race of part organic part machine that come and wipe out all advance civilizations every cycle. More information is available in the transmitted file" the AI replies.

"Who created you? Who built this place?" Ava continues asking.

"I am what left of the Prothean Empire, my mission is to warn this cycle about the Reaper when you have reached a sufficient level of advancement to understand our messages. This place was built exactly 107 043 983 orbital periods of this planetary body during the final".

"Commander, we found faint signs of an advanced civilization before us across the galaxy but there was no solid evidence for that until now. This tech is incredibly advanced, comparable to our own" Rob excited by the information.

"Where will the Reaper attack first?" Ava asks.

"The Central Hub" the AI displays the location of this place.

"Commander…that's" Rob is baffled.

"The Citadel, that's where the council of races is. If the Reapers are real and that powerful, we gotta let them know" Ava is afraid for the billions of lives on the citadel despite no Human is living there.

"Mission completed, low power, shutting down to preserve power" the AI then turn off.

"The gods speak to you through the castle's soul, you are welcome to stay in our castle as long as you please" Aurelius says as he rings the bell to call in his butler.

Ava wants to give her team more time to explore the castle for more information so she decides to stay for the rest of the day and spend the night there.

----

The sky is dark and the walls of the castle are dotted with torches. Ava is sitting in the APC looking at the holographic map to see if there's anything new from the drones.

"Commander, LC, I'm at the West wall, I think you guys wanna see this" David speak through the radio.

"On our way" Ava replies as she gets off the APC.

Lucas runs after Ava and follows her to the West wall. Walking up the stair and approaching David's position, Ava can see in a forest not so far away is burning. Materialize her helmet and zoom in, she can see a large red creature breathing fire down a specific spot in the forest, looking angry.

"It's the legendary Flame Dragon" Aurelius comes up next to them and looks to the direction.

"Is there anyone living there?" David asks still looking at the dragon.

"There's an Elven village in the forest, it is too late for them now. Nothing we can do to help them" Aurelius replies.

"We'll go there in the morning when the fire goes out and check for survivors. Everyone not on guard shift go get some rest we move out at 600" Ava orders.

Ava's room is a fancy medieval-looking room that Aurelius ordered Gulon to prepare. She requested a smaller bed to be put in the room for Lucas to stay with her. That night she falls asleep quickly and sound.